Supro Spectator Model 510. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch... 1954 - Two Tone

This little Supro would likely be of no interest whatsoever to the more "highbrow" collector type. You know the fellow. If you're packing a steamer trunk for a three-hour tour aboard the S.S. Minnow, then for heaven's sake, Thurston, just buy a yacht already.

Now that we've cleared the room, let's talk about this little brown-and-cream beauty.

People, amps like this represent somebody's first dance with electricity. Long before boutique builders were charging mortgage payments for five watts, Valco was building these little tone machines for kids, lap steel players, church socials, and every young dreamer who figured a guitar might improve his standing with the opposite sex.

And let us not pretend otherwise.

Somewhere around 1954, Little Jimmy is wandering through Sears and Roebuck with his mother. He's already discovered that six-shooters, cowboy hats, and riding a stick horse around the backyard aren't getting much traction with Sue Ann. Then he sees it. A guitar. An amplifier. The light bulb goes off.

Roy Rogers had a guitar.

Gene Autry had a guitar.

And somehow every pretty girl in America seemed to be standing near a fellow with one.

That's all the convincing Little Jimmy needed.

That's when Little Jimmy discovered that girls liked guitar players, and his parents discovered that earplugs were cheaper than therapy.

About this particular amp? Original transformers, original Rola speaker, and all the glorious little Valco personality you'd hope to find. It won't peel paint off the walls, but it'll deliver that rich, compressed single-ended tone that made these little Supros famous long after they were forgotten.

Condition? Like me, a little older, a little wiser, and still ready for action. Well, as long as I can be home by 9.

Tone? Think Champ territory without the Champ price tag.

And that's the funny thing about history. The amps nobody bragged about eventually became the amps everybody wants.

So if you're looking for a museum piece to impress your country club friends, keep moving.

But if you're looking for an honest little slice of American guitar history that still has plenty to say, well, partner, I believe you've found it.

Lastly, whatever became of Roebuck? Last I heard, Alvah Curtis Roebuck's family was last seen in Motul de San José selling helado. You can never tell, people, what might happen when you cross the proverbial line with those boys at Sears.

'Til next time pard'ner, back at the ranch... 🤠