Sparrow 3D Carved Roots Tenor Steel String Electric Ukulele (Built to order, ships in 14 days)

All Thunderbird Series ukuleles are built to order! Your instrument will ship 14 days after your order.

The Thunderbird Series is our upper echelon "built to order" ukulele line. This tier offers exotic woods, ornate craftsmanship, expanded electronics, and more advanced features. These are USA made, professional quality steel string ukuleles built with premium quality materials. Experience the highest level of ukulele quality with the Sparrow Thunderbird series!

I've wanted to do a 3D carved ukulele for years, and now is the time! I couldn't be more happy with the outcome of this roots texture carved Mahogany body tenor. The 3D carving adds a bit of art to the instrument, but do be fooled, this is no "wall hanger". The tone is rich and the action is easy! Treat yourself to a true playable work of art.

This model sports a solid Mahogany body, Richlite fingerboard, Flame Maple neck, and Walnut pickup bobbins. The geometric fret markers are Maple.  

The pickup is hand built and wound in-house to our specs! The Alnico V magnets yield a rich and touch sensitive tone and exceptional clarity. This model sports a “humbucker” which provides noise free operation and thick tone. Pulling out on the tone knob engages “single coil split” mode which yields crystalline single coil tones and bell-like chime. The “resistance dropping” circuit lowers the 500k potentiometer value (typically perfect for humbucking pickups) to about 290K, which is much more suitable for a single coil pickup. This provides an even more accurate approximation of single coil tone!

The Flame Maple neck is easily adjusted with a modern, 2-way truss rod ensuring proper setup in any season or climate. The Richlite fingerboard sports a comfy 12" radius!

The body is designed for ergonomics and comfort. The cutaway allows for easy access to the highest frets and the arm lean on the top ensures maximum comfort. The belly cut on the back makes this electric ukulele perfectly suited for standing or seated performance.

All Sparrow ukuleles are strung with our custom selected set of GHS strings to ensure the perfect balance of feel, playability, ergonomics, tone and intonation. This uke comes standard with Low G tuning, but if you would prefer high G, just let us know and we will set it up for that.

The action is low and light. This baby is ready to shred!

Woods:  3D carved Mahogany Body and Flame Maple neck. Richlite fingerboard and Walnut pickup bobbins, Maple fret markers.

Strings:  Gcea (low G) GHS flat wound custom set: .032, .022, .016, .012.   Want high G tuning? Just let us know, no problem.

Electronics:  The controls are standard volume and tone. The Alnico 5 magnet hand wound, custom designed pickup has 6500 turns (per coil) of 42 gauge copper wire and has a resistance of about 7 ohms. This gives the pickup a warm, organic tone that reacts nicely to picking nuance. All the bridge saddles are properly grounded to provide the quietest operation possible.

This pickup is wired for “coil splitting”. To access this feature, simply pull out on the tone knob and it will engage a switch that deactivates half of the pickup providing a much more “single coil” tone.

Truss Rod:   Two way adjustable truss rod.

Tuning:  GCEA

Fretboard Radius: 12″

Bridge:  We use individual string saddles to allow for optimum string spacing for the best feel and performance. The bridge saddles have individually adjustable intonation screws as well as standard height adjustment.

Nut:  The nut is hand carved out of bone. The nut width is 1.5″.