# Sparrow Tele, A hard sell



## Rick31797 (Apr 20, 2007)

I didnt know these guitars where that expensive new, 1400.00 ?? Canadian Custom Made Left Hand Sparrow Twangster - Trenton Musical Instruments For Sale - Kijiji Trenton Canada.

sounds like the guy paid way to much....1400.00 you can buy a USA fender tele standard for 1,000.00 and have a better chance of recovering more money if you sell it.
Looking on ebay there are many sparrow teles for 669.00 new..I think he will have a hard sell, and its a lefty to boot.


----------



## 10409 (Dec 11, 2011)

His mistake is trying to sell it. You don't buy a boring looking clone from a mostly unknown company and expect to get as much as the original costs out of it. I'm sure it's a great guitar, but unless he's willing to drop down to the price of a used MIM he's probably stuck with it, and even then he's gonna be stuck with it for a while.

especially since anyone with google can see that it only cost about 800 brand new

Sparrow Guitar Co. :: customize


----------



## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

There was a thread here a month or so ago that said Sparrow has gone into receivershop


----------



## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

I feel bad for the seller if he paid that much for it. I think he might get $500 tops being lefty. If it was righty perhaps $400.

Then again, in this market - who knows?

Bottom line is: know what you want before you order a custom anything.


----------



## Rick31797 (Apr 20, 2007)

i did read also sparrow went into receiver-ship, i really didnt think the concept would work, bringing in off-shore guitars and upgrading them and adding the pin-stripping, i think they priced themselves out of the market.. Even at 800.00 new you can buy a Gretsch 5120 for that or less..
The couple sparrow guitars i tried where way too heavy.


----------



## Guest (Apr 28, 2012)

One of the music shops here, that's now out of business, was carrying Sparrow and my impression of them was they were wickedly overpriced when I played them. IIRC the Tele they had hanging on their wall during the going-out-of-business sale was >$1200.


----------



## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

Yes, the theory was good but practically speaking it's still 'just a guitar that has been upgraded and had the finish tweaked'.
If they could have sold them for a few hundred less then perhaps it would have gone a little better but in my experience the middle market is tough. $1200 is Gibson and Fender USA territory and if they were just a little under that people would go cheaper or they would save a bit more and get the Fender USA or Gibson.

I still think that it is too bad. Maybe it would have went better if it started 20 years ago.


----------



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

I picked up a couple of Rat Rods a few years ago,
for $700 and $750 with a Bigsby.

They were pretty well built, the pickups were meh.


----------



## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

Never heard of them. whats the quality like? It looks like a run of the mill fender knock off, but so do some Andersons and Suhrs, and they seem to command top dollar.
the market place is a funny thing. IMO a lot of Lado's (for another example ) are as good as most Anderson/Suhrs....but the resale is not comparable at all.
Seems resale value involves other intangible factors other than quality and playability.


----------



## mrfiftyfour (Jun 29, 2008)

Sparrow is no longer. If I remember correctly, all parts were made somewhere in Asia and then the guitars were assembled in Canada.
Definetly not worth the price they were asking and worth next to nothing second hand.


----------

