The Supro brand was developed after the merger of National and Dobro corporations into National Dobro corporation in late 1935. Supro instruments and amplifiers first showed up in catalogs in early 1936, due to a move from LA to Chicago in 1936, large-scale production and delivery of Supro electric Spanish style guitars, steel guitars, and amplifiers didn’t occur until 1937. Supro was to be the mid line, “Working Musician’s” brand of instruments and amplifiers to accompany the Dobro and National brands.

National Dobro sold to Victor Smith, Al Frost, and Louis Dopyera (VAL co) in 1942, and the name of the company officially became VALCO MANUFACTURING in late 1943. While the move insured wider distribution and production of Supro instruments and amplifiers, this was during WWII, and guitars and amplifiers were not essential to supporting the war effort.

Valco/Supro found itself sold again in the early 1960s, to CMI, the Chicago Musical Instrument company, and then again in 1967 to the company accountant (who also owned “Kay” musical instruments). The bankruptcy of Kay in 1968 meant the doors closing on Supro.

In 2004, Zinky Electronics began making Supro branded guitars and amplifiers. Bruce Zinky remembers, “The sound of a Supro amplifier cranked up has always been the gold standard of Rock ‘N Roll.” These new Supro® Amps are high-quality USA-made products that are built in the fine tradition of the professional Supro products of the 1950s & early 1960s. “Every classic Supro amplifier sounds good when you turn it up, except for the ones that sound fantastic.”

Current Supro® amplifiers sound fantastic at all volumes, sounding as good or better than the records that inspire people to play rock ‘n roll, without having to hire the crew, production and engineers that made those classic records.

Bruce Zinky and Supro Amps

Since 1983, Bruce Zinky has been developing custom tube amplifiers for discerning musicians. Two custom amplifiers built for guitarist Robbin Ford got the attention of Fender Musicial Instruments, who hired Zinky in August of 1992 to head the "Fender Amplifier Custom Shop" in Scottsdale, AZ. This involved designing and developing amplifiers to suit top tier guitarist and other professional musicians with amplifiers optimally suited for stage and studio use, but invoking the look of classic products from Fender's heyday with traditional tube construction with increased performance. From August 1992 to August 1996, Zinky designed or contributed a substantial amount to the Vibro-King, Tone-Master, Dual Professional, Pro-Jr, Concert / Super (1994), Rumble Bass, Custom Vibrolux, Custom Vibrosonic, Prosonic, and '46 Pro (A limited to 50 pieces meticulous reproduction of the 1946 Fender "Professional" Amplifier)

After Fender, Zinky resumed development of an amplifier he first produced while in high school - the Smokey Amp, a minature guitar amplifier built into an empy cigarette pack. Since resuming production in 1997, over 250,000 have been sold, making currently the single most popular model guitar amplifier. Smokey amplifiers have been used on records and live shows by artists including Korn, Olivia Newton-John, The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Deftones, Supultura, REM, The Offspring, Byzantine and countless others.

Zinky revived Supro (a 1960's trademark) guitars and amplifiers in 2004.