Shergold Provocateur SP02
Writer Dave Burrluck Guitarist, Gear Reviews Editor Our gear reviews editor is getting to grips with Shergold’s latest guitar, but now wants to up its game to ‘boutique’ level. Really?
We’re all different, but I’m quite partial to a lovely old-feeling near bare wood neck. With years of sweat and grime from a lot of use, they can feel rather special. The clubby shape and almost open-pore satin neck finish on Shergold’s latest Provocateur is certainly in my comfort zone, bearing in mind it’s a factory not boutique build.
One reason that designer Patrick Eggle and his team selected torrefied mahogany for the neck of this new model was that, in their experience, it not only sounded better but it would also take an oil and/or waxed finish better than untorrefied wood. On Patrick’s
own guitars, not least the Macon Special on review on p10 in this issue, he often goes for a ‘worn-through’ feel as if the finish on the neck back had literally worn away to the bare wood, like many an old Fender. The Provocateur’s neck, however, has a very light finish and I wondered whether I could narrow the gap between the £800 Shergold and one of Pat’s elegant masterpieces.
I’ve done plenty of this type of neck finish over the years, but they’ve all been on maple. I was a bit hesitant to try the same on mahogany. It’s a different wood – torrefied or not – so I gave Patrick a ring hoping that he’d give away a few secrets.
“I don’t have any of those,” he laughed and got straight to the point: “I usually use Tru-Oil and we’ve had good results with that on mahogany,” he continued. He’s in good company, of course, as Music Man has long used the same or similar gunstock oil finish: a “unique blend of linseed and natural oils that dries fast. It brings out the richness and beauty of fine woods and gives you a tough, long-lasting finish,” we are informed by Tru-Oil manufacturer, Birchwood Casey.
“Another thing we use is Renaissance Wax,” says Patrick,“which gives quite a lustre but after a while feels like you’re playing bare wood, whereas with Tru-Oil we apply a couple of coats and, when dry, we then burnish with fine wire wool.”
To be honest, if you asked various guitar makers or woodworkers what ‘ingredients’ they use for this type of neck finish, you’re going to get a lot of different answers. Tung oil is what you need; no, Danish Oil; boiled linseed oil… Use this, don’t use that. If you’re interested in your oils, waxes and potions, Liberon has a highly informative website, as does Rustins. But, as with so many processes, you really have to find your own methods. Using a test piece of similar wood is always sensible – easy for a guitar maker or woodworker, less easy for us part-timers.
In this case, I firstly had to wear through that thin finish to the bare wood. Starting with a fine abrasive paper on a cork block, it didn’t take long before the white dust of the finish began to turn mahogany pink. Carefully sanding the curves of the heel but leaving the heel back untouched and doing the same at the headstock end, I soon had the neck back super smooth, almost burnished, by going through ever-finer grades up to 1200-grit. Finally, I wiped the neck with a damp cloth, which slightly raises the grain, and then (when completely dry) smoothed that back with a used piece of that last grade abrasive. Now to the finish…
Personally, I often just use wax – which, as Patrick says, needs more maintaining – but I’ve found that it burnishes up over time to a semi-gloss lustre that feels superb, certainly on an old custom-built Washburn with a very flamed maple neck. Originally, that neck was done with Briwax Original, although it does contain toluene and has quite an odour. There is a newer ‘standard’ version that manufacturer Rustins states “uses a lower odour, but equally effective solvent, that may be better suited to home-use”, although I’ve not tried that personally.
In more recent years, I’ve gone for a very simple Danish Oil and Gerlitz Carnauba wax combination. Having tested this process on a piece of spare mahogany, I was happy enough to dive in on the Provocateur’s neck. I started with two or three very light coats of Danish Oil applied (over a couple of days) directly onto a piece of kitchen towel and then rubbed onto the mahogany. When completely dry, a quick rub with 0000 wire wool gave a lovely low-gloss sheen. Then a quick rub with the wax, left to dry then buffed with an old tea towel, increased the lustre and removed any ‘waxiness’ from the feel. As ever, less is more: you really only need the lightest dabs of both oil and wax. The new finish looked identical in colour to the previous finish but was silkier to the touch and, feel aside, would be hard to tell that it wasn’t the original finish.
In combination with increasing the rounding of the fingerboard edges and this neck process, the Provocateur looked no different but was beginning to feel a load more special. Time to focus on its amplified sound…
“The new finish looked identical in colour to the previous finish but was silkier to the touch… It felt a load more special”