Epiphone Sorrento Semi Acoustic Jazz Guitar

LEFT HANDED MODEL Features have been explained in earlier posts...mine was made most likely in 1997 and I a purchased this model for a gig opening up for Chuck Berry. She has a pretty "Gretsch" orange finish.

This suits fine for the delta 50's style blues that I play. I have a Jap Strat that I take with me as I break a bunch of strings on both. I plug my Sorrento straight into a '64 Bassman Blackface Head and 2X12 Marshall Cab. This guitar is extremely noisey. I have replaced the pickup selector switch in the two years that I have had it. I really enjoy playing with this cheaply made Korean balsawood flyer. It gives me a psuedo Chuck Berry/Keef Riff Hard sound. Switching from my Strat to the Epiphone requires me to pump up the volume on the Epi up a number or two...it doesn't scream...you have to work this baby.

Set-up was very nice. The finish looks great 20 yards away, very sloppy otherwise. The quality control on this line of Epi's sucks!! Other Epi's, including the Sherraton's are made much better.

This guitar is much like a newborn babe...you must be gentle or it will give you a headache. Hardware is cheap....I busted a tuner already...

For such a piece of shit Epiphone sticks behind their product. I will say that when I call about a problem they have sent me the replacement parts for free with in 5 to 10 business days.

Been playing for 10 years....I wish I would have had the opprotunity to take a close look at this guitar before buying and tried out the switches and pots. Since I am left-handed music stores keep a very low supply of lefties on hand, and usually Jap Strats when they do. The guitar does look pretty...it is funny, I play around 100 gigs a year and people (drunks) will alternately come up and praise my strat and then some other wanker will come up and praise the Epiphone. I will probably replace the P90's

Mine is a 1962 sunburst with 2 humbuckers. Not sure where it was made, but since it's a 1962, I'll bet it was in the USA.

It sounds great. I use a telecaster for rock and roll and I use this for a jazzy sound. Plug it into a Roland Jazz Chorus and WOW... This is really something special. When I plug it into my fender deluxe it sounds great as well, but i mainly use this guitar when I want a silky sound.

Best action I've seen. I saw this in the window of a guitar store. I too a look at it because it is beautiful. Not a scratch and when i played it, I was floored. The thing is almost 40 years old and there is no twist to the neck. Simply perfect. Every aspect of the construction is perfect.

It's 40 years old and perfect. What else is there to say?

Never had any problems.

Been playing for almost 20 years... This guitar for 14 years. If it was stolen I would definately want another but only if it was an old model like this one.

96 Model, overseas construction, hollow body, thin, 2V 2T , 2 P90's
Awesome Silver Sparkle Flake Finish, resembles Gibson ES-175

Smooth chunky warm sound overall, easy on the distortion though, as this thing'll feed back for days. And no, not the good kind of feedback, jimi. This is the case with these style of guitars, the full hollow body style. In other models like the Riviera, there is a block of wood that follows the center of the body, allowing for only the "wings" to remain hollow, thereby reducing feedback

Action, absolutely awesome, plays like butter.
Finish, well, it looks real nice, but upon closer inspection you can see the sparkle overspray in places on the binding. The binding is a little off on the florentine cutaway. It looks great from the audience, but up close, the finish is flawed (only in the way of overspray.)

I just got this guitar, but we'll see if it handles my ham-fisted approach to playing. I upgraded to Dunlop Strap locks, and will give it the road test soon.

I bought this over the net from a Music Go Round Store.
The sales people were extremely nice and friendly, but i doubt they would do anything (nor would i expect them to) in the event i would need them. I have a local guitar tech look over all my gear, so if i had any questions/problems, i'd have him peep it.

