Small with a Mighty-Funk... coupled with an Incredible Acoustic
Overtone!
The Valco-made Supro "King Kord" Pocket Bass is arguably one of
the coolest basses ever made. It has a big bottom with a huge,
warm, ringing, round tone and is ridiculously easy to play.
The Supro Pocket Bass was only produced in
black, with transparent thumb and finger rests
on each side of the body. A Rosewood fingerboard
and the trademark white headstock... features
Kluson Tuners. A Valco pick-up is in the neck
position. In the bridge position 2 magnetic rods
run from the top of the bridge to the bottom,
where 2 coils surround these magnetic rods.
The history behind these is more about economics than anything
else. They're nothing more than a guitar-sized bass. This model
is actually a Valco made guitar with a different neck and bridge.
As a production strategy, Valco used these dual-purpose bodies to
get more bang for fewer production bucks... Unfortunately, the
production-life of these "Little Beasts" only ran for fewer than
4 years.
Ex-Bob Dylan sideman, Saturday Night Live bandleader and vintage
guitar collector, G. E. Smith called the Pocket Bass "the BEST
recording bass around."