Supro Ozark Information

coastie99

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I wonder if there are any members of the forum with knowledge of Supro guitars who could answer some questions for me please. I have just bought a non-cutaway Supro Ozark, in mother-of-toiletseat finish, which I know was manufactured between 1952-55. The serial number is X41375. My questions are....... What year was this guitar manufactured ? The tailpiece looks original compared with photo's I have seen, but has "made in Japan" stamped on it. Is it original ? Does it have a Brazilian rosewood fretboard ? The wood is lovely and dark and chocolatey. Is the saddle ebony ? It's very dark, and very heavy. Did Supro fit a variety of tuner buttons ? The tuners look original and have black "oblong" buttons - photo's I've seen show white oval buttons. I bought this off a U.S. dealer on a whim. The damn' thing had such a "buy me" vibe !! You KNOW what I mean. I will have it set up for slide, and I just know it will sound RIGHTEOUS !! Any information, or a nudge in the right direction, would be hugely appreciated. Thank you, Gary.
 

coastie99

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I wonder if there are any members of the forum with knowledge of Supro guitars who could answer some questions for me please. I have just bought a non-cutaway Supro Ozark, in mother-of-toiletseat finish, which I know was manufactured between 1952-55. The serial number is X41375. My questions are....... What year was this guitar manufactured ? The tailpiece looks original compared with photo's I have seen, but has "made in Japan" stamped on it. Is it original ? Does it have a Brazilian rosewood fretboard ? The wood is lovely and dark and chocolatey. Is the saddle ebony ? It's very dark, and very heavy. Did Supro fit a variety of tuner buttons ? The tuners look original and have black "oblong" buttons - photo's I've seen show white oval buttons. I bought this off a U.S. dealer on a whim. The damn' thing had such a "buy me" vibe !! You KNOW what I mean. I will have it set up for slide, and I just know it will sound RIGHTEOUS !! Any information, or a nudge in the right direction, would be hugely appreciated. Thank you, Gary.
 

hansmoust

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coastie99 said:
I wonder if there are any members of the forum with knowledge of Supro guitars who could answer some questions for me please. I have just bought a non-cutaway Supro Ozark, in mother-of-toiletseat finish, which I know was manufactured between 1952-55. The serial number is X41375. My questions are....... What year was this guitar manufactured ? The tailpiece looks original compared with photo's I have seen, but has "made in Japan" stamped on it. Is it original ? Does it have a Brazilian rosewood fretboard ? The wood is lovely and dark and chocolatey. Is the saddle ebony ? It's very dark, and very heavy. Did Supro fit a variety of tuner buttons ? The tuners look original and have black "oblong" buttons - photo's I've seen show white oval buttons. I bought this off a U.S. dealer on a whim. The damn' thing had such a "buy me" vibe !! You KNOW what I mean. I will have it set up for slide, and I just know it will sound RIGHTEOUS !! Any information, or a nudge in the right direction, would be hugely appreciated. Thank you, Gary.

Hello Gary,

Well, I know a little about them since I had one for a while. I've seen a few slight variations over the years and those were basically in the headstock shape and the logo on the headstock. I believe mine was a '54 and I would think that with that serial number, it is probably a '54 as well.
I'm 100% sure that mine was stock, so if you have any different parts they might not be original. I wouldn't think a Made in Japan tailpiece would be on a guitar from this particular period.
Most guitars from this period had Brazilian rosewood boards and the bridge was rosewood as well. If you're not sure about the bridge I could post a close-up photo of the body, so you can identify the individual parts.

Anyway, here's a picture of the one I had:

SuproOzark.jpg


Hope this answers some of your questions.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
 

hansmoust

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coastie99 said:
I wonder if there are any members of the forum with knowledge of Supro guitars who could answer some questions for me please. I have just bought a non-cutaway Supro Ozark, in mother-of-toiletseat finish, which I know was manufactured between 1952-55. The serial number is X41375. My questions are....... What year was this guitar manufactured ? The tailpiece looks original compared with photo's I have seen, but has "made in Japan" stamped on it. Is it original ? Does it have a Brazilian rosewood fretboard ? The wood is lovely and dark and chocolatey. Is the saddle ebony ? It's very dark, and very heavy. Did Supro fit a variety of tuner buttons ? The tuners look original and have black "oblong" buttons - photo's I've seen show white oval buttons. I bought this off a U.S. dealer on a whim. The damn' thing had such a "buy me" vibe !! You KNOW what I mean. I will have it set up for slide, and I just know it will sound RIGHTEOUS !! Any information, or a nudge in the right direction, would be hugely appreciated. Thank you, Gary.

