Next in line was the cherry red Bermuda, minus the body bevels. Under the jet-black Martinique was the Coronado II, the same but without the under-bridge pickup. New in ’62 was the Arctic White Martinique, with a bevel around the edges of the body, two regular single-coil pickups and a transducer under the bridge. The first Supro guitars to be made of Res-O-Glas were shaped like Valco’s single-cutaway Ozark, with a cutout on the upper shoulder that set it apart from the Les Paul of its inspiration. Many featured fancy Kluson Butterfly tuners with large plastic buttons. While the necks remained magnesium-reinforced wood Kord-Kings, the headstock facing was, appropriately, often plastic. As part of the styling, Valco also introduced another popular feature at this time – the wide “Gumby” headstock. While these guitars appeared to be solidbodies, they were, of necessity, made of two pieces.
Valco called its fiberglass (or “fiberglas”) Res-O-Glas, described as being “Space Age Polyester Glass.” This new material was used initially on Valco’s Supro line. Because of the way it is fabricated, fiberglass resin can be colored before being applied for setting, eliminating the need for painting after the guitar is molded. The idea of making guitars out of fiberglass was Valco’s own, and the notion yielded some of the most colorful and interesting American guitars of the ’60s. In ’62, the year of fiberglass, the name was changed again to Valco Guitars. In ’42, the company changed its name to Valco Manufacturing Company, using the first initials of its three principals, Victor Smith, Al Frost, and Louis Dopyera. As the ’30s wound down, National-Dobro began to phase out resonator guitars in favor of more traditional acoustics and electrics. In ’36, National-Dobro began to relocate to Chicago, then the center of American guitarmaking. The Dobro All-Electric morphed into National-Dobro’s line of electric guitars and amps, which it called Supro. Electric guitars caught on, and National reluctantly got onboard in about ’35, after its merger with its own spin-off, Dobro, which in 1933 had introduced its All-Electric guitar. When Beauchamp came up with an electric guitar design, National wasn’t interested, so he left to start Ro-Pat-In (with Adolph Rickenbacker) and produced the first commercially viable electric guitars in 1931. traces its roots to Southern California in the 1920s, when it was known as National and introduced the first resonator guitars, designed by John Dopyera and Jim Beauchamp. Little did they know that in Chicago, the folks at Valco were getting ready to do the same thing, but with guitars! He’d lay the sheets of glass fiber in a mold and carefully brush on the resin to set it up. In 1961, it was a space-age material lightweight, easy to mold, and super strong, it could be used for just about anything.īack then, neighborhood kids who liked guitars would hang out and listen to The Ventures’ Another Smash!!! while someone’s dad built a boat made of fiberglass. Please contact for information.Fiberglass. *We also accept Cashier's Checks, Personal checks (have to clear) and Bank Transfers. We currently have Alamos, Audio Vox, Bronsons, Dickersons, Dobros, English, Epiphones, Fenders, Gibsons, Harmonys, Kays, Maestros, Magnatones, McKinney, Nationals, Oahus, Rickenbachers, Sho Bud, Silvertones, Supertones, Supros, Vegas, and White Lap Steels.* *Please see our other listings and store for many other Vintage Lap Steel Guitars and Amplifiers. These are versatile fun instruments to play. But it also handles clean well if that’s how you dial it in. It does overdrive readily and creates remarkable sustain. The consensus seems to define the pickup quality as “dirty”. Peter Green reversed the polarity in some for some of his early FM recordings. Ry Cooder used them in his Coodercasters. Ry Cooder, Peter Green, Jeff Healy, Jeff Lind, Rick Alexander, Jody Carver, Herb Remington, are some that come to mind. These p’ups put out a sound favored by many slide players.
(Valco/Supro/National are various evolutions/convolutions of the same company.) This pickup has such great qualities that some guitarists have swapped these for their regular solid bodied electric pickups. See Lollar pickups web site under Supro pickups. Jason Lollar was impressed enough by their sound & design he recreated a modern version of them. String through design with separate coils for bass and treble utilizing AlNiCo magnets. Supro/Valco/National pickups are legendary among the realm of guitar pickups. They have that much sought after unique growl. Valco made with their classic string through pickup. One of our favorite art-deco style models with a very hot pickup.
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