These sites are not directly Shergold related, but I've find them useful, and I hope you will too...

• Strings Direct - Low priced guitar and bass strings direct over the net - slightly cranky shopping cart interface but otherwise well put together, and supported by excellent service, wide range and keen pricing. Recommended.
  
  
• The Rickenbacker Registration Page - an excellent resource for Rickenbacker, and an innovative project to collate serial numbers. Perhaps something that could be emulated for Shergolds if there is enough interest.
  
  
• RS Components - Useful suppliers of general electronic hardware (they still carry the bizzare mechanical indicator latching switch (stock code 339-897) used on the Activator) and an invaluable source of data on semiconductors. Minimum order quantities can be a pain sometimes, but their pricing is usually pretty good anyway.
  The site is cleanly designed, fast and their delivery has been next day every time I've ordered from them. Recommended.
  
  
• Maplin Electronics (www.maplin.co.uk - no real link now as I think their site and service sucks)
  Aug 2000 Update: Recently, I've been using RS more as the Maplin online site is incredibly slow (the whole site runs over SSL, even to browse the catalogue, so the browser can't cache anything) and their range of some of the more common components (basic guitar stuff like pots and multicore cable) is abysmal. I was going to order an assortment of cable and pots from them only to find that the pots "could not be ordered by this method" on their site and that there were no specifications (strand size and number) for one of the cable types! At this point, I went to RS and ordered the pots, sockets and 25m rolls of the three types of cable I needed. While I had to buy larger amounts than I would from Maplin, the cost per metre is almost half of Maplins and should last a lifetime of refurbishing guitars for a slightly increased initial outlay.
  Also, one of points I originally made about Maplin carrying odd but useful hardware is no longer true - most of these products are now discontinued.
  
  Basically, I can no longer recommend Maplin, unless you really cannot get the parts elsewhere.
  
  Previous entry: Another supplier of general electronic hardware. Often better than RS for sourcing unusual components as they cater more for the hobbyist. Also quite good for general hardware such as flight case covering (used on speaker cabinets), hinges, catches etc.
  
  
• Ricoh Digital Cameras - Maybe not as well known as others like Olympus, Sony and Canon, but this manufacturer builds consitently solid and functional digital cameras. I'm on my second Ricoh now - my first was an RDC-300, current is an RDC-5300. The RDC-300 still works perfectly despite various unplanned "impact tests" that would have destroyed a digicam without the protected LCD. Why other manufacturers haven't done this I do not know. While the Olympus 2020 looks the better camera technically and in picture quality, the RDC-5300 pipped it at the post when I was looking for a replacement with higher resolution and carded memory, by having a protected LCD. However, they are very heavy on batteries, especially with the LCD turned on.
  
  
• Allaire Software (now part of Macromedia)- The Shergold Homepage site is entirely built with their superb Homesite product. It requires an understanding of HTML, but for those of us who know our TDs from our nbsp it is great. Homesite doesn't try to code for you (though you can use the MS HTML renderer to prototype pages), but simply provides a good editor with simple automation and prompting functionality.
  The interface will be strikingly familiar and comfortable to those of us who use Borland Delphi as Homesite is written in Delphi and its developers obviously didn't want to learn a new set of keyboard shortcuts!
  
  
• Jasc Software - They write Paint Shop Pro. What more is there to say about this excellent product, except that with Version 6 it has finally caught up with Adobe Photoshop (vector layers - hurrah!) and remains more usable.
  
  
• Channel Four Television - My employers.
  Its fair to say that without them and their regular pay cheques (oh, and their super fast internet link...) this site probably would not have happened, or would still look like the original Shergold homepage.
  For the record, I'm the Lead Database Administrator running Sybase (and some Oracle) database servers with in-house applications written in Borland Delphi.