It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Shergold, but now the brand is back with a smartly dressed solidbody that also introduces a new, more affordable range. Let’s go!
Back in 2017, British distributor Barnes & Mullins took the wraps off the new Shergold Masquerader, the first guitar to bear that brand and name for many a decade. Barnes & Mullins had already had considerable success with its own acoustic brand, Faith, designed by Patrick James Eggle, and once again turned to Patrick to recreate the Masquerader. There was little resemblance to the original model, which had first popped up in the mid-70s, but its boutique-style spec included a rosewood neck and Seymour Duncan pickups in various configurations. Another new design named the Provocateur turned up in 2019 and continued the style, although this one was a single-cut.
Four years is a long time in the cut and thrust of the guitar world and, if we’re honest, Shergold had dropped off our radar until this new model, the Telstar, was announced unexpectedly in mid-August. As the ‘Standard’ in its full name references, the Telstar is the first of anew wave of more affordable Shergolds: the Provocateur Standard will join the Telstar imminently at a similar price, and we’re told there’s more to follow.
We don’t get too excited by a sub-£400 Chinese-made solidbody, simply because the majority are clones of the classics, but this Telstar has a little more going on. Yes, it retains the Shergold name and striped logo, but that’s about all the new guitar has in common with the previous (and ongoing) Masquerader and Provocateur designs, which are made in Indonesia and are now called the Custom Series. Patrick James Eggle is again behind the design and the name Telstar, of course, isn’t very far away from ‘Tele-style’ – and that, in Cabronitastyle, is pretty much what we have here.
This humbucking
