New Supro basses

[Chris P.]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/summer-namm-2017-supro-shoots-for-the-low-end-with-huntington-bass-guitars

Short scale, set neck, piezo and one, two or three gold foils.

[uwe]

Looks a bit Ovation'esque.

[ilan]

I really like the sound of the single pickup model.

[Dave W]

$1000 to $1300 for an Indonesian bass? Nope, nope, nope. Not even if I liked the tone, which I don't.

The company has no connection to Valco, the original company. The owners of Pigtronix bought the name from a former Fender amp designer who supposedly owned the rights. They work hard to give the impression that these are US-made -- e.g. the Americana Series guitars, and calling themselves Supro USA -- while never saying where the products are actually made. That's misleading.

The original guitars had a certain charm to some people, but they were kitschy and cheap. Hard to see the new Supro as any kind of desirable brand.

At least when Evets brought back the Danelectro name, they never tried to represent the guitars as more than what they originally were.

[Chris P.]

I do not entirely agree, Dave.

Gold Foils, piezo and set neck make them a bit different. Not the umpteenth Fender clone. I think a country of origin and a price are two different things. If you see almost all Laklands are Asian and over 1,000 dollars, almost all Gretsches are Asian and the more expensive ones over 2,500 and even some 'cheap' ones around 1,000. Chinese Höfners are 650 euros. Those new Epiphones are going in that direction. More expensive Asian Höfners and Warwicks use the same pickups as the German ones...The Höfner Ignition/Icon and Contemporary and 300 versus 650 dollars. The second one is better made, better pickups, more original. So IMHO I can't day a bass out of a certain country has to have a certain price.


Danelectro makes Mosrite copies nowadays, which is strange

[Dave W]

You can buy an Indonesian made Fender acoustic with a set neck and a Fishman piezo for 1/3 the price of the Supros, or less. And Fender doesn't try to mislead about the country of origin. Indonesia is not Japan or Korea in terms of labor cost. If these were MIK with US-made pickups, the price would be reasonable. Those pickups aren't US-made, and as far as being "vintage correct," the originals were never highly thought of back in the day. This company is all about creating nostalgia for something that wasn't very good to begin with.

Then there's this: "Although its scale is short, the sound of the Huntington bass is astoundingly large—boasting a tight, confident, buttery low end, articulate midrange and crisp highs."    Wow, can they be any more cliched than that? What a load of hype.

[gearHed289]

Then there's this: "Although its scale is short, the sound of the Huntington bass is astoundingly large—boasting a tight, confident, buttery low end, articulate midrange and crisp highs."

That sounds like it's straight out of a Bass Player magazine "review". 

[Dave W]

That sounds like it's straight out of a Bass Player magazine "review". 

Good point. All that's missing is "sounds like a (insert brand name here) on steroids!" and "plays like buttah!"