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Every guitar has a story.

Supro

Ozark

Joe Perry calls it "kind of a beginner's guitar." It's his slide guitar in Aerosmith.

A cheap Chicago solidbody with one lap-steel pickup, the strings running right through the coil. Valco sold it under the Supro badge from the late 1950s. It's the one-pickup Ozark, not the two-pickup Dual Tone, and the Hendrix story attached to it has never settled.

Introduced
1958
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Closed run
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 1956–58

    A lap-steel pickup on a Spanish neck

    The string-through guitar appears, first as the Supro 60 by one account, then as the Ozark. The first year depends on who you ask.

  2. 1958

    The catalog

    Supro sells it on a "powerful Western-Unit" pickup for slide players.

  3. 1958–59

    Myers Music, Seattle

    Al Hendrix buys his son a guitar for $89. Whether it was this one, and which year, is still argued.

  4. Early 1960s

    Same name, new guitar

    The Ozark becomes a small-cutaway guitar with a different pickup. Valco's first fiberglass Supros copy its shape.

  5. 1968

    Valco closes

    Sold in 1964, takes on Kay in 1967, gone in 1968. So is the Ozark.

  6. 1989

    Monkey on My Back

    Joe Perry's Ozark on Aerosmith's Pump.

  7. 2019

    Hand-numbered

    Supro brings the name back as a limited run at $899, with a new pickup.

Side A

A1

A Western-Unit for Western stylists

Chicago, the late 1950s. Valco makes guitars under three names. National is the good one. Airline is what Montgomery Ward sells. Supro is the cheaper badge.

The Ozark is a cheap Supro with one idea. Valco already wound a pickup for its lap steels, the ones you play flat across your lap. Put that pickup on a guitar you could hold and fret, and a slide player gets the steel sound on a Spanish neck.

The 1958 catalog sold it as a "powerful Western-Unit" with "extra response that Western Stylists require." The strings ran right through the coil. Pickup, bridge, volume and tone all sat on one steel plate, and the body wore pinstripe lines.

A2

Off-white, or white

That's one version of the start. Others put the first Ozark in 1957, and one account says the same string-through guitar was sold in 1956 and '57 as the Supro 60 before the Ozark name came back on it in late 1957 or early 1958. Came back, because there may have been an earlier small Ozark in the early '50s, with its pickup at the neck. Dealers sell all of these as Ozarks, and they're not wrong, exactly.

Measure a few and they won't agree either. One 1958 came out at 23¾ inches of scale. A 1965 came out at 25. A vintage ad promised an "extra slim" neck. Joe Perry says his is fat, and he doubts there's a truss rod in it. On one 1965, the truss rod doesn't adjust.

By the early 1960s the Ozark was a different guitar: a small cutaway on the upper bout, a different pickup at the bridge, the action lowered. Valco's first fiberglass Supros, in 1962, were shaped like it. Then Valco was sold in 1964, took on Kay in 1967, and closed in 1968. That was the end of the old Ozark.

A3

Myers Music, Seattle

This is the story everybody comes for, and it's the one nobody can finish.

The usual version: in 1959, Al Hendrix bought his son Jimi his first electric guitar at Myers Music in Seattle. A white Supro Ozark, $89. Jimi played it with the Rocking Kings, and then it was stolen.

Every piece of that has a second version. The guitar is a '57 or a '58. Off-white or white. Bought in 1958 or in 1959. Stolen off the bandstand at the Birdland, or after he left it backstage overnight. One book says the Myers purchase was actually his second electric, a Danelectro.

And Jimi himself:

"My first was a Danelectro, which my dad bought for me."

So the Ozark was Jimi Hendrix's first electric, or it wasn't. The legend says one thing and Jimi's own sentence says another, and both are still on the table. The stolen guitar has never been identified.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • $89

    What the Hendrix accounts say his Ozark cost in 1959

  • 1

    Pickup, borrowed from Valco's lap steels

  • 23¾–25"

    Scale lengths measured on old Ozarks. They don't agree.

  • $899

    The 2019 limited reissue

Side B

B1

A beginner's guitar

The player who has actually put an Ozark on a record is Joe Perry.

He uses an Ozark 1560S with Aerosmith. He has an old one and a reissue. His song for it is "Monkey on My Back," from Pump in 1989: the riff, and the live version. Action raised for slide, a flat neck, that horseshoe pickup.

He's honest about what it is. "Kind of a beginner's guitar," he calls it. Fat neck. Probably no truss rod.

