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Shergold Guitars Are Back

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  • digitalscreamdigitalscream Frets: 26460
    edited January 2017
    dindude said:
    Honestly you miserably lot. Yes the home page hipster images are graiting but it took me two clicks to get to the guitar I wanted to see. Click "the guitars" then click one of the three models you want to look at. It's not difficult.

    I'd suggest going back to the Gibson website to drool over a different kind of rehash, oh but you can't because the lazy fuckers haven't uploaded their 2017 range yet even though they've been in shops for months. That's the type of website we should be bemoaning. 
    You have to admit, it's a pretty poor site - it's the kind of thing that gets submitted by designers for redesigns all the time - they've thought more about whether their designer-y mates will love it than whether customers will be able to see immediately what they want to buy.

    That fake loading screen is a perfect example - they've not really understood what it's for at all. It's supposed to be there while AJAX content loads, but they reload the page in its entirety (which is actually slower) and show it anyway, presumably because they don't know how to do AJAX content.

    EDIT: I presume that they're showing the loading page because they want all the images to preload behind it so that you don't see the page building. The thing is, if you design your page and Javascript sensibly, everything will load in the correct order anyway and you don't see any on-the-fly rejigging at all.

    As for the guitars...what the hell is up with those fret markers? On a stage with lights, they serve no useful purpose at all because they run parallel to the strings and at a quick glance will be indistinguishable from the light reflecting off the strings.

    About the only thing they've really done right is getting Bea to demonstrate them.
    <space for hire>
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  • guitars4youguitars4you Frets: 14035
    tFB Trader
    dindude said:
    Honestly you miserably lot. Yes the home page hipster images are graiting but it took me two clicks to get to the guitar I wanted to see. Click "the guitars" then click one of the three models you want to look at. It's not difficult.

    I'd suggest going back to the Gibson website to drool over a different kind of rehash, oh but you can't because the lazy fuckers haven't uploaded their 2017 range yet even though they've been in shops for months. That's the type of website we should be bemoaning. 
    You have to admit, it's a pretty poor site - it's the kind of thing that gets submitted by designers for redesigns all the time - they've thought more about whether their designer-y mates will love it than whether customers will be able to see immediately what they want to buy.

    That fake loading screen is a perfect example - they've not really understood what it's for at all. It's supposed to be there while AJAX content loads, but they reload the page in its entirety (which is actually slower) and show it anyway, presumably because they don't know how to do AJAX content.


    Regarding the web site It looks a bit like a This Weeks Task from Alan Sugar's Apprentice
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  • OctafishOctafish Frets: 1937
    Don't think anyone's mentioned the hipsters yet, aren't they irritatingly awful =) .

    I had a chance to play a proper Shergold a few years ago. They do look a bit fugly and this particular one was a bit grimey with old strings, but despite this it did play/feel pretty good and had a bit of a fat/thick yet brightish sound to it, I liked it...
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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16547
    i like a nice old shergold


    I  don't like it because its made out of fancy wood and can sound like any other guitar you can buy. The idea of a shergold with a solid rosewood neck (good luck with the new laws) seems to miss the point of them for me. Both the guitars above where built with cheap woods, cleverly different construction methods... and a lot of though went into the pickups and controls.  

    I like my old one because its different,plays well and gives loads of options you won't find on any other guitar.  It can be a bit fender ish or gibson ish - but its always totally shergold.

    Like the John Birch behind it, i like that all the hardware (except tuners) is specific to the guitar and won't be found anywhere else. Okay, this limits the upgrade market, but it gives a truly individual instrument from the factory.   every new guitar these days relies on the same hardware you find on everything else.  Gordon Smith seem to be the last british builder with their own hardware and even that seems like it may be faded out or saved for the higher end models.  




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  • impmannimpmann Frets: 12649
    WezV said:
    i like a nice old shergold


    I  don't like it because its made out of fancy wood and can sound like any other guitar you can buy. The idea of a shergold with a solid rosewood neck (good luck with the new laws) seems to miss the point of them for me. Both the guitars above where built with cheap woods, cleverly different construction methods... and a lot of though went into the pickups and controls.  

    I like my old one because its different,plays well and gives loads of options you won't find on any other guitar.  It can be a bit fender ish or gibson ish - but its always totally shergold.

    Like the John Birch behind it, i like that all the hardware (except tuners) is specific to the guitar and won't be found anywhere else. Okay, this limits the upgrade market, but it gives a truly individual instrument from the factory.   every new guitar these days relies on the same hardware you find on everything else.  Gordon Smith seem to be the last british builder with their own hardware and even that seems like it may be faded out or saved for the higher end models.  




    Nail.
    Hit.

    Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever.

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  • ^ yup. Exactly. I love my Shergold Meteor because it's fundamentally different, obiche body wood, versatile sounds, butt ugly cosmetics, the lot.  I think being 'alternative' should be far more than just cosmetics and skin deep marketing.

