Sparrow solid-body electric - any fans?

High guys

Contemplating pulling the trigger on a Sparrow tenor or baritone. Anyone got one? Like it? Love it? Hate it?

Would be very grateful for anyone's thoughts and experiences.

Thanks!

Ben

I have a solid body, but it is a Vorsun, with magnetic pickups, so it may not be applicable to you. As a guitar player, I am used to steel strings and solid body guitars. Even so, the strings are more difficult than on a guitar because the fret spacing is so much closer on a uke. Hand strength and tough calluses are a plus.
I can play the higher frets on nylon strung ukuleles, but my fingertips tend to mash themselves over the frets, muting the sound on the Vorsun.
Of course, all the advantages of using pedals, tone and volume control, etc. are there.

As a senior member, you are probably a more skilled player than I. My ukulele playing is recreational and I stick pretty much to guitar style chord shapes. I do enjoy having the solid body electric in my fleet!

Best of luck with your choice. Steve K.

I own other steel string ukuleles, but not a Sparrow but I had a look. They look to be well built instruments.

I noted a couple of things.
They have created their own custom bridge spacing. It looks to me like they have just sliced up some standard six string guitar telecaster syle bridges and spaced them out to standard ukulele spacing so you should feel at home there.
The pickup fitted is a humbucker which gives a mellower tone and it's positioned in what you would call a "mid" position. In the guitar world pickups are described as being positioned in the "bridge, mid and neck positions. The mid position is a bit of an allrounder as you would guess. It doesn't produce the hard bridge sound that is popular for distorted rock music and it doesn't have a particularly mellow neck position either.
Their own sound samples are mostly playing a jazz style and to be honest, this is what they would be best for. Nothing to stop you playing other styles as well, yet this is definitely the niche its aimed at. Definitely a "guitar"like sound rather than a particularly bright "ukulele" sound.

Thanks Steve and Anthony

I agree that the Sparrows appear to look pretty well put together - that they care about creating a decent instrument. I am tempted, but I'm not quite 'there' yet in terms of knowing that I will want to play sold bodied ukes longer term...

...however, I have one coming on Tuesday! I bought it from one of the lovely UU members - it's a somewhat 'home-made' instrument, where they've upcycled a very nice vintage baritone neck and fixed it to a newly made cherry solid body! It's quite quirky, but it was a sensible amount to lay out and still get the chance to dip my toe into the electric world. I almost always play acoustic plugged in now, and so wanted to take the next step to full electric and steel strings.

And, of course, I'm already looking at pedals...! See the 'Effects pedals some more??' thread in this section of the site - love the look and sound of the Electro Harmonix Turnip Greens, but also the extended function (delay, looper) of the T-REX Soulmate Acoustic. I really hope this isn't ushering in a whole new purchasing obsession for me...!

Question - 'Acoustic' pedals, like the T-REX - are they equally useable with a fully electric, sold body instrument?

Thanks again for chatting.

Ben

Glad you found an instrument, Ben. My solid body looks like a mini telecaster, and, like a tele, has two pickups with a three way switch. Center position turns on both pickups for the "fullest" sound. Neck and bridge settings as Anthony describes.
As to pedals, I can only understand them in the simplest terms: your pickups produce an electrical signal. The pedal receives that signal, modifies it and sends it on to the next device. The pedal doesn't care what the input is. It simply does its job until you stop playing. I have instruments with piezo and magnetic pickups both. They pedal doesn't care whether I use one, or the other, or both at the same time.
That said, your ears do care what they hear, so, while your pedal may work with any signal, you may not like the output. Always try before you buy! Settings that work for a solid body humbucker may elicit an ear piercing scream from a piezo. If you can adjust uke or pedal or amp settings for that "perfect sound", buy the pedal. If not, look for something else.
Trust your own ears!

Thanks so much again, Steve. I love the people on, and content of, this forum, but where is the upvote button??!!

I'll give you an early report on my foray into solid and steel. Equally excited and nervous!

Ben

Hey - I've got a Sparrow. Walnut/cherry solid body tenor cutaway. I'm definitely a fan.

Here it is in action if you want a sound sample. I used a Roland Micro Cube GX amp to apply a little chorus and delay. The video has five instruments but the most prominent is the Sparrow in the upper-left.

