Tone Alone

Supro Island Series Guitars

- Chris Gill

GUITARS MADE BY the Valco company during the Fifties and Sixties (which include the Supro, National and Airline brand names, among several others) are often categorized as “pawn shop prizes.” But while the original models were designed to be more affordable than those of most of their competitors, they also had their own distinctive brand of innovation and funk going on, which made them much more than mere “budget” instruments. Lots of players picked up on the distinctive sounds of Supro guitars, including Link Wray (who recorded “Jack the Ripper” and several other delightfully distorted ditties with Supro guitars in the late Fifties and early Sixties), Jimi Hendrix (whose very first guitar was a Supro) and David Bowie (who performed with a Supro during latter-year tours).

The good folks who revived the awesome Supro amps are now doing the same thing with Supro guitars. The new Supro guitars are inspired by the originals, but instead of being exact reproductions they combine the irresistible visual appeal of the classics with timeless features and modern refinements to please today’s players. We took a look at the Hampton and Westbury models from Supro’s Island solidbody series, which are just one part of the exciting and welcome resurrection of Supro guitars.