Model: Epiphone Sheraton (Nashville USA Collection) Color: Vintage Sunburst Year: 1993 or 1995
Used in... - 1995-1998 - Noel's guitar for the legendary 1996 Knebworth gigs - used during the recording sessions of the Be Here Now album - Noel's main guitar during most concerts of the Be Here Now tour - featured in the performance of Roll With It at Top of the Pops (August 1995)
Details Before we start, let's get things straight because there has been a lot of confusion about this guitar (and its sister, the famous Union Jack) throughout the years. It is clearly a Sheraton, with mini-humbucker pickups and frequensator tailpiece. It is not a '60s vintage Sheraton.1 It is not a '70s-'80s made in Japan Sheraton.2 It is not a Sheraton II.3 It is not a John Lee Hooker signature Sheraton.4 It is not a '62 Sheraton Anniversary Reissue.5 Some people in recent years have guessed it right: the Sunburst Sheraton, Noel's iconic guitar at Knebworth and during the Be Here Now era, is a Sheraton Nashville USA Collection. This model is incredibly rare: it was produced in 1993 - limited to 250 units - inside Gibson's factory in Nashville. Two finishes were available, Sunburst and Natural. You can see a few pictures of a Nashville USA Sheraton below, and the original Epiphone ad from 1993 too:6
It is unknown how Noel got the guitar: maybe he bought one of those 250 units made in 1993 sometime in 1995 - or maybe an identical Sheraton was built for him by Gibson (Epiphone's parent company) in early 1995. It is known that in late '95 Noel was already in contact with Gibson Artist Relations for the project of a signature Epiphone guitar - that lead to the Supernova model in 1997.7 By the way, in late 1995 Gibson gave Noel another Sheraton - a leftover from the 250 units built in 1993 - that later became the famous Union Jack. The first recorded appearance of the sunburst Sheraton is the mimed performance of Roll With It at Top of the Pops in August 1995: Liam and Noel switched places - with Liam pretending to play guitar!
The wine red Epiphone Riviera Matsumoku was Noel's main guitar until August 1996: in that month, the sunburst Sheraton made its debut as main live guitar at Loch Lomond and then, of course, at Knebworth.
The Sheraton was played for virtually all songs during the remaining dates of 1996.
Between November 1996 and April 1997 it was used during the recording sessions for the Be Here Now album: it can be seen in the hands of Noel and Bonehead in various pics taken by Jill Furmanovsky inside Abbey Road and AIR Studios.
During the Be Here Now tour in 1997 and 1998, the sunburst Sheraton was Noel's most used guitar; the other main guitars during gigs were the Gibson Les Paul Florentine and ES-355 no.1.
The last live appearance of the sunburst Sheraton was at the final gig of the Be Here Now tour, in Mexico City (25 March 1998).
It was briefly seen in a 2000 documentary, where Noel described it as "the one that I've played at all the big gigs": "That's seen a bit of action, that fella."8
After 2000 it was never seen again - and there's a un unfortunate reason for that: the Sunburst Sheraton has gone missing sometimes in the early 2000s, maybe stolen. Noel himself shared this fact during a chat with Matt Morgan in late 2023.
Between October 2023 and January 2024, an identical Sheraton was displayed at The British Music Experience in Liverpool, in a temporary exhibition of Noel's guitars celebrating 150 years of Epiphone: in the description it is clearly stated that it's not Noel's original one, because it is "no longer in the artist's collection".
Stickers After the second Cardiff gig (11 December 1997) and before the first night at G-MEX (13 December 1997), Noel put a Manchester City badge on the pickguard. It was Man City's new logo - introduced in August 1997 for the '97-'98 season - which featured a shield, a golden eagle, three stars and the latin motto "superbia in proelio" (which means "excellence in combat").
The mystery of the extra inlays If you look closely, you may notice that the 1993 Sheraton Nashville USA Collection has no inlays beyond the 15th fret, while Noel's Sheraton has inlays all the way up to the 21st fret. This was used in the past to dismiss the fact that Noel's one is a Nashville USA Collection Sheraton. The truth is that Noel had some mother-of-pearl inlays added at the 17th, 19th and 21st fret in early 1996 - and he did the same with the Union Jack Sheraton too. Probably they were added not only for looks, but also to have some visible reference points on the fretboard during solos. In a still from Top of the Pops in August 1995 (where the guitar was 'played' by Liam) you can see that the extra inlays are missing, like regular Nashville USA Collection Sheratons. The extra inlays were added by a luthier, because their appearance doesn't match the factory inlays - as it can be clearly seen in a still from Knebworth.
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- Original USA Sheratons from the ’60s have a slightly different body shape, different headstock design and logo, different pickguard, etc. ↩︎
- MIJ Sheraton were made by Matsumoku until 1985; some of them have the frequensator tailpiece but they all have regular-sized humbuckers and different headstock design. ↩︎
- Sheraton IIs, produced since 1986, have a stopbar tailpiece, regular-sized humbuckers and a completely different headstock design. ↩︎
- Some versions of it (the 1964 USA Reissue) look similar but they were released in the early 2000s. And they don’t have the Sunburst finish on the back. ↩︎
- These ones do look very similar but they’ve been released in 2012! ↩︎
- source: Matt Umanov Guitars ↩︎
- Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis – Paolo Hewitt ↩︎
- Oasis Behind the Scenes, originally broadcast on Sky One in July 2000 ↩︎
The Chief's Guitars - Noel Gallagher's guitars: a complete guide - Oasis and NGHFB 