
These Supro resonator variations were terrible-sounding acoustic guitars, but with the addition of a pickup? Magic.
Thanks to a period DeArmond gold-foil, this resonator runs the voodoo down.
As a resonator guitar player and designer, I get giddy when an oddball resonator comes through the door. I've loved these old hub-cap guitars ever since I was a kid, which I mentioned in the history of resonators I wrote for Premier Guitar's June 2018 issue ("Resonator Guitars 101"). I've worked for Dobro, Sho-Bud, and Washburn (where I have signature models) over the years and had my own Owens brand at one time. So, of course I got excited about this 1964 Supro/Valco Res-O-Glass Folkstar with a period DeArmond gold-foil pickup. It has a hint of Airline, too, but more on that later.
Back in '64, when it was priced at $137.50 new, Supro advertised this 6-string as "the most powerful non-electric guitar of them all! The original self-amplified guitar." Of course, that's hyperbole, because that was without the crucial addition of the DeArmond, which may have been added by the guitar's original owner. More on that later, too.
This example was assembled at the Valco factory as a hybrid of Airline and Supro body parts. During a slight neck repair at Nashville Used and New Music, its original red neck was refinished black to match the body.
Meanwhile, you want some background on Valco? Well, that history of resonators story I mentioned has plenty. But what's important for understanding the roots of this month's guitar is that Louis Dopyera, one of the founding brothers of Dobro, was a co-founder of Valco. And the Dopyeras were innovators who saw the trend toward round-neck electric guitars pretty much when the first electric lap steels hit the market in the early 1930s. That same eye for the new put fiberglass on their radar in the 1950s, when it came into its own with Corvettes, surfboards, and other iconic pop-culture designs. One more essential piece of information: Valco specialized in making guitars and amps for other brands—most notably Harmony, Kay, Supro, and Airline—until it closed in 1968.
Vintage DeArmond gold-foil pickups like this were a popular modification for these guitars in the '60s. Plastic-screened soundholes were just another of Valco's cost-saving measures.
Now let's get back to our Valco-made Supro Folkstar. It has a thinline body with a single resonator cone under a distinctive cover plate—are those the tips of tridents or sideways Es?—and two small round soundholes with cream-colored plastic screen covers in the upper body. (On a Dobro, those screens would be metal.) That body, with its beveled, molded top providing a slightly arched look, is made of two pieces of the fiberglass material called Res-O-Glass, with a rubber binding seam in the center to attach both halves and inhibit internal rattling. The Kord King neck is described in the catalog as magnesium-reinforced wood. It has the classic "Gumby"-shaped headstock that's a Supro signature, and Kluson tuners with oversized butterfly-style buttons. Another advantage that the always-budget-aware Valco saw in Res-O-Glass—besides its light weight—was the ability to use colored resin, reducing the amount of finishing necessary. This Folkstar model came in two colors: red for the Supro model and black for the Airline model. The latter sold through Montgomery Ward stores and catalogs. As cool as Folkstars look, they don't sound good at all—at least as the acoustic instruments they were intended to be. Their tone is muted, with almost no sustain. That's why so many of these vintage axes have pickups installed.
The rubber binding seam in the middle of this model was used to attach both halves of the body and decrease internal rattling.
Here's something weird: While this guitar's body has the black finish of an Airline model, that's clearly a Supro logo on the headstock. Seems crazy, right? But one of my gigs at Dobro was working as the company's archivist, where I learned that it was not uncommon for them to use parts from one line on another, or for them to make a custom one-off. Gibson also did this back in the '40s, '50s, and '60s—or used leftover parts from one production era on a new generation of instruments. When this Supro/Airline hybrid arrived at our shop, the neck was actually red and had some slight damage. When it was repaired, we refinished it black—but given that it already had the pickup installed as a mod, that refinishing shouldn't influence its value, which we estimate at about $1,199.
While this instrument's black finish says Airline, the headstock's "Gumby" shape and logo scream Supro.
The DeArmond gold-foil is where the magic really happens with this guitar. And the truth about these old pickups is that no two seem to ever sound the same. But this one brings the instrument to life in a way that would please fans of North Mississippi hill country blues or Ry Cooder soundtracks. I hope whatever bluesman or blueswoman—or maybe even voodoo priestess—gave this guitar that pickup also got all the mojo he or she wanted out of it. And I think there's still plenty left for the next owner.
- Wizard of Odd: 1964 Supro Dual Tone - Premier Guitar ›
- Echoes from the Garage - Premier Guitar ›
- 24 Windy City Gems - Premier Guitar ›
- Resonator Guitars and Fender Amps - Premier Guitar ›
The country virtuoso closes out this season of Wong Notes with a fascinating, career-spanning interview.
We’ve saved one of the best for last: Brad Paisley.The celebrated shredder and seasoned fisherman joins host Cory Wong for one of this season’s most interesting episodes. Paisley talks his earliest guitar-playing influences, which came from his grandfather’s love of country music, and his first days in Nashville—as a student at Belmont University, studying the music industry.
The behind-the-curtain knowledge he picked up at Belmont made him a good match for industry suits trying to force bad contracts on him.
Wong and Paisley swap notes on fishing and a mutual love of Phish—Paisley envies the jam-band scene, which he thinks has more leeway in live contexts than country. And with a new signature Fender Telecaster hitting the market in a rare blue paisley finish, Paisley discusses his iconic namesake pattern—which some might describe as “hippie puke”—and its surprising origin with Elvis’ guitarist James Burton.
Plus, hear how Paisley assembled his rig over the years, the state of shredding on mainstream radio, when it might be good to hallucinogenic drugs in a set, and the only negative thing about country-music audiences.
