Lefty Shergold Marathon 6 (copy) on the 'Bay

[Ankhanu]

There's a left-hand copy of a Shergold Marathon 6 VI type bass on eBay. Apparently the seller bought a righty to use as a template for a left-hand build, so it's not a genuine Shergold. The price is a little steep, but, given what it is, it's not really out of the park.



The Shergold Marathon 6 is the VI bass that Peter Hook plays.

[James]

So it's a parts guitar that cost $2k to assemble but he wants $3k for it? He paid somebody $900 to make a copy of the body and paint it black? $400 to spray the neck?

I've no idea what the originals go for but it seems a big rip-off to me.

[Ankhanu]

I've not seen many Shergolds pop up for sale, but I think they usually go for about the same as a (non-RI) Fender VI. I don't think Shergold made lefties, but, I could be wrong.

For a right-hander, yeah, this would probably be pretty pricey... given the rarity of left-handed VIs, I dunno, it might not be out of the question, his cost:profit ratio aside.

[James]

I'm pretty sure you could make your own lefty Bass VI style guitar using parts from somewhere like USA CG for $1500-2000 or so. Not cheap but better than $3000 for an Ed Roman project.

[Ankhanu]

Quite true... but not everyone is into projects.


Just gonna put it out there to avoid any confusion; I'm not the seller, I'm not left-handed, nor do I know who the seller is. This was just posted to the Fender VI players Facebook group and I thought I'd pass it along, as I know there are some lefties here on Shortscale who *might* have an interest in a VI.

On another note, The pickup switching is interesting on this thing; humbucker, single split and out-of-phase... I'm not sure is it's a standard Marathon 6 set up, though.

[hotrodperlmutter]

i thought this was like some kind of combination of shorline gold and sherwood green. glad it is this instead.

i have never heard of this. looks awesome, but crazy money.

[Thom]

I'm not sure what to make of this...yes, it's cool...but think James hit the nail on the head!
The seller is clearly a bit delusional! And I've read enough things about Ed Roman to not want to have anything to do with anything he was involved in.
Interesting to read though Ankhanu

[ekwatts]

i thought this was like some kind of combination of shorline gold and sherwood green. glad it is this instead.

i have never heard of this. looks awesome, but crazy money.

Shergold was an offshoot of Burns and Hayman, technically. Jim Burns formed Hayman after Burns London were bought by Baldwin and started to go the way of CBS Fenders, and when Hayman folded the guys involved created Shergold (I don't think Jim Burns was actually involved with Shergold, but it was basically the same people and factory as Hayman otherwise). Shergold and Haymans look pretty similar. I don't know how popular they were in the US, though. Hayman was owned and distributed by the Dallas-Arbiter company, so they were probably the bigger name in the US.

[ekwatts]

And yeah, Ed Roman is a freaky cunt. He has that "racism masquerading as patriotism" thing going on all over his stupid website. I'm surprised he'd even work on a Shergold considering their all-UK construction, which in Ed Roman's narrow worldview probably makes them second-best to any hand-made Amerikuuuhhhhh guitars.

[benecol]

Ed Roman is...

Was, old son. Died on the 14th December.

[paul_]

I wonder if his casket was scarf-jointed.

[ekwatts]

Is it still speaking ill of the dead if you didn't know (or, worse, forgot) they were dead?