I've been rocking the scene in PA for over 10 years, and i have yet to find a guitar better than my early 90's Tele ESQUIRE reissue. I dropped EMG's into it, and it is like an extension of my body. All beat to hell, but well, well loved. 2 bridges and a fret job later, it remains the best guitar i have ever had. Paired with my Line 6 Flextone XL, i am prepared to take on the world. But, as mentioned earlier, i've got some meaty hands. I can tend to snap strings off in pairs. So, the need for a backup has been evident. I've tried many different brands, and finally decided to check out a hollowbody. Looks nice, sounds nice, will suffice as a back up. For now, that is. Haven't really had any road experience with it just yet, but who knows, maybe it'll surpass the tele for a while. I'm glad the sucker does not have the Epi-bigsby on it, as i've played around with a few that would not stay in tune to save their plywood covered asses.

This guitar is beautiful. It has the "Bigsby" type tailpiece with the two P-90's as the others have stated. It came with a great hard case that fits like a glove. It has the two tone and two volume knobs. I got it new but have replaced the white toggle switch cap with a vintage amber Gibson one to match my orange finish...it couldn't look better. I recommend this to any other "orange owners" for it matches perfectly.

I am running this baby through a VOX AC15 and it sounds incrediable. I would like to get a '65 Twin Reverb and see how it sounds then. I also use a VOX wah and a Danelectro Dan-echo pedal. This baby can wail. I also "try" to play slide on it and when I hit the right notes, my wife thinks I am playing a CD versus playing it myself.

This color and look is amazing. My wife could care less about guitars but wants this one on the wall. I must agree. I am a Beatle freak and was going to get a Casino but fell in love with it's sister...the Sorrento. The only unusual "marking" on mine is in the wood between the floating pickgaurd and bridge is. It looks like a wormy type scar on the wood that was there before it was a guitar. I like it. It doesn't look bad or like a second or anything. It adds character to it and feel lucky to have it. If I pivot the tailpiece bar up to use, it conceals it anyway. I try to keep it in view, I like the look.

I plan to have this a long time. It is a 1998 model (last year it came factory with the tailpiece) and still looks and plays brand new. There are no buckle scratches or pick rubs and I haven't even been being careful about that! The finish is bullet proof.

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If this was stolen or lost, I would try to find one just like it within 5 minutesof losing it. I like it also, because it reminds me of my "dream" guitar. It looks a lot like a double anni Gretsch. I can't afford a vintage double anni Gretsch (even though my friend has a two-tone green one from the 60's that he will give me a deal on) so I enjoy this one. I catch myself staring at this guitar when I am not playing it.

As has been stated previously, this Korean built guitar is a single florentine cutaway thin hollow body made of laminate maple with a mahogany neck, two P-90 pickups, the usual two volume and two tone controls and a three way toggle for pickup selection. Mine also has the Epiphone equivalent of a Bigsby which they call a VibraTone. It also has Kluson style tuners with keystone type buttons ala Gibson.
I just purchased this guitar over the internet from GuitarWeb. I am quite surprised at how good this guitar really is. I don't know if the guitar was set up by the factory or by the folks at GuitarWeb, but it plays and sounds terrific, and the intonation is perfect. I am very happy with it so far.
The neck has a rosewood fretboard with 22 nice jumbo frets and a 24 3/4" scale length, which is my preference in scale length. The position markers are MOP dots.
The finish is striking. It is turquoise blue with white binding on the body and neck, a white raised pickguard and chrome pickup covers and a chrome tune-o-matic bridge with chrome plated saddles. A real eye catcher!
It has exactly the features I like in a guitar and I feel the overall quality to be first rate. I really like this guitar.

I play mostly melodic jazz standards with a smattering of blues, be-bop, and swing and this guitar fills all of my needs to a Tee. The sound is bright yet sweet and can get full and lush if need be. Not quite as lush as a good humbucker, but pretty darned close.
The pickups are no noisier than any other single coil pickup and they sound really good through my '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb. I am very pleased with the sounds this guitar makes and it stays in tune beautifully.

As i said earlier, I do not know who set this guitar up, but whomever it was did a great job! The action is nice and light with no fret rattle or buzz with perfect intonation. I did however change the strings right away, as I do not care for light gauge roundwounds. I use flatwound D'Addario jazz lights (.013-.052) which really sound sweet on this guitar.

