Shergold Marathon 6-string bass

The Shergold Marathon 6-string bass is one of a line of Shergold Marathon products, the 6-string bass being first issued in 1978 with a 24-fret neck.

Mike Rutherford had two Shergold Marathon basses in his collection (both mk.1 models) - one with natural finish, the other a sunburst at least. Shergold made a custom double neck for Mike before with changeable halves, and his relationship with the company led him onto the Marathon basses. For Sound International magazine, he wrote a review on the Marathon 6-string bass, remarking the body to be "nicely finished, well cut for playability and comfort and covered in lustre polyester", the bright-sounding (yet powerful) Shergold pickups, a wide enough neck for the fingers to move around and shallow frets which make it easy to play and so on.

Mike would play at least one (or both) of the basses on occasion during the Duke tour in 1980, probably as an alternative to the Shergold double neck's bass half. But after that he didn't seem to use them as much. In 2001, both Shergolds were sold from Genesis' Fisher Lane Farm studios (The Farm) via internet auction with hoards of vintage Genesis gear that accumulated there - serial numbers of the basses were 7019 (for the natural) and 7079 (for the sunburst).