“Don’t let its modest price tag fool you – this charming guitar offers a smorgasbord of contemporary features and tones”: Shergold Provocateur Standard SP12 review

Never heard of Shergold? Well, don’t worry, we’ll let you off. While this slightly obscure UK brand was once popular in the late ’70s and early ’80s, it never quite became a household name. 

Now, that’s not to say these British guitars didn’t have their fair share of famous users, with the likes of Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook of Joy Division fame counted among their devoted fans. 

In 2017, after a long hiatus, the brand was revived by Barnes & Mullins with the help of guitar-builder extraordinaire Patrick James Eggle. The British luthier was tasked with revamping the retro brand’s catalogue for a modern audience, and that’s precisely what he did.

With a contemporary version of the flagship Masquerader, a bold new take on a T-type with the Telstar and the electric guitar we are looking at today, the Provocateur, Shergold is back with a bang. 

The Shergold Provocateur Standard SP12 is the most affordable single-cut in the lineup, but don’t let its modest price tag fool you – this charming guitar offers a smorgasbord of contemporary features and tones.

The solid poplar body houses a duo of Page humbuckers, which are distinctly vintage in their output. The tone here is best described as woody – and ideal for expressive blues licks.

Turn up the gain and you’ll be greeted with a fabulous rock tone that could quite easily fill a stadium. Punchy, raw and coil-splittable, these pickups certainly took us by surprise.

Naturally, the vintage specs carry their way through to the neck. The solid Canadian maple neck opts for the comfortable 625.5mm scale length with a fairly chunky profile and medium jumbo frets – think ’50s Les Paul but with bolt-on construction. 

Now, it has to be said that the satin finish here is impeccably smooth. This makes the guitar a pure joy to hold, something that’s impressive at this price point. The gorgeously dark neck is topped with an equally shadowy laurel fingerboard to complete the look.

Sitting proudly at the top of the neck is Shergold’s paddle-style headstock, which forgoes the badge logo of the more expensive iteration in favour of mother-of-pearl detailing. A nice touch is the inclusion of locking machine heads. These tuners feel smooth and robust and are a nice added bonus to an already well-spec’d instrument.

Okay, so Shergold may not have the instant brand recognition of its peers, but that doesn’t mean this revived guitar maker should be overlooked. 

Specs

• PRICE: £409
• BODY: Solid Poplar
• NECK: Solid Canadian maple
• SCALE LENGTH: 625.5mm / 24.625” 
• FINGERBOARD: Laurel 
• RADIUS: 305mm / 12” 
• FRETS: Hard nickel, medium jumbo
• FRET MARKERS: Lined 
• NUT: Synthetic bone 
• NUT WIDTH: 42.5mm 
• TRUSS ROD: 2 Way 
• BRIDGE: String-through-body 
• SADDLES: 6-Way chrome 
• PICKUPS: Page humbuckers (Alnico V) 
• CONTROLS: 1x Volume, 1x Tone (push/pull coil-split), 3-position switch
• FINISH: Solid Mint Green, Dirty Blonde
• CONTACT: Shergold