I gave up gigging about eight years ago, but if I were still playing club dates, I would have no fear of using it without a backup. I feel the quality and construction of this guitar is as good or better than anything else in the market in the same catagory.
I will be doing a recording session in the not to distant future, and I intend to use this guitar on a couple of the numbers and am anxious to see how well it records.
The finish quality looks stunning and I feel it will last a lifetime. I could find no flaws in material or workmanship. It feels as solid and well made as my 1939 Epiphone Emperor.

The guitar comes with a limited lifetime warranty, but I don't anticipate ever having to use it.
I have not had the need to contact Epiphone's customer service, so I cannot really offer a valid opinion of their level of service. But, I am extremely happy with the service I received from Seth Brown at GuitarWeb. He took the time to give me an in hand description of the guitar and its features over the phone and then followed through on every promise that he made. I will do more business with this company, guaranteed!

I have been playing for over forty years and also own the 1939 Epiphone Emperor I mentioned earlier, a late model Epiphone Emperor II, an original 1954 Fender Stratocaster which I've had since new, a 1962 Fender Jaguar also purchased new, an early 50's Guild Manhattan with soapbar pickups, and an old Gretsch 6120 with DeArmond single coil pickups.
Would I replace this guitar if it were lost or stolen? Yes, I most definitely would. I feel it is a terrific instrument and would change nothing about it.
I find the quality of the Korean built (Samick) guitars to be exceptional for the price.

Like said below, its a laminated Maple body. Mine is a 91 by Gibson's reckoning(they were very helpful). Mine is a gold sparkle finish, similar to a Gibson ES295, and that's 1/2 the reason I bought it. This guitar screams Scotty Moore, etc. That said, it is _not_ twangy, you need to eq to get that kind of tone out of her.

P-90'S ROCK! They are a bit loud. As mentioned below, there are some feedback problems, but I solved this. At most decent clubs, or ones big enough for feedback to be a problem, you can mike your amp. This works better if you're using a low power amp(I have a Vox solid-state Pathfinder and a Fender pro Junior). I was relieved to see that my electronics were not the only noisy ones, as witnessed below, but the pots on mine are also noisy, which is a bitch on an arctop to fix, b/c you need to take them out to clean, through those tiny f-holes! But, all bitching aside, the tone is god. Smooth creamy blues, mellow jazz, early rockabilly, even a little bit on Ted Nugent(who plays a birland by Gibson, same concept, but w/ humbuckers) tomfollery.

The action is butter. All of my friends drool over it when they play, b/c they've never seen .10's with action that smooth. One problem, when you do raise the action(as you _should_ for heavier gauge strings, esp. flatwounds), it can be a bit stiff untill you've settled your trussrod adjustments, etc. It can take some fine tuning, but when you have it, even higher action is breezy. The only problem I have with the finish is that I bought the guitar second hand, and the binding is cracked in places. But, that could be, and probably is due to poor treatment of the guitar by a previous owner.

Other than feedback(which I pretty much solved) and the noisy pots, this is an excellent guitar to gig with. I'm going to have to differ with the other two submitters here. I've been playing for 4 years now, and I gig on and off both solo and in a 3-5 piece combo. I've yet to have trouble, but I treat it like a baby.

Never had to deal with them

This guitar has become known as my "other" girlfriend. Her name is Guinevere, b/c she's a princess! Seriously, before I bought her, I averaged a new guitar purchase or trade-in every 4-6 months, I've had her for a year now, and I have not even considered buying another guitar, other than possibly a cheap tele or tele-copy to bring back and forth to school, b/c I'm afraid to let her bounce around in my car too much.