Tom Bedell in the Relic Music acoustic room, holding a custom Seed to Song Parlor with a stunning ocean sinker redwood top and milagro Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
As head of Breedlove and Bedell Guitars, he’s championed sustainability and environmental causes—and he wants to tell you about it.
As the owner of the Breedlove and Bedell guitar companies, Tom Bedell has been a passionate advocate for sustainable practices in acoustic guitar manufacturing. Listening to him talk, it’s clear that the preservation of the Earth’s forests are just as important to Bedell as the sound of his guitars. You’ll know just how big of a statement that is if you’ve ever had the opportunity to spend time with one of his excellently crafted high-end acoustics, which are among the finest you’ll find. Over the course of his career, Bedell has championed the use of alternative tonewoods and traveled the world to get a firsthand look at his wood sources and their harvesting practices. When you buy a Bedell, you can rest assured that no clear-cut woods were used.
A born storyteller, Bedell doesn’t keep his passion to himself. On Friday, May 12, at New Jersey boutique guitar outpost Relic Music, Bedell shared some of the stories he’s collected during his life and travels as part of a three-city clinic trip. At Relic—and stops at Crossroads Guitar and Art in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, and Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center in Wheaton, Maryland—he discussed his guitars and what makes them so special, why sustainability is such an important cause, and how he’s putting it into practice.
Before his talk, we sat in Relic’s cozy, plush acoustic room, surrounded by a host of high-end instruments. We took a look at a few of the store’s house-spec’d Bedell parlors while we chatted.
“The story of this guitar is the story of the world,” Bedell explained to me, holding a Seed to Song Parlor. He painted a picture of a milagro tree growing on a hillside in northeastern Brazil some 500 years ago, deprived of water and growing in stressful conditions during its early life. That tree was eventually harvested, and in the 1950s, it was shipped to Spain by a company that specialized in church ornaments. They recognized this unique specimen and set it aside until it was imported to the U.S. and reached Oregon. Now, it makes the back and sides of this unique guitar.
A Bedell Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides.
As for the ocean sinker redwood top, “I’m gonna make up the story,” Bedell said, as he approximated the life cycle of the tree, which floated in the ocean, soaking up minerals for years and years, and washed ashore on northern Oregon’s Manzanita Beach. The two woods were paired and built into a small run of exquisitely outfitted guitars using the Bedell/Breedlove Sound Optimization process—in which the building team fine-tunes each instrument’s voice by hand-shaping individual braces to target resonant frequencies using acoustic analysis—and Bedell and his team fell in love.
Playing it while we spoke, I was smitten by this guitar’s warm, responsive tone and even articulation and attack across the fretboard; it strikes a perfect tonal balance between a tight low-end and bright top, with a wide dynamic range that made it sympathetic to anything I offered. And as I swapped guitars, whether picking up a Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides or one with an Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, the character and the elements of each instrument changed, but that perfect balance remained. Each of these acoustics—and of any Bedell I’ve had the pleasure to play—delivers their own experiential thumbprint.
Rosette and inlay detail on an Adirondack spruce top.
Ultimately, that’s what brought Bedell out to the East Coast on this short tour. “We have a totally different philosophy about how we approach guitar-building,” Bedell effused. “There are a lot of individuals who build maybe 12 guitars a year, who do some of the things that we do, but there’s nobody on a production level.” And he wants to spread that gospel.
“We want to reach people who really want something special,” he continued, pointing out that for the Bedell line, the company specifically wants to work with shops like Relic and the other stores he’s visited, “who have a clientele that says I want the best guitar I can possibly have, and they carry enough variety that we can give them that.”
A Fireside Parlor with a Western red cedar top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
A beautifully realized mashup of two iconic guitars.
Reader: Ward Powell
Hometown: Ontario, Canada
Guitar: ES-339 Junior
I’ve always liked unusual guitars. I think it started when I got my first guitar way back in 1976. I bought a '73 Telecaster Deluxe for $200 with money I saved from delivering newspapers.
I really got serious about playing in 1978, the same year the first Van Halen album was released. Eddie Van Halen was a huge influence on me, including how he built and modded guitars. Inspired by Eddie, I basically butchered that Tele. But keep in mind, there was once a time when every vintage guitar was just a used guitar—I still have that Tele, by the way.
I never lost that spirit of wanting guitars that were unique, and have built and modded a few dozen guitars since. When I started G.A.S.-ing simultaneously for a Les Paul Junior and a Casino, I came up with this concept. I found an Epiphone ES-339 locally at a great price. It already had upgraded CTS pots, Kluson tuners, and the frets had been PLEK’d. It even came with a hardshell case. It was cheap because it was a right-handed guitar that had been converted to left handed and all the controls had been moved to the opposite side, so it had five additional holes in the top.
Fortunately, I found a Duesenberg wraparound bridge that used the same post spacing as a Tune-o-matic. I used plug cutters to cut plugs out of baltic birch plywood to fill the 12 holes in the laminated top. I also reshaped the old-style Epiphone headstock. Then, I sanded off the original finish, taped the fretboard, and sprayed the finish using cans of nitro lacquer from Oxford Guitar Supply. Lots of wet sanding and buffing later, the finish was done.
I installed threaded insert bushings for the bridge, so it will never pull out. The pickup is a Mojotone Quiet Coil P-90 and I fabricated a shim from a DIY mold and tinted epoxy to raise the P-90 up closer to the strings. The shim also covers the original humbucker opening. I cut a pickguard out of a blank and heated it slightly to bend it to follow the curvature of the top.
All in all, I'm pretty happy how it turned out! It plays great and sounds even better. And I have something that is unique: an ES-339 Junior.
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