1965 Supro Martinique Val-Trol Resoglass Vintage Electric Guitar White, Valco

Up for sale, a 1965 Supro Martinique in excellent condition and in perfect working order. Not to be confused with the recent glut of reissues on the market, this genuine vintage USA-made Martinique is a top tier model produced by Valco in Chicago, and a flagship "Res-o-Glass" guitar finished in Ermine White. With its fiberglass body design, the Martinique features two absolutely stunning sounding Supro oversized single coil pickups and an additional hidden pickup located *inside* the compensated rosewood bridge. This third pickup is known by the "Val-Trol" designation, which was Supro's term for this unique piezo-style pickup. With volume and tone controls adjacent to each pickup, the Martinique is a rare and versatile tone machine, with a trio of distinct tones from the pickups that range from shimmering, acoustic-esque clean, to overwound single coil punch, to smooth, mellow jazz tones at the neck. With a mostly hollow fiberglass body, the instrument weighs in at only 8lbs 4oz. This guitar has been professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar with comfortable, low action and 10-46 strings.

The neck has a medium C shaped profile which grows in depth and shoulder as you move up the fretboard. The bound Brazilian rosewood fretboard sports block inlays and original fretwire which has been leveled and crowned in the guitar's lifetime. These slender frets have good meat and show only a touch of wear beneath the plain strings on frets 1-2. There is virtually no fretwear further up the fretboard, and the neck is particularly straight, playing cleanly in all registers with low action and no buzzing. The original bone nut is intact and on the headstock, measuring 1 5/8" in width and accounting for the zero fret, the scale length is 24 1/2". Also of note, the small, plastic "Supro" badge is near mint and uniformly aged with the oversized tulip buttons on the original Kluson Deluxe double line tuners.

On the body, all of the stock electronics work as they should, and the pair of single coils in oversized chrome humbucker-sized covers deliver full, well-rounded tones with a balanced EQ response and a bit of twang on the top end. Each pickup has its own volume and tone control, and the master volume and three-way pickup switch allow for more conventional, on the fly tonal tweaking as well. The solder joints are untouched, and the original Stackpole pots date to the 22nd week of 1965, consistent with the serial number sticker on the headstock. The Bigsby vibrato was a factory option for this model, but this particular Bigsby was a later add-on, as evidenced by the recessed hole for a different Supro vibrato tailpiece which was offered in the later years of the Martinique's brief production run. The tremolo spring cavity has been covered with a chrome plug and the vintage Bigsby works well for quick dives and warbles.

Cosmetically, the guitar is a particularly clean example, with a bridge and fretboard that are both notably dark and stripey cuts of Brazilian rosewood. There's some expected surface patina on the nickel hardware, particularly on the forward edge of the neck pickup and on the black silkscreening on that particular pickup cover, as well as some scuffing and checking on the fiberglass. The binding on the neck is original and heavily weathered, fully intact aside from one small patch along the bass side edge at fret 6.

This Supro is professionally setup, completely original, and well cared for over the past half century.