I bought this Sorrento used 2 years ago but it is a 1996 made somewhere overseas (Korea?). It is a 'reissue' of the '60's models and is of plywood (laminated)construction. It has the standard Gibson-style control layout (2 volumes, 2 tones & 3-way toggle switch) which control the two P-90 single coils with chromed dog-eared covers. The body is made of flamed 3 or 5-ply maple and the neck is mahogany. The finish is transparent 'western' orange. Body style is like that of a Gibson ES-135 but a little slimmer and with 2 f-holes. The body itself is acoustic with only a soundpost below the bridge for support. All hardware and electronics are Gibson copies but good quality, including tune-o-matic bridge, trapeze tailpiece and 'kluson' style tuners (ugly milky green buttons)-chrome finish. Neck scale is 24.75" with rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets and plastic dot markers. Included in the hardshell case was a truss rod adjustment wrench and related paperwork. As far as features go, pretty basic but gets the job done.

My style of music is blues & original rock and the Sorrento is well suited for me. I had a Fender Roc Pro 700 for a short time and didn't like the guitar much through that amp but then it didn't suit even my better guitars so I got a Hot Rod Deluxe-a big improvement. Due to this guitar's hollow design/construction, you CANNOT use it for high volume playing conditions as it will just feed back and give a very bassy howl. If you are considering a similar guitar for gigging, I suggest you look into an Epiphone Dot or Gibson ES-135 if you have the means. For home use and recording, this guitar cannot be beat. It is rather loud unplugged with a great woody vibe that you feel even when plugged in to an amp. The pickups are fairly noisy as they are big single coils and the switch is also very noisy-strong leaf contacts give off an audible click when plugged in. It has a very rich sound all its own-no wonder the P-90 has come back into style. For my style, the sounds are perfect but I don't think would lend themselves too much for harder styles-clean and mild distortion tones are great but just turn to mud when you add too much overdrive. As such, I would not say that this guitar has much variety. Again for me, I really like the sounds produced by this guitar. I would consider replacing the switch though with an American component.

Since I bought this guitar used, I have no idea how it came from the factory. I do know that my local EPI dealer has to set up everything he gets from the factory. Whoever had worked on this one had done a good job. Pickups cannot be adjusted in height (are screwed to the body)-only polepieces can be adusted. As a laminated (plywood) guitar, there are no bookmatch seams. The finish of Epiphones I have seen is very good and this one has flamed maple for the body-I have seen 4 others in this color and none of those had any figure. The frets are adequate but leave a little to be desired-do not contain the high level of craftsmanship/finish as shown on a Gibson. I have noticed this is like a lot of other Epiphones in that they use wood that is sometimes slightly discolored. This has a couple of spots on the top and though is not a fault (after all it is a product of mother nature), I wish they would not use it under clear finishes. The plastic nut is cut well but needs replacement with a bone nut.

This guitar would be a pain to use live because of feedback problems but also feels a little delicate because of its construction. I would not subject it to gigging as I prefer a solid body. As far as hardware goes, the bridge and tailpiece should last okay but the tuners will have to go down the line-I have always hated these stupid things-once they get a little worn will never stay in tune and look ugly to start with. Like other Epiphones I have played, the bridge saddles seem a little high and tend to wear into your hand after a while-consider a Gibson replacement. The finish is nice and glossy and without blemishes although I cannot judge how it would fare under live conditions. However, I think these things are finished in a polyurethane which is tougher than lacquer. Strap buttons are the common variety-I usually put them in the case and put on a pair of straplocks. I think this is a dependable guitar for all but live conditions-again I think it feels to delicate to withstand live use. If you must play this one live, be sure to have a backup!

I think Epiphone offers a one-year warranty? Since I bought this one used the warranty was already void but have not had any problems with it.

I have been playing for about 12 years. I have owned both the best and worst of brands with lots of in between. I actually traded this guitar for a Gibson ES-135 and regretted it. I have since gotten rid of the Gibson and am thinking of getting another Sorrento or the Casino which is very very similar. If I do I'll try to get one with the Bigsby. I loved the finish-orange is my favorite color anyway. The woody resonance was the best thing about the guitar-just the way it felt when plugged in. The thing I liked least was the high volume/feedback problem. Does not compare all that well to a Gibson in terms of overall quality but is a good buy for the money. I occasionally see these for pretty cheap used-look around if you've wanted one for yourself...

