Shergold Masquerader 1980 Red - with hardcase

Shergold Masquerader Custom with Hardcase

This guitar is in good playing condition with a straight neck, little fret wear and no problems with the electrics. It comes with a hard case and the plastic bridge cover (a reproduction one – not an original). The guitar has quite a few cosmetic dings but no lacquer crazing (lacquer crazing is common). It’s all honest playing wear and tear on a 35+ year old guitar. It’s a gorgeous maple neck, with quite a flat radius fretboard with black binding. The necks on these are quite thin and remind me of early Peavey, or Mosrite necks but with bigger frets – not as high as jumbo frets but wide like a jumbo. The neck is very comfortable to play, and the action is low. There is negligible fret wear, and no fretboard wear.

Masquerader’s are not common, but they’re not really that “rare” either (a few thousand were made), and they were made in 6 and 12 string versions, with a bass version too. The Masquerader is a derivative of the Jim Burns designed Hayman guitar. These are a fabulous example of the classic British guitars of the time, and it's eminently playable with a very usable range of tones from Fenderish clean to Gibson/Gretsch grunt. They were pretty widely used by British bands in the 80's and 90's and even "famous" for a 12 string version being used by the Church here in Australia.

These were made in the UK. They were well built and meticulously assembled - better than most 70's Fenders and Gibsons IMO. To me it actually feels a bit like a Tele to play, but is much more versatile than a Tele, with twin Humbuckers. There is a 3 way pickup selector and each pickup has a 3 way switch. So you have coils taps on both pickups as well as out of phase. It gives a really useful range of tones. As you can see in one of the photos the electronics are all high quality, and quite complex with tag strip construction. All the Shergolds had this type of electronics with multicore wiring and complex switching.

The headstock is an interesting shape and the string trees are an interesting touch. They work well in practice. The headstock is a fairly unique shape, and the perspex badge is a little touch of class which looks great. There is a small separate black single ply 4 screw scratchplate with ‘Shergold Custom’ and under that ‘Masquerader’ and under that ‘Handcrafted London’. All lettering is white. Then there is a separate black single ply 3 screw control plate for volume, tone and 3 slider type 3 position controls

Specification:

• Body: Obeche

• Neck: Maple, 12”(305mm) Radius, with zero fret

• Number of Frets: 21

• Fretboard: Maple with black binding

• Pickups: original 2 >< split-able Humbucking pickups

• Tuners: 3 a side Schaller M6N nylon body machine heads

• Bridge: standard adjustale chrome plated Shergold 6 barrel type string bridge, with folded plate

• Controls … 1 Volume, 1 Tone, 3 >< 3 position controls (2 >< coil select ie humbucker, phase, single coil, 1 >< pickup select)

• Side mounted jack

• Weight: 3.6kg

Comes with what I believe is the original hardcase – a collectable in its own right!

Please check photos for condition and details.

I am not the original owner so I cannot say definitively that this item has all original parts, or whether the item is modified, so please judge by the photos above. The model information is based on my research, knowledge and experience, but I am aware that some of the information may be contentious, misinformed or plain mistaken. Please feel free to contact me should you have any issue and I will do my best to resolve every issue.

If you need any other photos, please do not hesitate to contact me with your email address.

 Shipping Information
The shipping quoted is an estimate. I prefer buyers to arrange their own shipping or pickup. Alternatively contact me for a quote prior to purchase as shipping estimate applies to Australian mainland capital cities only. Shipping can be organised at actual cost plus $5 packing charge.