“It sounds great, bridges the gap between guitar and bass-playing very nicely, and does so with heaps of character”: Shergold Telstar Standard Bass SBT14 review

What is it?

In the blink of an eye, eight years have passed since British distributor, Barnes & Mullins revived the Shergold name. The brand’s roots began in the late ’60s when former Burns employees Jack Golder and Norman Holder first started putting guitars together under the Shergold name, before shutting shop in 1992 following Golder’s death.

Since being brought back, Shergold has built an impressive reputation with its six-string electric guitars, designed under the experienced eyes of UK luthier Patrick James Eggle with models such as the Masquerader, Marauder and Telstar proving that great guitars don’t have to have a four-figure price tag.

But, as fans of the original Shergold name will know, it also had a strong pedigree in the bass guitar market with models such as the pickup-swapping Modulator, single-pickup Marathon (a favourite of Joy Division/New Order anglepicker, Peter Hook) and, perhaps most famously, the double-neck 12-string/4-string hybrid touted by Genesis’ Mike Rutherford.

Now, in its latest incarnation, Shergold has once again turned its attention to the lower octave with the Libertine, and the subject of this review, the Telstar Standard Bass.

Taking its cues from the success of the six-string Telstar Standard ST14 of Shergold’s ‘new era’, it’s a loosely offset T-shaped outline with two FilterSonic foil-style humbuckers.

But, perhaps most interesting is the 30” scale length, making this not only a candidate for those who find the stretch of a 34” traditional bass too much, but also making the transition between guitar and bass smoother.

Specs

• Launch price: $499 / £479 / €549
• Made: China
• Type: Four-string electric bass guitar
• Body: Poplar
• Neck: Roasted Canadian maple, ‘C’
• Fingerboard: Laurel, 12”/305mm radius
• Scale length: 30”/762mm
• Nut/width: Synthetic bone, 38mm
• Frets: 20 frets, extra jumbo, hard nickel
• Hardware: Closed-gear, four-in-line tuners,, four-saddle chrome bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 57mm
• Weight: 7.8lbs/3.5kg
• Electrics: 2x Shergold FilterSonic humbuckers, 2x volume control, 1x tone
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Black [as reviewed], Champagne Gold
• Cases: No case
• Contact: Shergold

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

If you scrolled past the spec sheet, let’s take a moment to recap. Starting with the neck, Shergold has opted for the stabilizing properties of roasted Canadian maple, and it’s a beaut. Finished in satin, its caramel hue is rich to the eye and smooth to the touch with no imperfections.

This is topped by a laurel fingerboard, which on the review model Shergold sent to me appears fairly light in colour, but nice and even, featuring rolled edges and 20 hard nickel, extra jumbo frets. There’s a synthetic bone nut, and four-in-line Shergold tuners.

The headstock is neatly matched to the review model’s Black finish with a painted veneer – always a welcome addition in my book – and it also features a ‘racing stripe’ design which adds to the retro charm of the Telstar.

At the other end, the neck joins the body with four bolts, arranged in an L-shaped pattern around the contoured heel. The body is poplar, which helps to keep the weight down while still delivering plenty of rib-rattling resonance.

The slab body is one-piece with no belly or forearm carves, but the bevelled centre channel combined with the three-ply red tortoiseshell pickguard saves it from appearing a step too simplistic. The hardware is completed by a top-loaded bridge and three knurled controls offering volume controls for each pickup and a master tone control.

The gloss finish is nicely applied without blemishes, and the chroming on the hardware is neat and solid-looking. If you put this in the hands of the uninitiated, I’d wager they’d struggle to guess that they were holding a relatively affordable bass.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

The Telstar comes to me set up with a medium-height action. There’s enough space to lower the height without ushering-in any intrusive buzz, but it’s perfectly comfortable in its factory settings.

On the lap, the Telstar sits snug thanks to the body cutaways, and the smaller, T-derived body shape makes it easier and more natural than my Squier Jazz Bass, with less slippage while I play.

On a strap, it’s well balanced, and thanks in part to the shorter scale length, there’s no neck dive. Back at the body, if you’re used to smoother curves and fewer right-angles, you might miss them during longer sessions, but I didn’t find the lack of a forearm curve to be fatiguing in any way.

