Sparrow Thunderbird 5 string Electric Mandolin Demo

**jimfog** · Mar-26-2023, 12:51am

New toy…..electric 5 string mando (with a low C) by Sparrow Ukulele. All handmade, including winding their own pickups. This one is cherry wood body (my choice). Just getting used to it, but I think me likey. Two weeks from order to ship, at a very fair price.

One suggestion.....they ship with flatwound strings, but even for a mellow, jazzy tone, I think rounds are better, as suggested by Paul Glasse. The shorter scale (15") gives you very little definition with flats on the low C. Just IMO.

https://www.sparrowukulele.com/colle...ctric-mandolin

Here’s a quick pass through “All of Me”. Let me know what you think.

**urobouros** · Mar-26-2023, 1:23am

Nice! Thanks for the demo!! I've looked at those myself but never pulled the trigger. How even across the strings is the pickup? Have you tried it with any pedals? I find the 4 & 5 string emandos play nicely with pedals whereas the 8 stringers get muddy quickly.

**John Soper** · Mar-26-2023, 9:37am

Thanks for the review and nice video! I've been looking for an affordable 5-string mandolin & that looks like a good option. The cherry option looks great. How much does that Mando weigh?A few questions - were you using the humbuckier or split coil on your video? What amp and any pedals? Did you get your wound strings through emando or source individual strings? Thanks in advance.

**the_mahout** · Apr-02-2023, 8:38pm

I was thinking about one of these also and I will be in the Richmond area next month on business. How do you like the neck? Thanks. Mike in KY

**jimfog** · Apr-02-2023, 10:41pm

Hi guys.....thanks for checking out the video!

urobouros......Works great with pedals, and the balance is very even. No issues, there.

John Soper......the weight is super low. Maybe 4lbs? I chose the cherry because I liked the lighter shaded natural wood. Michael at Sparrow sent me a picture with @ 15 different wood options, and suggested cherry. I'm happy with it. I was using the full humbucker mode. The single coil split mode is nice, too, but as expected the volume drops a bit. Would need to work in a clean booster or volume pedal to use it on the fly. It was a Kemper amp with a 57 Tweed Deluxe profile, just a little reverb added.

the_mahout.......I like the neck. I originally wanted a radius on the fingerboard, and they were happy to do it, but at the last minute I realized that flat would probably work better for my style of play on this instrument. Glad I did that. Super easy to get around on.

Thanks! - Jim