Laminated Top, Korean made Gibson ES 135 Copy (single cutaway jazz box, but only 1/2 high)built in 1994. 2 P90 PUs, knobs and switches Gibson type (2 Volume, 2 Tone, 3 way switch)22 jumbo frets, 2 f-holes and NO solid wood under the PUs Chrome hardware and dot inlays in the palisander fingerboard.

A very jazzy or bluesy sound between a HB and a single coil. A bit like a warmer ES335 with a loooooonnnnnnng sustain. I play her a lot for recording and apreciate her very "female" character (I named her Scarlet, coz she behaves a lot like Miss O'Hara), her warmth and her fat, clean sound. The tone knobs really change the sound a lot and I recommend the neck PU with tone set to 6. That's where the Blues is! And you even can play her without amp at the fireplace. She is loud enough (like an acoustic with light strings).
BUT: Feedback is a major problem here. Not having a solid wood bar in the middle under the PUs, she is very, very problematic when it comes to playing loud. To put it short: If I am on a small stage or in a big hall (either very close to the amp or playing very loud) I can't use her, I will have more feedback than music. There is no workaround. The problem is the hollow body concept. If the guitar comes any close to the speaker, she starts a whistle that can only be stopped by cutting the volume to zero and change the place. Just moving a little (like with a solid body) won't do, because the body will resonate a lot more than you imagine. If you never never play live the sound might be a 9 (a bit more power for a 10!), but if you want to play live (and I do that a lot) the rating goes down

The guitar was perfectly set up. Action and intonation better than I would be able to do. This by the way was done by the shop, so I can't say what they look like normaly. It took some time to work the frets in, they were not 100% flat and smooth, and especially the G-string broke on this guitar more often than on all my others. The PUs stay in place all the time, no getting them up or down. The Tobacco-Sunburst finish looks very nice and adds with the greenish tuners an old-style look to this very fine instrument. (Another VERY strong advantage: The "Made in Korea" writing is a detachable and once you pulled it off, there is no mor hint for her asian roots. This is a major advatage if you want to show off with her). The Plug for the cable is very weak and badly placed. It comes out about 15cm/6inch below the beltstrap and one week after buying her I damaged the wood by letting a (straight) cable in and putting her to a stand. A little force applied and "crack". Repair was expensive and took two weeks. Get a 90? cable! I would prefer the cable to come out of the top, like on a Lucille. Also the PU switch is very loud. It is fixed next to the volume knobs in the top of the instrument two inches from the bridge PU. Whenever you change the setting, the mechanical noise of this is amplified through the wooden top. No workaround as well. Overall finish is better than OK if you consider her price! The problems are linked to the concept.

As I said: NO LOUD LIVE and VERY CAREFUL HANDLING. All this in capital letters. You can't repeat this often enough. I have two Stratocasters that I can rely on. This one is rather for recording or small clubs than for heavy live action. Still the quality of the hardware is good. It's just not for Ted Nugent style stage sports.

1 Year warranty and it didn't help, because I broke the cable plug myself.

I play the axe for 25 years and have been giving some 200+ gigs, so this guitar is by no means useful to me. I should have tried her louder in the shop, and I wouldn't have had that embarassing experience when I first played her on stage. Now that I own her for 5 years, I start to love her in a special way (Remember: I called her Scarlet O'Hara). There is a lot of music in her and I can't play it all yet. She is very different to my Strats. Those I take and I force them to play whatever I have in mind. Scarlet let's you play her music or nothing at all. A lot of my friends hate her and say, there is no tone to get out of that axe without violence (13-56 strings for a fat acoustic tone). But the longer I play her, the more I can learn from her. This may sound foolish, but our relation is a lot that way. I do not think I would ever buy one guitar like her again. I absolutely love her (HER not IT!), and I don't think I would try to replace her. She is very unique. So my rating must be a 10 from the heart or a 2 from the brain (no performer's tool). I prefer not to rate her at all. Before buying one check out the Epiphone Lucille or the Casino. Both have a lot of charme as well, even if I prefer the perfect looks and dirty character of my Sorrento.