findthesound's Reviews

Solid guitar; punches above price point; great, fast neck

This is a great guitar. I got this in its first run back in 2020, took it to a tech for a full setup, and tech charged me half of what he usually charged because it needed so little work. Just a tiny bit of fret dressing and polishing, no uneven frets, and very few other adjustments. Binding is immaculate.

Tone-wise, it's a searing rock machine. It takes drive and fuzz really well--any kind of distortion really. Great for hard rock and metal. Non-distorted, the tones are warm and clear with nice articulation on the high end, even on the neck pickup. Every note comes through, and nothing's lost in the mids. Great for jazz and blues! I don't think it's PAF-y though. The alnico classic pros (this guitar's pickups) are "modern-voiced," and you can tell. They're also a little bit lower output (pickups numbers 1 and 2 instead of 3 and 4 like in most models). Emily said that's because of the diamond sound holes and the way sound resonates through them. Higher output made for unuseable feedback. That distinguishes this guitar from the Epiphone Sheraton--II PRO that has the probuckers (Very PAF-y). But that is by no means a bad thing--this guitar has its own voice that you can make uniquely yours, despite this being a signature model. Emily Wolfe is one of my favorite guitarists, and her tone comes as much from her pedals as it does from her guitar. This guitar sounds different than any other semi-hollow I've tried, but it's a great template from which to build your sound.

In a review by Rich Biscoff, Rich called it a "lead guitarist's guitar," and I agree with that. The neck is very, very fast and flat. Comfortable to chord if you have smaller hands (I do) and great for leads. I 100% recommend this guitar.

Sidenote: I did a side by side with the standard Sheraton II pro. I actually thought about trading this one in because I wanted the coil splits on the standard sheraton and the probuckers. Took my Stealth into the store and compared the two side-by-side. I kept the Stealth. Why? Because it just felt better and had its own sound. I liked the Sheraton II Pro a lot, and probably would have chosen that IF I had bought that one first. It has more tonal variety with the coil splits and control layout. But I kept the Stealth because they just felt different. The PRO's neck had higher shoulders and a bit more roundness. I was surprised! Fully expected to trade my Stealth in, but I'm glad I didn't