Look Who’s Copying Sparrow!

I guess it’s pretty clear that Sparrow has been moving up fast, as the new kid on the block. After all the attention they’ve recieved lately, it looks like makers of the most popular Rockabilly Guitars, Gretsch have noticed. I was checking out the Gretsch site, looking at the Mini-Bo, when I noticed these;

Now pinstriping isn’t a new idea. I’m not saying Sparrow is the first company to paint pinstripes on a Guitar, but when you think of a pinstriped Rockabilly Guitar, Sparrow is the first company that comes to mind. They have the the best paint-shop in town, possibly the country(Can). Other Canadian Guitar manufacturers come to Sparrow for their custom jobs.  So lets compare;

Icouldn’t find a good picture of the Big Daddy model.  The Electromatics were under $700, so I’m not sure if they’re charging $500 for the pin-stripes  or what, but as usual with a big, established company, you are going to pay for the name. Gretsch doesn’t mention anything about custom jobs. You want pin-stripes, there’s one design to choose from. Sparrow will give you whatever stripes, flames or screen print logo’s you want.

Considering they both start off as asian made instruments of approximately the same price, the fact that Sparrows are assembled, painted and set-up in a small shop and not just rolling off an assembly line makes a real difference. I haven’t done a side by side test, but my first impression is that Gretsch’s pinstripe design is a bit overdone, too busy and they all look the same.

Sparrow Big Daddy Review by Chopper

Here’s Chopper Sivertz of the Deadcats and the Reverberators showing his Sparrow Big Daddy”Ace” with Kent Armstong single coil p/u’s and a licensed Bigsby whammy bar

We tried doing a side by side comparison of Choppers’s Big Daddy, and my Twangmaster but we had some technical difficulties videotaping it. The results were; suprisingly the Hollow-body w/ single coil pickups sounded a bit thinner. The Twangmaster has a wider range of sounds, going from a sort of mushy humbucker sound to an ice-pick in the forehead tele bridge sound.  I was quite surprised how much bite the Big Daddy has! Definitely a great axe for Rockabilly, Blues or Instro-Surf. It has the tone block under the bridge so there’s no feedback problems and it sustains well. The only problem we’re having is the “floating” bridge tend to float right out of place, when you press the whammy bar too far. The weak point of the Twangmaster (or just about any stock tele style Guitar) is the input jack. It’s about a $15 part to replace. There’s something weird about those recessed jacks, it’s better to have it flush w/ the body.

When left to our own devices Chopper and I both tend to buy “vintage”(pawnshop) gear. So we were pretty lucky that Billy Bones came along and offerred to set us up with a pair of brand new axes. I’m going to be demoing some of their new pickups. Sparrow is making their own pickups now and with the attention to quality and detail they put into their Guitars, I’m sure they’re going to sound great. I’ll keep you posted of course.

Sparrow Twangmaster Demonstration

I’ve been getting lots of people asking about this guitar so here’s a quick demonstration of what it sounds like.

Here’s the Sparrow Artist’s page

Update- so they decided to call this an “Ace”, but the folks at Sparrow will know what you mean if you ask about a “Gorecaster”

I Been Sparrow-lized

Gorecaster #1

I just got my Twangmaster back from the Sparrow Custom Shop and I’m loving the TV Jones Classic pickup they put in the neck position.  The guitar sounds much thicker and although it’s not a high output pickup, it is alot louder than the original tele  neck pickup. The TV Jones breaks up nicely and sounds good with the Kent Armstrong bridge pickup. Thanks to Skinny Tim for taking care of it personally. It must have been a pain routing that pick-guard.My camera sucks, but you get the idea.My favorite, disposable strap-lock; the red plastic Grolsch beer bottle ring(25cents, 1 size fits all). Courtesy of Dans Homebrewing Supplies “What would Jesus brew?”

These guitars are a great deal. A basic Twangmaster Pro is about $550 Here’s the Sparrow of Canada site

You can also get a Sparrow Guitar from Phil, at Bonerattle Music, East Van’s coolest little music shop

I’ve had this Guitar for 7 or8 months now, but the new neck pickup makes a huge difference.

You can look at some better pics of Sparrow Guitars here

Yes, the Deadcats are endorsed by Sparrow of Canada. I prefer working with a  local company where I can actually talk to the people that work on my guitars. Sparrow Guitars are used by Necromantix, Danny B Harvey, UK Subs, DOA, Switchblade Valentines, and Horrorpops.