Thanks, Kev - shame I can't see more of your Sparrow in the video, but it sounds great. And that wood choice and set up would be very close to what I would go for, I think. nice to hear a positive review of them, and even nicer to hear some APP - haven't listened to any for decades, but used to a lot in my formative prog days!

Thanks again

Whilst you're being so kind, may I ask you the same question as I did in another thread here:


Single pedal (delay)...what do I need? My cable goes from uke to pedal and then, presumably, another cable from pedal output to amp, yes?

If so, how long a cable would you use from pedal to amp? Shortest possible? 'Sensible' length?

Would a 1ft D'Addario one be suitable?

And then, to put more pedals in line, should I wish to, do I use the 6" effects cables that you can find alll over the place, between each pedal box?

Thanks!

Ben

Hi. I'm not close to being an expert on these topics, but my understanding is:

* Yes, you'll need 1 cable from uke to pedal and another cable from pedal to amp

* Tone degrades with cable length, particularly for instruments with passive pickups. So all else equal shorter cables are preferred. But of course, the cables need to be long enough to be workable for your planned playing setup and style.

* Whether a 1 foot cable would suit depends on the size of your amp, the orientation of the input plug on that amp, and on how and where you plan to play. If your amp is 2 feet tall, then probably not.

* Yes, you would use the 6" patch cables for connections between pedals.

FWIW, your next question might be how to order the pedals. Brad Bordessa, who's a member here, has some great suggestions on his website. https://liveukulele.com/lessons/plug-in/effects/

good_uke_boy said:

Hi. I'm not close to being an expert on these topics, but my understanding is:

* Yes, you'll need 1 cable from uke to pedal and another cable from pedal to amp

* Tone degrades with cable length, particularly for instruments with passive pickups. So all else equal shorter cables are preferred. But of course, the cables need to be long enough to be workable for your planned playing setup and style.

* Whether a 1 foot cable would suit depends on the size of your amp, the orientation of the input plug on that amp, and on how and where you plan to play. If your amp is 2 feet tall, then probably not.

* Yes, you would use the 6" patch cables for connections between pedals.

FWIW, your next question might be how to order the pedals. Brad Bordessa, who's a member here, has some great suggestions on his website. https://liveukulele.com/lessons/plug-in/effects/

Click to expand...

Super advice again, Kev - thanks so much. I'll be sure to get the shortest cable that works for positioning of the effect(s) relative to amp and then where I need to be to use it/them. 1ft might be a little short, actually.

And, overenthusiast that I am, I've already pulled the trigger on a JAM Delay Llama! So exciting!!

Ben

I got a uke with a pickup from a UU forum member last year, thanks Tom. I plugged it into a pedal chain with compressor>distortion>overdrive>delay>EQ. Nothing awesome is happening. The strings do not talk to my setup, that is it, sounds terrible. Of course I tried just the delay, and it sounds a little better, so I understand why pros will amplify and an a "touch of reverb", but not much else.

I wouldn't mind a steel string electric uke to play around with. I love playing electric guitar, and always wanted to try amplified uke, but I'm pretty sure that I will never get the same feeling from a nylon/fluorocarbon piezo setup

Neil_O said:

I got a uke with a pickup from a UU forum member last year, thanks Tom. I plugged it into a pedal chain with compressor>distortion>overdrive>delay>EQ. Nothing awesome is happening. The strings do not talk to my setup, that is it, sounds terrible. Of course I tried just the delay, and it sounds a little better, so I understand why pros will amplify and an a "touch of reverb", but not much else.

I wouldn't mind a steel string electric uke to play around with. I love playing electric guitar, and always wanted to try amplified uke, but I'm pretty sure that I will never get the same feeling from a nylon/fluorocarbon piezo setup

Click to expand...

Piezo pickup instruments need to have a preamp first in line and close to the pickup to work. Most piezo pickup instruments are sold with onboard preamps, but if its not there or not working, then yes you won't get much out of it.

Someone can correct this if I'm wrong, but most Boss pedals have a buffer built in, that more or less serves as a preamp (for piezo) AND helps out with long cable runs.

(Some pedals from other companies do too.

E.g. https://www.tcelectronic.com/product.html?modelCode=P0CM0 )