Gumby-head gurus... help me out here!

[Michael Ambrose]

So! Excitement!

I just got my meat hooks on my second Supro Pocket bass. LOVE these little basses. (I've got early-onset arthritis, so I can only really play shorties. Hah. What luck... a musician with arthritis at age 27.)

Though not a "first generation" Pocket, its still got some charm. My 1st gen is the one with the lucite thumb rests, the "passive piezo" bridge pickup, and the swiss cheese body.

The new little fella has got a solid body with a surface-mounted pickguard, a claw-style bridge beneath a bridge cover, and an archtop-style rosewood bridge.

Now... I've had my 1st gen pocket for YEARS now... and it wasn't until this day that I realized a difference in the headstock... on the first gen, the headstock comes to a point on the bass-side... while the new guy has the more recognizable Gumby hump above the treble-side...

First Generation Pocket (not mine... from another site)



New guy!!



There's another "new guy" on ebay right now... exact same model as mine (albeit a little cleaner) with a stickered-on serial number of "1-18496".

So... I suppose what I'm asking is two-fold...

First... whats the deal? Did I just completely miss the Valco changed their headstock configurations? Did Supro and Airline have two completely different headstock shapes??? Am I going insane???

Second... anyone got a model ID and/or possible year on this little fella? On a similar note, as you can see I'm missing the headstock emblem. Banana Guitars has repros, and I'd definitely like to pop one on there... soooo... help me out with a name brand ID, fellas... any suggestions? I've seen Pockets branded as Airline, Supro, and National... the holes are spread WAY too far apart for it to be a Supro (unless there are bigger logos than I've seen, or unless the logo was bigger than that of my first gen)... Maybe National? (Mike Robinson's got a First Gen Pocket on myrareguitars.com with a National emblem... Maybe??)

I can tell you this much... the "new guy" is clearly a much cheaper model... or, at least, its made more cheaply. I'd venture a guess that it was made as Valco was trying to cut some corners and save a few bucks... the German Carve is not nearly as pronounced as on the first generation Pocket, and much of the hardware is clearly cheaper... (Save for the tuners, of course... mmm mmm mmm, they may be obsolete, but there's just something sexy about the art deco design of Klusons!)

Okay fellas... better pictures coming soon... but in the meantime... help me out!!

[Michael Ambrose]

Here's a little update on the project...

I've got the bass completely disassembled, and here's what I've determined.

First off... I should have also mentioned that I sort of ahve a bit of a mid-60's Supro guide... in 2001 I got a Supro "Fiddle" from Ebay... the neck was SHOT, and someone had sprayed the entire thing with car rim re-chrome. Lovely. Though I tossed the neck, I kept the Klusons, the body, PG, and all of the electronics.... and I'm finding that a lot of the parts, like the "claw" tailpiece, are identical. Hell, even the Fiddle's pickguard almost fit on this! Almost!!

So. That red pickguard you see there. Not original. Actually, not even the original material. Someone crafted it from a thin piece of some sort of wood and rattle-canned it red. No worries there... I've got a big sheet of white-pearloid self-adhesive pickguard material like you'd use for a stick-on acoustic guitar pickguard. Guess what I'll be doing with that?

Next. I've determined that the pots in the New Pocket are the same as those in the Fiddle bass, and the tone cap is exactly the same in both harnesses. Both sets use Stackpole pots, but while the Fiddle dates to 65 and 66, the New Pocket dates to the 42nd week of 64 and the 10th week of 65.

There's a soldering mess in there... clean joints, dirty joints, remnants of old joints that once were but are no more (and were never cleaned up properly)...

So... I think its safe to assume that this bass went through final assembly in mid '65?

Man, I've REALLY got to start taking before-and-after shots!!!

[cheepaxes]

Michael,

I'm reading with interest but can't help you much, as I don't know anything about these instruments.

-Scott

[Michael Ambrose]

Haha, its all good, Scott...

Its funny... I take pride in my Valco nerdery and knowlege... but every now and again something sneaks up and conks my on the noggin... This headstock thing is seriously throwing me for a loop!! Seven, eight years I've been collecting and gigging on Valco gear and I only NOW notice the headstock difference!! Man oh man...

Anyhoo... Insomnia struck last night, and the non-original rattlecan red pickguard is now covered with a sheet of white pearloid... I've an e-mail into Banana about the length between mounting posts on their repro emblems... I've got the body cleaned and scrubbed down... polishing and buffing today... replacing a wonky insert in a few...

Ah, new guitars...

When its all put back together I'll have to shoot a picture of it standing beside its older brother hahaha...

One interesting little note... the "claw" tail appears to be made for both bass AND guitar use! Six string claws! Go figure!

[Michael Ambrose]

[Michael Ambrose]

[jeff mercer]

Hey, Micheal.

I seem to recall that Valco-made Gumby heads had the point on the treble side on "National" brand instruments, & on the bass side for Airlines etc. Why they did that I've no idea, but it does seem to hold true, so your Pocket Bass was most likely originally labelled as a National...

A "1" prefix on a Valco = early '65 to '68..prefix changed to "2" in mid '68.

Hope this is of some help to you..

Cute bass, mate

[Michael Ambrose]

Cute?? CUTE?!?!? Whaddaya mean, CUTE?!? hahaha...

I must seriously be losing it... must have been rocking too hard when I started getting into Valco pieces... I just don't know how I never noticed that Supro headstocks point one way and Airline/National headstocks point the other...

I must be losing it...

[VintAxe]

Hey Michael, just a quick note about the serial number on your bass. According to the Vintage Guitar Info Guy, the "1" prefix of your serial number indicates the bass was made between 1964 and early 1968. It seems like I've seen more detailed information concerning these foil sticker serial numbers but I can't remember where at the moment.

You probably already know about Valco serial numbers but others may not. Here's the link to the page for anyone interested:

[Michael Ambrose]

Thanks guys... Yeah, I've been using that site for years now... GREAT resource.

The thing is, there's no actual serial on THIS bass... but I found two identical models on Ebay (both, funny enough, missing the headstock emblem) with the same serial sticker... came across that 1- prefix sticker ALL the time when I worked in "the biz." But I'm not too concerned with finding the year at this point... like I said, I'm pretty satisfied with my pot code dating, putting it at sometime in 1965.

I would, however, be interested to find out some model information on this little guy... Think it'll appear in one of your National catalogs, Steve? I think I'll have to dig through hahaha...