He's just as clear about what it isn't. "Rag Doll" was a 1939 Rickenbacker lap steel. His first slide guitar was a Danelectro he bought at 18 or 19.

Ry Cooder and David Lindley come up whenever the Ozark does, and the old lap-steel pickup is on Cooder's records. But Perry is the one who has named a song and tied it to this guitar.

B2

Back for one run

In July 2019 Supro brought the name back as a hand-numbered limited run: mahogany body, a black satin neck, a signed certificate, a gig bag, $899. The steel plate came back with a string-through hardtail on it, so each string could be intonated. The old coil didn't come back. The new one is a Lace.

Supro never said how many it numbered. One dealer had number 146. They're gone now, and no current Supro carries the name.

The Ozark wore the cheap badge and borrowed its pickup from another instrument. Joe Perry knows all that. He calls it a beginner's guitar, and it's the one he takes on stage for slide.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. Aerosmith · 1989

    Monkey on My Back

    Joe Perry names this as his Ozark song, action raised for slide, horseshoe pickup. Listen to the riff, and the live versions too.

    Find it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1989

    Joe Perry

    An old Ozark 1560S, and a reissue

    Uses it as his slide guitar with Aerosmith. Played "Monkey on My Back" on it. "Rag Doll" was a lap steel, not this.

  • 1958–59

    Jimi Hendrix

    A white Ozark, by most accounts his first electric

    Bought by his father at Myers Music in Seattle, played with the Rocking Kings, then stolen. He himself said his first was a Danelectro.

  • 1958–59

    Al Hendrix

    Buyer

    Paid $89, by the accounts that give a price.

  • Louis Dopyera

    Valco, co-founder

    With Victor Smith and Al Frost, ran the Chicago company that made Supro, National, and Airline guitars.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

One string-through pickup off a lap steel, on a neck you could raise for a slide — the cheap Supro the Hendrix story still will not settle.

Body
Solid, one pickup, pinstripe line art on the late-1950s guitar (Supro, via Premier Guitar, 8 July 2019). Species is not one factory figure. Chicago Music Exchange measured one 1965 Ozark as solid maple, 5 lbs.
Neck
Kord-King. A vintage Supro ad, quoted on a Reverb listing of a 1560S: “extra slim.” Joe Perry, to Guitar.com: a fat neck, and he doubts a truss rod. Chicago Music Exchange on that 1965 guitar: the truss rod is not adjustable.
Fingerboard
No single factory spec. Chicago Music Exchange’s 1965: unbound Brazilian rosewood, dot inlays, 12" radius. Deep 7 Vintage’s 1961 Fire Bronze listing: rosewood.
Scale
Supro’s 2019 announcement: the original is 25". That release’s feature list, and MusicRadar, print 24.75" for the reissue they call accurate to the old guitar. A Reverb seller measured one 1958 at 23 3/4". A 1962 Fire Bronze listing prints 24 3/4". Chicago Music Exchange measured one 1965 at 25".
Pickups
One. The 1958 catalog, as Supro quoted it in 2019: a “powerful Western-Unit,” strings through the coil. Premier Guitar calls it a humbucking lap-steel pickup.
Hardware
Steel plate carrying pickup, bridge, and controls (Supro, via Premier Guitar). The vintage ad names Butterfly keys and a glossy black Plexiglas guard.
Electronics
Volume and tone on that plate. The 1958 catalog line Supro quoted is about the pickup, not a selector.
Finish
Off-white or white in the Hendrix accounts (Vintage Guitar: off-white; Guitar World: white), with the pinstripes. Later Ozarks turn up Fire Bronze and red.
Nut
No factory figure. Deep 7’s 1961 listing prints 1.64" in the text and 1.65" in the table. Chicago Music Exchange’s 1965: 1-3/4".
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

The specs above are the late-1950s Ozark with the Western-Unit — 1560S in the Hendrix accounts — not a guitar Supro sells now. No current model carries the name. The early-1960s cutaway Ozark is a different body. The 2019 limited run is closed. Scales above are in the inches each source printed.

Construction

The job was a Spanish guitar for players who used a slide. Chicago, Valco: Victor Smith, Al Frost, and Louis Dopyera (Vintage Guitar, Michael Wright). Supro was the cheaper badge. National sat above it. Airline was Montgomery Ward’s name on other Valco guitars. The Ozark took a pickup the company already wound for lap steels and put it on a neck you could fret.

