Shergold Provocateur Standard SP12 | The best sub $1000 singlecut?! In-depth Review & Demo

This is the Shergold Provocateur Standard SP12DB: an affordable and quirky modern-retro take on the singlecut electric guitar designed by no less than Patrick James Eggle! Shergold Guitars: https://www.shergoldguitars.com/ Shergold Guitars are one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic guitar brands out there. Since their humble beginnings in the 1960s in London, England, Shergold have been through numerous eras and guises, and since 2015 they’ve been owned by UK distributor Barnes & Mullins Ltd, who relaunched the brand under Eggle’s expert guidance in 2017. This revitalization has resulted in a number of rather individual models and, as of 2026, you can choose between the Les Paul-inspired Provocateur Standard, the double cutaway Masquerader, and the Cabronita Telecaster-esque Telstar. I’ve seen all these guitars round at shows over the past few years and couldn’t wait to get my hands on them… and the Provocateur SP12 is first in line. Coming in at around $500/€480, this is a surprisingly affordable guitar when you consider the specs. We get a lightweight poplar body here, and my particular guitar is finished in Dirty Blonde (you can also choose Mint Green if you prefer) with a large black scratch plate and a pair of Shergold’s own zebra humbuckers. These are vintage-voiced to be warm and punchy, and you can also split them down to single coils via the push/pull Tone pot. You get a single Volume pot for when you ever need to turn down. The bolt-on neck is a chunky roasted maple affair, and it’s topped by a 22-fret (they’re Medium Jumbos) laurel fingerboard. The board has a 12” radius, and the scale length is 625.5mm / 24.625”, making it just slightly shorter than a Gibson Les Paul. The nut is 42.5mm, and up at the distinctive Shergold headstock you get a set of their own locking tuners. Now, with a bolt-on neck and coil split sounds in abundance here, you might think that the Provocateur is something of a mixture between a Les Paul and a Telecaster… and I think it might be just that! But how well can a guitar at this price point really nail so many iconic guitar tones? Well, it’s time to find out! Here, I put the Provocateur through its paces in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, blues, punk, metal, and more – let’s see how it handles it! And let me know your thoughts on the Provocateur in the comments. Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits: 00:00 Introduction to the Shergold Provocateur 01:56 Specs and info 05:16 Today’s rig and plan 06:06 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings 06:39 Clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.) 08:26 Tone control test 09:49 Indie and alt rock tones 12:32 Volume control roll off test 12:56 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.) 15:22 Fuzz tones (Jack White, Black Keys, White Stripes, Smashing Pumpkins, etc.) 17:00 Hard rock tones 17:57 Modern alternative rock tones 18:51 Punk rock tones 19:46 Progressive and modern rock tones 20:54 Metal/chugging/heavy distortion tones (Drop D tuning) 22:20 My thoughts 23:06 First impressions 23:25 Weight 23:47 Build quality, hardware and setup 24:26 Playability and neck 25:19 Sounds and pickups 26:52 Jake Leigh’s thoughts on the Provocateur 28:34 Can the Provocateur do metal? 29:30 What other similar guitars are out there? 31:48 My conclusions on the Provocateur Standard and why you should buy it Here’s ‪@JakeLeighGuitar‬’s wonderful video about the Provocateur:    • I Didn't Expect This Guitar To Be THIS Goo...   My setup was as follows: I ran the Provocateur into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed, Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, Kernom Moho and Revv G3 pedals for overdrive, fuzz and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Zoom H6 Recorder. No post-processing on the sounds was done. --- Get all this gear at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m Get all this gear at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0 --- Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe. #Shergold #ShergoldGuitars #ShergoldProvocateur #BarnesAndMullins #GuitarGear #RichWordsMusic Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much! ‪@ShergoldGuitars‬ ‪@musikwein‬