4, 6, 8-string · Bolt-on (glued-in neck on the 1981 Mark 2)
Shergold's long-running bass and, alongside the Masquerader, part of the range for the whole life of the company. It evolved from the Hayman 4040 bass, which Shergold built for the Dallas music company before establishing their own brand. Offered as a 4-string on a 34-inch scale, a 6-string on a 30-inch scale and, occasionally, an 8-string on 34 inches; all were available fretless. The 6-string neck is about 5mm wider than the standard bass neck across its shorter scale, with 24 frets and a brass nut. The 8-strings are strung like a 12-string guitar — four courses of octave pairs over a standard-width bass neck. Its distinguishing feature is stereo output: early basses used a selector switch on the control plate feeding a single stereo socket, later ones dropped the switch for two mono sockets whose contacts select mono or stereo automatically. Production variants, in order: 'Big plate' (a large pickup mounting plate reaching back to the bridge, often with a plastic plug in the headstock where the Hayman medallion had been), 'Single socket' (plate replaced by a standard pickup ring), 'Twin socket shorthorn', and from 1980 'Twin socket longhorn' whose upper horn extends to the 13th fret to cure the model's criticised headstock-heavy balance. A small number of 1981 four-strings were designated 'Mark 2': mahogany body on the longhorn outline, through-body controls, glued-in neck, rosewood fingerboard and a single 16-pole pickup wired mono. Discontinued — still available to custom order but not part of Shergold's official 1991 relaunch, and not in the current range. UK list prices ran from GBP 176.03 in the mid-1970s to GBP 258.46 by 1982 for the 4-string, with the Marathon 6 at GBP 258.53-292.22, the Marathon 8 at GBP 296.70 and the Mark 2 around GBP 284; these are period figures recorded as historical context, not a current price. Played by Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order, Mike Rutherford of Genesis — Shergold also built Rutherford his splitable double-neck — and Kristian Dunn of El Ten Eleven. Specifications from www.shergold.co.uk, the historical Shergold archive that Shergold's own history page endorses as the definitive resource.
| Construction | Bolt-on (glued-in neck on the 1981 Mark 2) |
| Strings | 4, 6, 8 |
| Body | Solid body; mahogany on the Mark 2 |
| Fingerboard | Rosewood on the Mark 2 |
| Controls | Stereo/mono output — a selector switch on early versions, later two mono sockets that switch automatically |
| Made In | United Kingdom |
Artists documented playing the Shergold Marathon Bass: Kristian Dunn, Mike Rutherford, Peter Hook.