| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1940 |
| Founder | Victor Smith, Al Frost, and Louis Dopyera |
| Defunct | 1968; 57 years ago (1968) |
| Headquarters | |
| Products | Electric andacoustic guitars,amplifiers |
| Brands |
Valco was aUS manufacturer ofguitar amplifiers[2] from the 1940s through 1968.
Apart from its original products, Valco also commercialisedelectric andacoustic guitars andbasses through itssubsidiary companies.
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Valco was formed in 1940 by three business partners and former owners of theNational Dobro Company; Victor Smith, Al Frost, and Louis Dopyera. The company name was a combination of the three partner's first initials (V.A.L.) plus the common abbreviation for company (Co.)
Valco manufactured and soldelectric (since the 1950s),[3]resonator,[3]lap steel[3] andclassical[4] guitars andvacuum tubeamplifiers under a variety of brand names includingSupro,Airline,National and Oahu.[1] They also made amplifiers under contract for several other companies such asGretsch,Harmony, andKay.
Valco merged withKay Musical Instrument Company in 1967; however financial difficulties[5] forced the merged company to fold the following year.[6]
Since Valco's demise a number of manufacturers have issued copies or derivatives of Valco instrument and amplifier models.Eastwood Guitars produces a variety of reissue Airline guitars,[7] as well as at least one Supro model,[8] though all of the former semihollow Res-O-Glas models are now wood solidbodies.
Several of Valco's earlier amplifier models are recreated by Vintage47 Amps of Mesquite, Nevada, usingoctal preamp tubes, rather than the laterminiature noval preamp tubes.[9]
In late 2013, Absara Audio of Port Jefferson Station, New York announced that it had purchased the rights to the Supro trademark from Bruce Zinky.[10] Zinky used the Supro name for a series of amps beginning in 2005 from his company, Zinky Electronics. Absara debuted a series of new Supro amps at the 2014NAMM Show inAnaheim, California.[11] The new Supro amps are cosmetically reminiscent of their progenitors from the 1960s.
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