Shergold Marathon

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The Shergold Marathon was a range of guitars and basses produced by the Shergold Woodcrafts Ltd. company. These divide down into 4, 6 and 8 string basses.

1 The Marathon bass
2 The 8 and 6 string models
3 Marathon basses produced after 1992
4 Notable Marathon players
5 Links
6 External links and references

[edit] The Marathon bass

The Marathon bass came as a medium scale 4-string model at 34" scale and 30" for the six stringers.

The bass range divides down into two main types of bass.

Mark I basses,the earliest form of the Marathon. These typically feature stereo wiring and circuitry, with a humbucker pick-up and for earlier models a toggle switch, allowing the user to change between modes of pick-up.

The Mark Ia Marathon has much the same features as the Mark I, however the stereo connection port favoured in the Mark I has been replaced by a dual mono output, allowing the user to bi-amp the bass if needed. It also solved the problem of low output, a problem often found in the stereo Mark I models.

A small number of Mark II basses were also produced before full scale production was closed down in 1982. These typically featured a rosewood bolt-on neck and mahogany body and a single mono 16 pole pick-up.

[edit] The 8 and 6 string models

These were specialist order models and only 100 or so 6 string basses were ever made, and even less for the 8 string model. The 8 string model featured four pairs of strings over the standard width bass neck. The 6 string model had a 5mm addition to the width of the neck to accommodate the strings, and a brass nut.

[edit] Marathon basses produced after 1992

 After the closure of the Shergold company in 1992 some basses were produced by individual luthiers using left-over parts and electronics. However no official records were kept and so for identification purposes these basses are also classified as official Marathon basses.