    Im sure these new instruments are fine guitars if Mr Eggle is deeply involved in their design but to use the Shergold name just seems disingenuous somehow.
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
    tFB Trader
    impmann said:
    JookyChap said:
    I like the look of them, but it is a bit 'New Mini' or 'New Beetle'. 
    Precisely.

    Imagine those designs with some of Ash's or Marc @ Mojo's pickups - especially in view of both of them are easily capable of coming up with something unique looking, unique sounding and yet useable by modern players... I think its a missed opportunity.
    Having rebuilt a few old Shergold pickups I'd have loved the chance to take the design ethos of the originals and produce something ground breaking and visually different from generic humbuckers or single coils. Duncans are great but kinda 'common' looking compared to the originals.
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    Tough crowd. Some pretty mean responses, I hope they don't head over here.
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  • impmannimpmann Frets: 12649
    I've told the guy behind the project my thoughts - it's not mean. It's honest feedback.
    Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever.

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  • ennspekennspek Frets: 1626
    I really like the fret markers! Shows what I know. 
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  • I like the look of the new ones. A solid rosewood neck for that price has me interested. 
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  • olafgartenolafgarten Frets: 1648
    I like the look of the new ones. A solid rosewood neck for that price has me interested. 

    Good luck taking it out the country now. 
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  • olafgartenolafgarten Frets: 1648
    Has anyone else noticed these are basically a slightly different shaped PRS Vera? 
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  • richardhomerrichardhomer Frets: 24793
    edited January 2017
    I was in Forsythes in Manchester today. They had half a dozen or so new 'Auden' Gordon Smiths on display. I didn't play any - but they looked recognisably 'GS'-like - albeit with sharper build quality than the old guitars generally had. They made me smile - they still looked quirky and distinct from the mainstream.

    Forsythes also stock large numbers of Rickenbackers (which are phenomenally expensive btw). Same thing - quirky - loads of personality.

    This is what I expect from Shergold. I had the pleasure of being shown round the original factory (which was far more a large 'workshop' really) by Jack Golder in the late 70s. He was fiercely proud of how they made 'the best necks in the world' - the place reeked of a genuine passion for what they did.

    Its a shame that the brand has been resurrected in this way - they were (for a time) the nearest we had to a mass-produced, British made and designed guitar.
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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16547
    axisus said:
    Tough crowd. Some pretty mean responses, I hope they don't head over here.
    i don't think the responses are being mean about the guitars, just the choice to brand them as Shergold's.  The use of an existing name creates an instant comparison point,  so its something they should expect.

    I don't think these are really aimed at the type of player who would go for an original shergold.  Whilst i like mine i am sure some of the quirks would be too much for many modern players.


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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    They do seem like a fairly random mish-mash of features from other guitars - with a single-cutaway they'd be oddly similar to a Music Man Axis Sport.  But I think they look OK - apart from the fretboard inlays which are dreadful and don't suit the guitars at all.  And based on the looks and the specs, the prices seem very reasonable.  

    I'm not sure about mahogany plus bolt-on rosewood, but I guess Patrick Eggle knows what he's doing.

    But they're not Shergolds!  I agree with @WezV's earlier comment they'd they'd probably do better branded as Eggles.

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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24579
    Will you lot stop posting pictures of good solid old 70's Shergolds.

    I've wanted one for ages and we are gonna fall out if you don't stop!!!
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  • Voxman said:
    Just been listening to some of the vids - they sound very nice.  Anyone know price of the Shergold Masquerader SM02-SD?


    That's about as generic a tone as it gets, could be one off a hundred guitars. I'd a Hayman Modular, not vety different to a Shergold and it sounded nothing like the guitar in the video
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    Hmmmm…

    I never liked old Shergolds - lumpy bodies and styling, strange necks, odd-sounding pickups and clunky controls. So on the one hand these are good because they're nothing like that, but on the other… meh. Nothing interesting about them at all. Just another generic modern guitar with generic hardware and sound but a different shape.

    Even the headstock is the same - not as ugly as the original, but bland and nowhere near distinctive enough, it reminds me of a Greg Bennett or something.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31368
    WezV said:
    axisus said:
    Tough crowd. Some pretty mean responses, I hope they don't head over here.
    i don't think the responses are being mean about the guitars, just the choice to brand them as Shergold's.  The use of an existing name creates an instant comparison point,  so its something they should expect.

    I don't think these are really aimed at the type of player who would go for an original shergold.  Whilst i like mine i am sure some of the quirks would be too much for many modern players.


    I just wonder who they are aimed at then? 

    Surely the modern players who would find the original's quirks too much would never have heard of Shergold in the first place, while those who know the brand will be disappointed by the lack of quirkiness. 

    We see it time and again with resurrections of names like Burns, Vox and others, whack in a couple of styling cues and some cheap ceramic Strat pickups and see how fast we can go bankrupt.

    Despite my personal dislike for Shergold, Peavey and other "reggae only" guitars from the 70s they have a loyal following, I don't know why they seem so keen to alienate them.  

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