"One of the best basses for recording"

1964 Airline Supro Airline Pocket Bass

Here is a rarity, an original Airline Pocket Bass by Valco dating back to 1964 and weighing just 6.60 pounds. A short scale bass regarded by some as one of the best recording basses ever made. Symmetrical double cutaway 13 1/2 inch wide, 1 3/4 inch thick, hollowed-out poplar body. One-piece maple neck with a nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches, a short scale length of 24 3/4 inches and a medium to thick profile. Brazilian 'slab' rosewood fretboard with 20 original thin frets and inlaid pearl dot markers. Gumby' shaped headstock with cream see-thru plastic face and inset black plastic 'Airline' logo. Two-on-a-side individual [Kluson Deluxe] bass tuners with metal 'cloverleaf' buttons. Small metalic strip on back of headstock with serial number "1-10349" printed in black. Two white plastic pickguards with double black line borders with two screws and clear plastic thumb rests with two screws. One 'humbucker-style' pickup with no adjustable pole pieces in the neck position and one Piezzo 'element' pickup at the bridge, with outputs of 4.03k and 5.07k respectively. Two controls (one 'fader' volume, one tone) with white plastic ribbed-side conical-shape "Witch Hat" with metal tops. The potentiometers are stamped "304 6445" (Stackpole November 1964). Rosewood bridge on height-adjustable rosewood base, trapeze tailpiece with three horizontal lines, secured to body by two screws and the strap button. There is some finish checking on the body and a few areas where the original black paint has chipped-off. There is some finish-loss/playing wear on the treble-side of the back of the neck behind the 3rd, 5th & 7th frets. The headstock has two 'wings' the one on the bass-side has a very old and completely sound expert repair/strengthening - this is not a repaired headstock crack - just the re-glueing of one of the headstock side wings. The bass plays and sounds just as it should and is in excellent plus (8.75) condition. Housed in a later gig-bag.

The Airline Pocket Bass was built from 1962 to 1968 at the Valco shops in Chicago, Illinois, along with other Valco brands including National and Supro. Valco also branded their instruments for other companies, many of which were distributors or catalog retailers like Montgomery-Ward and Sears Roebuck. Valco amplifier production followed the same pattern but their customers included established builders like Harmony, Gretsch and Kay. Using a small double cut body and a rather short 24.75 inch scale length, the Airline Pocket bass used for the most part locally sourced woods like Poplar, Alder and Maple for the neck and body, but the fingerboard and bridge were at this point Brazilian Rosewood. Hardware includes Kluson Deluxe bass tuners and a trapeze tailpiece, and dual pickguards each with a thumb or finger rest. There are two pickups, a neck Humbucker and a bridge Piezo element. G E Smith, a well known guitarist who’s played for Hall and Oates and spent many years as the bandleader for Saturday Night Live, regards the Airline Pocket Bass as one of the best basses for recording.

These Airline basses have been reissued by the current copyright holder, Eastwood guitars, though they have made some changes including increasing the scale length to 26.5 inches – still quite short for a bass. In comparison, the Hofner Beatle Bass and the Gibson EB line are both 30 inch scale length; Fender Precision and Jazz basses are 34 inches.