Supro

The Supro Val-Trol is a vintage, early 1960's electric guitar. There are a few different models of the Val-Trol, but this review is for the two pick up model. I don't know where this was made or from what types of materials exactly, but the body does feel like some sort of plastic or plexiglass. The guitar has two humbucker kind of pick up and a Bigsby whammy bar as well. UTILIZATION Using the Supro Val-Trol isn't hard, but it does give you a lot of control so it will take at least a little bit of getting used to. There's a three way pick up selector for choosing between them, but it also has a number of knobs for further blending the pick ups, which really adds to the possibilities. The feel of the neck makes it easy to play as the action is low and getting a nice sound isn't hard, depending of course on what type of sound you're going for. SOUNDS The best characteristic of the Supro Val-Trol is it's ability to get many different sounds. It just has the two pick ups, but you get so many different knobs to mess with that it's possible to get a good amount of differing tones. It's good for both lead and rhythm guitar parts, as it's definitely versatile enough to handle whatever you through at it. It's got it's own sound as I wouldn't liken it to another type of popular guitar really, but it's also one that would certainly be considered vintage... OVERALL OPINION The Supro Val-Trol isn't the most well known vintage guitar out there at all, but for those who do know it, it's somewhat of a treasure. There are some out there to be found, but it's hard to classify them since they're so old now. It doesn't seem to me like the type of guitar you'd seek after, but if you came across one at a good price it would be hard to say know. The Supro Val-Trol is definitely a guitar to be aware of and try out if you ever get lucky enough...

The Supro Model 50 is a vintage guitar amplifier that is super compact and small. It's probably best suited as a practice amplifier, but sounds good enough where it also works great for recording. The amp only delivers 6 watts of power with a single power tube and also only has a single "10 speaker inside of it. I don't know what year the one I've used is from, but it's definitely a couple of decades old at least. UTILIZATION There's nothing really at all that you need to know prior to using the Supro Model 50, even if you aren't all that experienced with guitar amplifiers. The only parameters that the amp has to work with are for tone and volume, which should be self explanatory (if there aren't you might want to try doing something else with your time). A manual won't be necessary nor readily available for the Supro Model 50. SOUNDS For such a little amp, the Supro Model 50 has a pretty big sound. It's not going to knock your socks off, but there is certainly some get up with this little guy. It doesn't have much versatility, but the sound that is possible is warm, full and quite clean. If you turn the amp up all the way or approaching all the way, you'll get just a little bit of overdrive from the tube. I've used the amp for recording only with a Fender Telecaster, Stratocaster, and Les Paul guitar. We used this amp for some clean/slightly overdriven rhythm guitar parts on a recent recording session that I played on and engineered. OVERALL OPINION While at this point pretty rare, if you can find the Supro Model 50 it's a great little amp. Again, I'm not sure exactly when the one I used was made, but it's got a really vintage look and sound to it and is definitely pretty old. I don't know too much about the brand Supro either, so I don't have much to compare it to in terms of their other amplifiers. I do know that the Model 50 is a must try for those who come across it...