Supro’s announcement of 8 July 2019, printed that day by Premier Guitar, quotes the 1958 catalog: a “powerful Western-Unit” with “extra response that Western Stylists require.” Strings ran through the coil. Pickup, bridge, volume, and tone sat on one steel plate. That is the late-1950s guitar the announcement describes. Other accounts call it the 1560S.

The first year is not that sentence. Vintage Guitar’s Michael Dregni retells a legend of an off-white 1957 Model 1560S. Guitar World’s Richard Bienstock, the week of the reissue, retells a white 1958 1560S. The Jimi Hendrix site, archived 25 January 1998, says the Ozark was first produced in 1957. A comment on The Unique Guitar Blog (mretrain, 23 November 2022) says the lap-steel-pickup guitar was the Supro 60 in 1956 and through 1957, stencil and pinstripes aside, and that the Ozark name returned in late 1957 or early 1958. The same note says an earlier small Ozark, non-cutaway, one pickup at the neck, probably dates to 1952 or 1953, and that the blog’s own “1952” photograph is a 1958. Southside Guitars sells the 1957 string-through guitar as a Supro 60 Ozark. The introduction year follows the 1958 catalog Supro quoted. The Supro 60, and that earlier small guitar, are the other accounts of when it started.

By the early 1960s the name was on another instrument. The Unique Guitar Blog (27 May 2019), pointing at a Chicago Music Exchange Ozark: one Melody-unit pickup at the bridge, the action lowered, a small cutaway on the upper bout, “essentially a Belmont with a different body shape.” Wright: the first Res-O-Glas Supros, in 1962, were shaped like that single-cutaway Ozark. The Kingston is the one-pickup Res-O-Glas slab. The Belmont went to Res-O-Glas in 1963. Those are other models. The Dual Tone is Supro’s two-pickup guitar, wood and then fiberglass. It is not an Ozark.

Michael Dregni, on the Island Series in Vintage Guitar’s May 2017 issue, says the Jamesport, Westbury, and Hampton are modeled on the ’62 Ozark and are not reissues. He credits “the original Ozarks” with Ralph Keller single-coils. That is the ’62 guitar in front of him. It is not the Western-Unit Supro described in the 2019 announcement. The Hampton he reviewed: alder, set maple neck, rosewood board, 12" radius, 25.5" scale, gold-foil pickups wound with Ken Calvet, built in Indonesia, list $1,099.

Chicago Music Exchange’s sheet for one red 1965 Ozark, serial I15157: solid maple, maple neck, Brazilian rosewood, 25" scale, 1-3/4" nut, 12" radius, 5 lbs, truss rod not adjustable, pot codes from 1965, pickup reading 17.22 kΩ. One guitar. A 1962 Fire Bronze listing prints 24 3/4". Deep 7 Vintage’s 1961 Fire Bronze is filed as a bolt-on. Supro’s 2019 text describes a neck glued at the 14th fret as the old geometry. The joint is not one published fact.

Wright: Valco sold to accountant Robert Engelhardt in 1964, took on Kay in 1967, and closed in 1968. The 1965 guitar above is still that company’s Ozark. No Ozark from the closed factory, after 1968, has been published.

The name came back once, as a limited guitar, not a model you can order. On 8 July 2019 Supro announced a hand-numbered Ozark, signed certificate, gig bag, $899. Mahogany. Maple neck in black satin, glued at the 14th fret. Pau ferro, dots. The new piece is the bridge: a string-through-body hardtail on the steel plate, so each string intonates. The pickup is not the old coil. The release’s prose says Lace Aluma 90; the feature list says Lace Alumitone. Musician’s Friend: 20 frets, gloss mahogany, and the guitar unavailable. Bax Music: discontinued, and that page prints both 25 inches and 635 mm. Supro has not published how many were numbered. Vintage & Modern Guitars listed batch 1, number 146, on 18 September 2019. One guitar’s number, not a factory total. A Godin Multiac in a finish called Ozark Cream is another company’s guitar.

Players

Joe Perry is the player who has named the guitar on a record. Premier Guitar, Tzvi Gluckin, 21 March 2018: with Aerosmith he usually uses a Supro Ozark 1560S; he has an old one and a reissue; “Monkey on My Back,” from Pump (1989), is the song he points to. That 2018 “reissue” is earlier than Supro’s 2019 run. He did not name who built it. Guitar.com’s interview (the page is dated 28 March 2004 and also calls itself a 2014 archive): the Ozark is the slide guitar, “kind of a beginner’s guitar,” a fat neck, and he doubts a truss rod; a horseshoe pickup and a flat neck, action raised, the riff and the live version of “Monkey on My Back.” “Rag Doll,” he told Gluckin, was a 1939 Rickenbacker lap steel, not this guitar. His first slide guitar was a Danelectro he bought at 18 or 19.

