People spend STOOOPID money on vintage Fender tweed amps, but tonight I’d like to raise a glass for the mighty Supro Thunderbolt. These fine Valco-made amps still sell in the $1000 range, and they’ll do everything you want a vintage tube amp to do, except impress the snobbiest vintage amp collectors.
It’s just the simplest circuit: two 12AX7s, two 6L6s, one fifteen-inch Jensen. It does one thing well: LOUD and DISTORTED. It’s simplicity is its genius, sort of like the Tweed Champ or the earliest Marshalls. I’ve read that Jimmy Page used one of these on the first Led Zeppelin album, but I’ve also read that it was a smaller Supro amp that he used. Same difference; all these old Supro amps did one thing: RAWK.
Inspired by Link Wray, I found this one for $100 when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, and have never done a thing with it except use it and change the tubes every fifteen years. It still has the two-prong electrical cord. I turn it on, plug it in, and just rock. Loud as hell. Annoyingly loud. That’s why it’s perfect for my Link Wray tribute band.
I would worry that this post might inspire others to pick these up when they see them, and that the price might start to creep up in the vintage market, but that’s okay. I have mine. Best hundred dollars I ever spent.
See more photos and a video at Deke’s original Facebook post!