Hello Gary,

Well, I know a little about them since I had one for a while. I've seen a few slight variations over the years and those were basically in the headstock shape and the logo on the headstock. I believe mine was a '54 and I would think that with that serial number, it is probably a '54 as well.
I'm 100% sure that mine was stock, so if you have any different parts they might not be original. I wouldn't think a Made in Japan tailpiece would be on a guitar from this particular period.
Most guitars from this period had Brazilian rosewood boards and the bridge was rosewood as well. If you're not sure about the bridge I could post a close-up photo of the body, so you can identify the individual parts.

Anyway, here's a picture of the one I had:

SuproOzark.jpg


Hope this answers some of your questions.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
 

coastie99

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Hello there Hans, and a Happy New Year to you. Your information is much appreciated. The tailpiece on my Ozark is very similar, but different in small ways. The bridge is rosewood, but not the nice chocolately colour of the fingerboard. I'm not much worried about "authenticity", I was merely curious about a few details. The only "fault" with my Ozark is that the MOTS covering has lifted on both sides of the waist, and I imagine that would be fairly common since at those points the covering would be subject to stress. And we are talking 1954 here ! Kind regards, Gary.
 

coastie99

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Hello there Hans, and a Happy New Year to you. Your information is much appreciated. The tailpiece on my Ozark is very similar, but different in small ways. The bridge is rosewood, but not the nice chocolately colour of the fingerboard. I'm not much worried about "authenticity", I was merely curious about a few details. The only "fault" with my Ozark is that the MOTS covering has lifted on both sides of the waist, and I imagine that would be fairly common since at those points the covering would be subject to stress. And we are talking 1954 here ! Kind regards, Gary.
 

hansmoust

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coastie99 said:
The only "fault" with my Ozark is that the MOTS covering has lifted on both sides of the waist, and I imagine that would be fairly common since at those points the covering would be subject to stress.

Hello again Gary,

The lifting of the covering at the waist is common and I've seen it on the majority of guitars covered with this material. It's actually shrinkage (which would cause stress) of the material, which results in breakage on outside curves and lifting on inside curves. The same happens to bindings on older guitars, which usually are made of celluloid as well.

Oh and yes, it makes for a great slide guitar!

Hans Moust
 

hansmoust

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coastie99 said:
The only "fault" with my Ozark is that the MOTS covering has lifted on both sides of the waist, and I imagine that would be fairly common since at those points the covering would be subject to stress.

Hello again Gary,

The lifting of the covering at the waist is common and I've seen it on the majority of guitars covered with this material. It's actually shrinkage (which would cause stress) of the material, which results in breakage on outside curves and lifting on inside curves. The same happens to bindings on older guitars, which usually are made of celluloid as well.

Oh and yes, it makes for a great slide guitar!

Hans Moust
 

Walter Broes

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Very cool little guitar! I love Supros, and I have a '56 Dual Tone myself.

The white plastic "skin" around it has cracked in two spots on the sides too.
 

Walter Broes

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Very cool little guitar! I love Supros, and I have a '56 Dual Tone myself.

The white plastic "skin" around it has cracked in two spots on the sides too.
 
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Supro Gutiar # x262** +1953

I found one , not much about these on the net so i thought i would post this , I got it in ST.Louis mo. for $30.00 at a thrift store . :lol: qc
You can see that they cut the plastic on the pick guard case to fit the bridge because of the long tail , i'm not sure but i think this was done by the maker. the 51 & 52 have all the same stuff only the shorter tail is spaced differently.
[img:320:240]http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/828/ersmallerur9fx7.jpg[/img]
 

coastie99

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Q.

30 bucks !! Well done !

That guy on Craigslist probably wont realize $800, but the last one I watched on Ebay made $710.

Got mine off a Stateside dealer for $295. and I was darn' pleased to pay that !
In excellent condition, but with non-original tuner buttons, and (I think) non-original tailpiece.
Doesn't worry me, I wasn't concerned about "authenticity", and have changed the tuners anyway.

To post photo's, you need to use a host site. I use Photobucket.
It's free, and you simply move the desired photo's there from your album.
From there, copy and paste here.

Somewhere here, recently, Don explained it nice and simply to somebody else - darned if I can remember where though.

Don's out there; maybe he'll point the way.

Look forward to seeing your Ozark, and of course your Guild(s).
 

Jeff

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I use Sony Image Station to store photo's used here, it's cumbersome, I'd suggest photobucket or another.

Use the Img (image) function to tell the system where you want the photo to be.

Select the photo you wish to post, Copy the address (URL ?) of the photo from "Properties" & paste it next to the (img) . Spacing is critical.

Use the preview function to make sure it worked properly
 
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