Epiphone "Union Jack" Sheraton Outfit Review

Note up front: Amazon's title of this product states it's a Casino model, but when you read the description, you'll see it's a Sheraton.

(This is a reader requested review. If you would like me to review a specific guitar, piece of gear or talk about a certain topic, email me.)

I am a fan of "true" Epiphone guitars, but am not a fan of something so garish in appearance.

With that said, let's talk about the Epiphone "Union Jack" Sheraton Outfit.

It's not that I don't like the Union Jack, a.k.a. "flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". I like the flag just fine and it has a very nice appearance to it. However, slapping that on a guitar is the same as slapping the stars and stripes, a.k.a. "flag of the United States", on a guitar. This look is just kitsch, as in tacky.

Aside from the appearance, this is one of those guitars from Epiphone that while a "true" Epiphone model, is hit-or-miss concerning whether you get a good one or not.

On paper, this guitar sounds awesome. It has 5-layer laminated maple body and top, mahogany neck, fast-and-easy 24.75-inch scale "SlimTaper" neck with set-neck joint, 12" fingerboard radius, pearloid/abalone inlays, 22 medium jumbo frets and a pair of Gibson USA mini-humbuckers. The tuners are also Grover Rotomatic 18:1 style (very smooth), HOWEVER...

...it's like I said, getting a good one is luck of the draw.

My suggestion to anyone intending to buy this guitar is to make sure and buy it from somewhere that has a good return policy (like Amazon) in case it arrives with defects. This is a specialty semi-hollow body guitar, therefore it's more expensive, therefore you should be mighty careful where you purchase this from. This guitar is not like a Strat or a Tele where it can be banged around during shipment and handle it fairly easily.

If all goes well and you do get a good one of these, then yes, you will love this guitar and I have no doubt of that. Some guys and gals really like the "British Invasion" look of a loud-and-proud Union Jack on the body, and when you get a good one of these models with all the fancy hardware bits, oh yes, this is a killer of a guitar.

Published 2016 Jan 22