Gibson bought Epiphone in 1957, thinking they were buying Epi’s bass products only. What they received included regular guitar stock as well, so they decided to develop a totally new Epiphone line, with new dealers exclusively selling Epi’s in order to compete with Gibson - intentionally creating their own in-house competitive brand! This new Epi line used up whatever original parts remained from the acquisition of Epi, and frequently included necks & New York pickups. They were first released in 1958, including the Sheraton model (alongside the newly released double-cut Gibson 335). The above pictured & newest Chinese-made Sheraton carries headstock styling cues that mimic the earliest Kalamazoo-made Epi’s including the headstock & TRC shape, which eventually gave way to the familiar hourglass headstock (& mini-humbuckers) until Kalamazoo production ended in 1970.
There seemingly have been a bazillion pacific-rim versions made of the Sheraton since 1970, including those made in Japan, Korea, and China. Of these, I’ve yet to find one that rivals the quality build of the USA-Series John Lee Hooker 1964 Sheraton, produced in the early 2000s (surpassing even the Terada-Japan made & highly regarded Epi Elitist Sheraton). Uniquely, the body of the JLH version was constructed & nitro finished in Japan by Terada, and then shipped to Gibson in Nashville for installation of USA-made Gibson mini-humbuckers & all hardware. First built in 2000, the JLH moniker was dropped after Hooker passed away in 2001, but the model continued for a few more years as simply the USA-Series Sheraton. Below is one of the earliest of these, from 2000. If you ever come across one, don’t pass it by without a test drive!