Friday 1 November 2013

1965 Supro Oahu short-scale guitar with DeArmond pickup

guitarz.blogspot.com:
With a scale length of 22" and a single DeArmond "Pancake" pickup, this Supro Oahu from 1965 currently listed on eBay could be quite a catch for someone. Stylistically you can see the resemblance to the Supro Pocket Bass, another short-scale instrument popular with collectors of the brand. It's a rare guitar from quite a collectable brand; the seller claims that the pickup and neck alone are worth $350. The Buy It Now price is $475.

The only thing that puzzles me is why the Supro legend is upside-down on the headstock.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

6 comments:

  1. As far as I can tell, it's an Ozark, not an Oahu. No idea about the headstock logo, but it doesn't look original. Maybe somebody strung it as a lefty and added the logo the "right" way up at some point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you're right. I Googled Ozark and found one exactly the same but no headstock logo. Looks like this was stuck on as part of a restoration. Maybe the S didn't fit well between the tuner spindles so they just put it on the other way.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe it was one of those Doh! moments. A replacement logo glued on without enough thought, step back to admire and...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Without wishing to devalue my previous theory, some lap steels have their logo on the "wrong way round" so that player sees it the right way. Maybe this was set up to play steel on the lap in a previous life and that made sense to put the logo that way round. When I looked for Supro Ozark on Google, as suggested by Simon, it seems that some didn't have headstock logos or had some kind of sticker or transfer. Those that did had badges set sideways. This was probably an afterthought, one way or another.

    ReplyDelete
  5. i would think that the name 'oahu' might point to a guitar with at least some kind of lap steel pedigree, as would the short scale. or maybe not....any opinions ?

    ReplyDelete