“It’s becoming harder and harder to see why one guitar made of two lumps of wood bolted together with some basic electrics and hardware can cost $5,000, while one like this is a 10th of that price”: Shergold Masquerader SM11 Standard review

What is it?

Shergold’s history is complex and checkered, but knowing the gist of it will help contextualize the brand. Ex-Burns employees Jack Golder and Norman Holder started out building necks and bodies for the likes of Hayman, Burns London, Ned Callan, and Rosetti before striking out with their own range.

Initially, they used up leftover Hayman parts; if you remember Hayman, you’ll recognize the similarities. The company’s fortunes waxed and waned with the prevailing music trends, leading to closure in 1992 after Golder died.

Keen to revive this interesting British marque, UK distributor Barnes & Mullins bought the name in 2015 and conscripted Patrick James Eggle to breathe new life into the brand, which was relaunched in 2017 with the new-design, Indonesian-made and now-called Classic models, the Masquerader, and Provocateur.

For 2024, however, Shergold added a new design, the Telstar Standard, which moved manufacturing to China and hit a lower price point. A Standard version of the Provocateur quickly followed, and now the Masquerader Standard joins the line-up.

While the original Masquerader looked like a strange melding of a Strat and a Music Man Stingray bass but with the slab sides of a Tele, it nevertheless hit its mark with a certain type of player. Its oddly long but non-pitched headstock, huge humbucking pickups, thick control plate and pickguard (with make and model name in gothic script) have given way to something rather more conventional.

Style-wise, this new Masquerader follows the design of the 2017 reboot and we see a broadly similar body built from poplar, with a roasted Canadian maple neck, plus an Indian laurel fingerboard whose neat ‘stripe’ position markers look arty and modern; they echo the elegant Art Deco-ish headstock inlay, too.

The new Standard comes in two metallic finishes, Quartz White and the attractive Solid Astral Blue seen here. Although the headstock still remains pitch-free, it’s smaller and much more streamlined and carries a set of staggered-height locking tuners.

Pickups are an Alnico V P-90 style at the neck and an Alnico V humbucker in the bridge position. The hardtail bridge is chunky chrome with six fully adjustable saddles and sits aft of a snazzy black/white/black pickguard.

Given the guitar’s insanely reasonable price tag, it’s superbly put together and finished. If you’d told us it was two or even three times this price we’d have believed you.

Playability and sounds

All Shergold guitars are set up at Barnes & Mullins’ headquarters at Oswestry in Shropshire, under the guidance of the Eggle team. And boy does it show. The dark-toned roasted maple neck is a well-proportioned medium C profile and its satin sheen feels frictionless and expensive.

With the fingerboard a thick slab of 304.8mm (12-inch) radius laurel and 22 medium jumbo frets, it feels slick and bendy, too. While the action is low and comfortable, there’s not a buzz or rattle to be heard.

The heel area has been sculpted to be around a centimeter thinner than the rest of the body, so ultra high-end access is good, although not quite as slick as on a Strat. Overall, though, this is a charming and thoroughly enjoyable guitar to spend time with.

Our test amp here is this reviewer’s own Mark I Reissue Boogie combo, which suits the Masquerader’s P-90/humbucker pairing well. This particular setup is a favorite on Pat Eggle’s own instruments since in the neck position a P-90 is like an ultra-fat Strat or Tele, while the bridge humbucker provides darker and more raunchy tones.

And so it is with this new Shergold. The P-90 is rich and round, but dead clean; with some nice reverb the edges remain clear and sharp. Add some gentle drive and we enter light blues or heavy jazz territory, and that’s an expressive, warm, and musical place to be.

Flip to the bridge and it’s a harder, more muscular sound that greets us. Not hard in a nasty way but more strident and in-yer-face, so arpeggios or crunchy open chords really poke through. Using the Boogie’s own gain, things get hotter, but even with quite heavy drive the humbucker remains articulate and non-mushy.

You never know what to expect with the switch in the middle position, especially with two different types of pickup. Here, it thins out and gets way funkier. But clean country picking sounds great, too, as does piling on the gain where we find ourselves on the edge of Brian May or heavy Knopfler territory with some lovely honky tones. These Chinese-made Alnico V pickups are extremely good indeed, as is the guitar.

Verdict

It’s becoming harder and harder to see why one guitar made of two lumps of wood bolted together with some basic electrics and hardware can cost £4,000, while one like this is a 10th of that price.

Of course, custom shop woods are specially selected, necks and bodies are often sonically matched, pickups are specifically voiced – plus, of course, labor costs in the USA/UK are vastly greater than those of Indonesia or China.

And yet this bottom-of-the-range Masquerader Standard has put a smile on this reviewer’s face that many far more exalted models have failed to do. It’s beautifully crafted, plays like something several times the price, and kicks out tones that are pleasing and satisfying.

Guitar World verdict: It just goes to show that with the eye of a Pat Eggle overseeing an operation, it’s more than possible for a cheapie instrument to cut some serious mustard. Hail Shergold! What a great little guitar this is.

Specs

PRICE: $509 approx/£409
ORIGIN: China
TYPE: Double-cutaway, solidbody electric
BODY: Solid poplar
NECK: Canadian roasted maple with dual-action truss rod
SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic bone/42.5mm
FINGERBOARD: Indian laurel, with 305mm (12”) radius and stripe inlays
FRETS: 22, medium jumbo, hard nickel
HARDWARE: Shergold fixed bridge with individual saddles, staggered height locking tuners – chrome-plated
STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52mm
ELECTRICS: Alnico P90 (neck) and Alnico humbucker (bridge), 3-way pickup selector, master volume and tone controls
WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.6/8
OPTIONS: None
RANGE OPTIONS: The current Masquerader range includes: Classic SM01-SD (£765) with solid rosewood neck, Seymour Duncan P90 and humbucker; Classic SM04-SD (£799) with 2x Seymour Duncan humbuckers; Classic SM03-SD (£809) with 3x Seymour Duncan single coils; and Classic SM02-SD (£835) with Seymour Duncan HSS pickups
LEFT-HANDERS: No
FINISHES: Solid Astral Blue (as reviewed), Solid Quartz White – high-gloss body with satin neck
CONTACT: Shergold Guitars

Hands-on videos

Shergold Guitars

Shergold Guitars | Masquerader Standard Series | Tone Demonstration - YouTube

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