One of the very First Epiphone Sheratons with Mini Humbuckers signed by John Lee Hooker

1969 Epiphone Sheraton E212T (signed by John Lee Hooker)

This 1969, 16-inch-wide thinline guitar weighs just 8.50 lbs. and has a thin-to-medium neck profile, a nut width of just under 1 9/16 inches and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Laminated maple body with maple central block, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 original medium jumbo (0.08) frets and inlaid pearl block position markers with v-shaped abalone inserts. The body has seven-ply binding on the top and three-ply on the back. The neck is single-bound (white), the fretboard has double white binding on each side, and the headstock is triple-bound. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Epiphone" script logo and pearl "Vine of Life" inlay. Individual Grover Roto-Matic tuners with half-moon metal buttons. Two original Gibson mini-humbucker pickups with outputs of 7.16k and 7.30k., each with a rectangular black label "Patent No. / 2,737,842" on the underside. Five-layer, tortoiseshell pickguard with five-layer white over black binding. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. Gibson Tune-O-Matic bridge stamped on the underside "Gibson / Pat. No. 2,740,313" and Epiphone 'Frequensator' (possibly later) tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated, except for the pickup covers. Inside the bass f-hole is the Epiphone (Kalamazoo, Michigan) rectangular blue label with "Sheraton" and "E212T" stamped in black and the serial number "583762" written in ink but hardly readable. Housed in a later four-latch (one broken) shaped black hardshell case with black plush lining (9.00). This beautiful guitar has been boldly signed on the bass side of the top in gold marker by 'Mr. Lucky' John Lee Hooker.

A very interesting guitar - was it actually owned by John Lee Hooker? This instrument started out as a mid-to-late sixties Epiphone Sheraton with the serial number "583762" which could be either 1966,1967 or 1969. At some point the mini humbuckers were changed out for standard humbuckers - the pickup cavities were enlarged to accommodate the larger pickups. Sometime in the late eighties or early nineties the guitar was sent to the Gibson Custom Shop to have the larger cavities changed to accommodate the original Mini Humbuckers. At that time the potentiometers were replaced and the guitar was refinished (by the Custom Shop) in midnight blue. There is the small "Custom Shop Original" gold transfer on the back of the headstock. 

When introduced in 1958 the Sheraton was fitted with two single-coil New York pickups. In early 1961 these were replaced with 'mini humbuckers'. It is unusual to find such an all-original, near mint early example of an Epiphone Sheraton. 

Gibson made Mini-Humbucking Pickups: These were used on Gibson models like the 1969 Les Paul Deluxe, smaller than the Gibson standard humbucking pickup, 1 1/8" by 2 5/8", double coil, rectangular metal covered, slot head screw poles close to edge, black plastic frame, similar in size to the New York style pickup: 1961 to 1969.

"The Sheraton was the only Epi hollowbody of 1958 with a model name that had not been previously used. It was also the only double-cutaway semi-hollowbody. Its fancy inlay and multiple bindings make it equivalent to Gibson's top semi-hollow model, the ES-355, but, of course, the pickups are different" (George Gruhn and Walter Carter, Electric Guitars and Basses, p. 216).

"The Sheraton had no history whatsoever as an Epiphone, except for its Epi neck and pickups. Otherwise it was constructed essentially the same as Gibson's ES-335. The Epi version outdid its Gibson counterpart in the area of ornamentation, however, with such features as Emperor-style V-block fingerboard inlays and vine inlay on the peghead" (Walter Carter, Epiphone: The Complete History, p. 59).

Frequensator tailpiece: allows for a longer string length on the 3 bass strings, shorter string length on the 3 treble strings, sometimes reversed by players to accommodate short strings, high end models: 1939-1970.

The Epiphone Vibrato unit was fitted as standard from 1961 (Walter Carter. The Epiphone Guitar Book. p. 159).