Jimi Hendrix is why the name travels, and the sources do not agree whose guitar it was. Supro’s 2019 announcement: his first electric, bought about 1959 at Myers Music in Seattle by his father, Al. Dregni calls that a legend: an off-white ’57 Model 1560S, 1959, Myers Music, $89. Bienstock’s legend is a white 1958 1560S, Myers, 1959, and no price. Ground Guitar, citing Michael Heatley and Harry Shapiro, Jimi Hendrix Gear (Voyageur Press, 2009): a Supro, his father, Myers Music Shop, Seattle, 1959, $89. The same page says Steven Roby and Brad Schreiber, Becoming Jimi Hendrix (Da Capo, 2010), put that Myers purchase on the second electric, a Danelectro. Hendrix, in Starting at Zero (Bloomsbury, 2013), as Ground Guitar quotes him: “My first was a Danelectro, which my dad bought for me.”

The archived Hendrix site (25 January 1998) tells it as an Ozark from Myers Music at 1206 1st Street, Seattle, in 1959, retailed at $89, then stolen off the bandstand at the Birdland. Ground Guitar: widely believed with the Rocking Kings around 1959, and reportedly stolen from that Birdland bandstand in 1960. Wikipedia, citing Charles R. Cross, Room Full of Mirrors (2005), page 67: a white Ozark from his father at Myers in 1958, the Rocking Kings, stolen after he left it backstage overnight. Purchase year 1958 or 1959, guitar year ’57 or ’58, and a Danelectro in his own sentence. The stolen guitar has not been identified since.

Premier’s text of the 2019 release puts the old pickup, borrowed from 1940s lap steels, on records by Aerosmith, Jackson Browne, and Ry Cooder, and names David Lindley, Jason Isbell, and Blake Mills as players of that pickup. Chicago Music Exchange’s Supro paragraph says the Ozark was made famous by Ry Cooder and David Lindley. The release is about the pickup. The shop line is about the guitar. Perry is the one who has tied “Monkey on My Back” to an Ozark.

Rarity

Valco never published an Ozark total. The company was gone after 1968 (Wright). What is left is two guitars under one name: the late-1950s string-through Western-Unit, and the early-1960s cutaway with a Melody unit or a Keller single-coil. A Supro 60 with the same pickup is the name mretrain splits off the first of those. Dealers still list all of them as Ozarks.

The 2019 run is hand-numbered and closed. Supro did not print the count. Number 146 is one dealer’s guitar, not a census. The Island Series copies the ’62 shape and is a different model. Hendrix’s own Ozark, if the theft accounts hold, is one missing guitar. It is not a price for the rest.

Value

Informal estimate, 28 October 2026. Not an appraisal.

Prices below are asking prices unless marked otherwise. No celebrity Ozark sale turned up. The $89 figure is 1959 money in the Hendrix accounts (Dregni; Heatley and Shapiro, via Ground Guitar; the 1998 Hendrix site calls it the retail), not a 2026 hammer. The 2019 announcement price was $899. Vintage Guitar’s Hampton list of $1,099 is the 2017 Island guitar, not an Ozark.

New street. Supro does not sell an Ozark. Musician’s Friend: unavailable. Bax Music: discontinued. Chicago Music Exchange’s 1261AW page: sold out. A new Reverb ask from The Guitar Store in Wijhe showed $1,052.31, marked down from $1,315.39, under a sale line that ended 26 February 2026. Leftover stock, if the ask was still live, is not a factory price.

Used modern. Music Go Round, Greenfield, asked $849.99 for a used 1261AW; that page was sold out. The Aurora shop asked $749.99 for one it described as number 18. Reverb’s UK price-guide page for the 1261AW did not print a used range.

Vintage / collectible. Named asks, not sold medians. Deep 7 Vintage, a 1961 Fire Bronze: $1,600. Southside Guitars, a 1957 Supro 60 Ozark in white: $1,750. A Western-Unit 1560S and a 1965 cutaway maple Ozark are not the same sale. No clean public median separates them.

See also

  • Dual Tone — Supro’s two-pickup Valco solidbody; not this one-pickup guitar
  • Multiac — Godin’s Ozark Cream is a finish on a chambered nylon guitar, another maker
  • 59 — a lipstick solidbody; not an Ozark, and not the Danelectro in Hendrix’s sentence

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.