Not only was there no equivalent to the Sheraton’s ornamentation in the Gibson line, some of the Epis – like this 1961 Sheraton – featured an improved vibrato design that was never available on a Gibson.

On this model, the strings wrapped around a tapered bar – thinner for the bass strings, thicker for the treble – that compensated for the differences in string diameter and made for a more uniform pitch change.

By 1961, high-end models such as the Sheraton sported “humbucking” pickups and were probably designed to have the same size and look as the earlier Epiphone “New York” pickups. However, they were smaller than the humbuckers on Gibsons and the Epi pickups got the diminuitive nickname “mini-humbuckers”.