Clearly, one of the biggest factors in the Telstar’s playability comes from that reduced scale length, and whether this is your first bass as a beginner, or perhaps a toe-dip into low end as a guitarist, you’ll appreciate the Telstar’s reduced fretboard real estate.

Say the words ‘short-scale’ and many players will instantly start to imagine a cramped, miniaturised playing experience. That’s not the case here – yes, it’s shorter, and yes, that’s going to be helpful for the smaller-handed amongst us. But nothing feels bunched up, I still feel like I’m playing a bass, everything is just more manageable.

Being a dual-humbucker model, there’s plenty of anchor-points if you’re playing fingerstyle. However, the placement of the neck pickup does inhibit slapping/popping slightly, and I found my spare digits hitting the pickup often when playing in that style. It’s possible, but made a bit more difficult.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Does an instrument’s styling dictate its purpose? Some would robustly argue ‘Yes’, while others will maintain that you can play any style on any guitar. I’m somewhere in between, in that the Telstar’s look and feel certainly leans towards the more ‘classic’ end of things,

Played clean, the neck pickup is deep, slightly hollow and woody-sounding: exactly what you might hope for from this position. It’s full of thump in the note attack with a bulbous response without being muddy, almost like a slightly scooped EQ.

That’s contrasted by the bridge pickup, which comes out of the gate full of funky mid-heavy honk coupled with some additional high end. It’s addictively old-school sounding with heaps of definition, but when played solo it might lack some of the weight required to carry groove-heavy styles.

So, I found my favourite ‘traditional’ tones with an equal combination of the two pickups. With the three volume controls maxed-out, you’ve basically got a set-and-forget all-purpose bass sound that’ll see you right for most styles.

To me, the Telstar is screaming out for blues, classic rock, soul and vintage funk lines, and whether played fingerstyle or with a pick, it’s got plenty of power.

Rolling back the tone and pushing the balance in favour of the neck unlocks some beautiful dubby, palm-muted sounds, while restoring it to max and flipping the balance to a more bridge-heavy sound makes it a lot of fun with a bit of overdrive or fuzz. The reduced low end in this combination also robbed me of plenty of time playing through an octaver for some psychedelic ’60s-style riffs.

I mentioned earlier about the Telstar’s physical slap barrier from the neck pickup, but that doesn’t mean it won’t do it. In fact, considering it’s a passive bass clearly aimed at pickers, I was able to coax some pretty satisfying slap tones from the Telstar with very little processing.

Verdict

Not all bassists are guitarists, but let’s be honest, all guitarists consider themselves some-time bass players, don’t they?

The Telstar lends itself perfectly to this application, whether it’s for use at home, on the stage or for recording, it’s bursting with staple sounds. So are many other basses, but Shergold has managed to bring something to the table that checks most of the boxes.

It sounds great, bridges the gap between guitar and bass-playing very nicely, and its done so with heaps of character from the visual design points, tonal offering and overall styling.

Final verdict: If you’re looking for a bass in a more manageable format, or want to cross the guitar/bass streams without having to resort to finger-yoga beforehand, the Telstar has a lot to offer. It feels, sounds and responds like a ‘proper’ bass for pick and finger players, and does so with the added bonus of being a lot of fun to play.

Also try

Sterling By Music Man Intro Series StingRay Ray2: at guitarworld.com

$249/£349
A more contemporary-style bass, Sterling’s most affordable take on the Stingray blueprint offers a single bridge humbucker and passive controls. If you’re after a more modern sound on a budget, it’s an excellent choice.

Read more: Sterling By Music Man Intro Series StingRay Ray2 review

Squier Squier Paranormal Rascal HH:

$419/£395
With a 30-inch scale length and a pair of Fender Designed Wide-Range Bass humbuckers, the offset Rascal adopts the Bass VI shape, and offers a great alternative to the Telstar’s format.

Epiphone Newport Bass: at guitarworld.com

$449/£439
Another short-scaler (30.472 inches), the Newport Bass from Epiphone follows the retro theme. Here there’s a mahogany body available in four finish options, with a Bass Sidewinder humbucker in the neck, and a TB Pro in the bridge.

Read more: Epiphone Newport Bass review

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• “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