[TTHX]

Always had my eyes on the Wilshire as I'm a big fan of the older Epiphone designs. Really happy that these were released and took one home and really feel like Epiphone has stepped up their game.

Pros:
Lightweight
Very comfortable medium sized neck
P90s sound excellent
Finish pretty much perfect
CTS pots so no need to replace electronics
Great price

Cons:
Neck heavy
Sharp fret ends and feel gritty
Poor setup out of the box

After a string change, quick setup and fret polish the guitar plays incredibly well. The fretwork is pretty much what you would expect in this price range. The medium jumbo frets do feel a bit smaller than normal but not sure if that's just me. The scale length is just shy of the regular 24.75 and I'm not sure if that contributes to how easy it makes it feel to play since I'm used to 25.5. I can get the action very low without any buzzing or other issues. The bridge was originally put on with the screws facing the pickups, switching it the other way around I didn't even have to adjust the intonation which was surprising. The finish doesn't feel sticky at all and I'm usually not a fan at all of poly on the neck but feels great to me here. The Epiphone LockTone Stop Bar tailpiece is a neat invention to keep it in place while changing strings.

It's one of those no frills guitars that just plays so well it keeps me wanting to keep playing and that's all I could possibly ask for in a guitar. Overall if you're looking for a lightweight P90 guitar workhorse I'd highly recommend one of these.

 

[mhammer]

Congrats. I'm a fan of those models as well. I have a '64 Coronet and a more recent re-issue "batwing headstock" Wilshire, that I've outfitted with Duncan P-rails and my own custom electronics. I far prefer the layout of the controls on yours to the control layout on the batwing reissues, where the controls are in a long line.

One way of addressing neck dive on these is to install a Bigsby vibrato, which will shift the weight in the other direction. Obviously, that runs counter to the light weight you appreciate in this one, but balance is important too, and if you get the added delight of vibrato in the process, so much the better.

One of the things I feel this model has over its Gibson equivalent in the SG Custom, is that the bridge is closer to the hips of the guitar than to the waist, as is the case in the SG. I feel that gives a better bass response, by placing more body mass directly under the bridge. At least that's the theory.

 

[Tone Chaser]

I have had this recent reissue Coronet since early December. Action and setup was poor. Basically took minutes to get things setup after backing off the strings. I have yet to change the strings, polish frets and oil the neck.

@TTHX , Can you do me a favour and tell me whether you have audio, linear, or both, CTS pots, and for volume, or tone. I have linear CTS pots on both, and I am not as impressed with them. I actually had to Deoixt the pots to get them to work somewhat better. The build date on mine was August. My guitar came in a sealed box, but the guitar had sizeable scuffs on the lower bout, and the plastic on the pick guard was falling off. Kind of like it was a repackaged demo guitar, sold as new.

I have an Epiphone inspired by Gibson LP Junior and it has a linear volume and an audio tone. It works incredibly well, and sounds awesome. I contacted Epiphone and asked questions. They don’t know how to answer questions. Just gave me a “sorry you have problems, take it in for service, exchange, or return”.

We were in lockdown, they wouldn’t tell what I wanted to know. I can change out parts myself if that’s the way it comes. I think they put two linear pots in by mistake but won’t verify.

Other than that, nice lightweight little beast, with a great neck. I may put heavy strings on it like on my Jr. One step at a time. The Coronet is much brighter sounding with the lighter strings, and the ohm reading for the pickup is 7.8 if I remember correctly. The Jr. is 8.1 ohms.

I like it enough to keep and modify to taste. However, I do find my Junior heavy, but addictive to play. The Junior has 12 gauge Gibson Vintage Reissue strings on it, oiled fretboard, and highly polished frets now.

The Coronet is neck heavy with a lightweight nylon strap. A leather strap is better. I am using a minimalist vintage style strap and neck dive is minimized.

 

[TTHX]

One of the things I feel this model has over its Gibson equivalent in the SG Custom, is that the bridge is closer to the hips of the guitar than to the waist, as is the case in the SG. I feel that gives a better bass response, by placing more body mass directly under the bridge. At least that's the theory.

Huh thanks for sharing I never heard of this before. I dig the batwing headstock style Wilshire too and always contemplated getting one but this one spoke more to me. Not a fan of bigsbys personally but they do look cool. I might try one of those duesenberg les trems.

@TTHX , Can you do me a favour and tell me whether you have alpha, linear, or both, CTS pots, and for volume, or tone. I have linear CTS pots on both, and I am not as impressed with them. I actually had to Deoixt the pots to get them to work somewhat better. The build date on mine was August. My guitar came in a sealed box, but the guitar had sizeable scuffs on the lower bout, and the plastic on the pick guard was falling off. Kind of like it was a repackaged demo guitar, sold as new.

@Tone Chaser Very cool looking coronet! I tried the coronets too and liked them. I've always been a 2 pickup kind of guy but that'd be my choice if I were looking for a 1 pickup guitar.

By "alpha" do you mean audio taper pots? All my pots are CTS and both volumes are audio taper and both tones are linear. Apparently this is historically the way it was done from what I've read online. And yeah I have a suede leather strap to minimize the neck dive and don't mind it too much. Small price to pay imo for such a comfortable lightweight guitar.

 

[Tone Chaser]

Yes I wrote the wrong word. I meant Audio pot, not alpha.

@TTHX , if you look in the back cavity, you will see the CTS pots. There will be numbers. There is a letter, as I will show in a picture on the pots in my Coronet cavity. Mine both say B500K.

I believe the letter B indicates a Linear pot.
If the letter is A, it is an Audio pot. These pots act differently, affect tone, volume and how sensitive the volume vs. tone, also the effective range of the pots.

Junior style guitars need to have very versatile pots to achieve the sound capability of two pickups, from a single pickup. I have read about exceptions where some guitars are both linear pots.

I believe that my Coronet would be more effective, and less bright, if it had the same pots as my Jr., and like in your guitar.

 

[mhammer]

TTHX,
Bigsbys hold no special magic, and some alternative vibrato system that also adds some "balast" to the bridge end of the guitar can accomplish the same objective, at the same time as adding something else to the expressiveness of one's playing.

Tone Chaser,
The taper of the pot will only change the dialability, not the actual tone. So, turning down from 10 to 7 on audio/log pots will yield a lesser amount of change than the same "numerical" adjustment on linear pots. Where it could potentially have an impact on tone is on how easily a player could dial in the sound they like. That said, "audio" and "linear" tapers are simply standards that manufacturers aim for, within some tolerance. Pots X, Y, and Z can come closer to or farther away from those standards/ideals, just as what is nominally 500k could be 473k or 511k, and what says .022uf on the tone cap could actually be .026uf or .019uf.

That's not a diss of any kind. Rather, just a suggestion for folks to be a little tentative in their expectations about what this or that specific harness yields, and ponder ways to tweak their own harness in a desired direction, using a little measurement. The optimal harness is certainly out there. Whether it came with one's specific guitar is another matter.