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VALCO The National String Instrument Corporation was registered as a California based company by John Dopyera in 1926. Within three years Dopyera would resign from National leaving ownership and management to his partners and form the Dobro company. By 1935, Dopyera had returned in a merger that formed the National-Dobro Company. With a steadfast mission to amplify the volume of fretted instruments, the company’s early focus was production of acoustic resonator guitars, but by 1935 National marketed their first electric guitar under the brand name of Supro. After a move to Chicago in 1936 the company changed the brand name to Valco. Over the following years Valco would manufacture electric instruments and amplifiers for other companies as well as their own. Valco is credited with many innovative firsts in electric guitar manufacturing including the first double pickup guitar, a reinforced neck that dispensed with the neck heel, and a molded fiberglass resin body branded by Valco as Res-O-Glas. Pigmentation could be incorporated directly into the resin allowing the body to be molded and colored in one step. The Val-Pro models all shared the same body design roughly mirroring the map outline of the United States. By 1968 bankruptcy would dissolve Valco, though the National name would resurface in the 1970s in the form of inexpensive Asian imports sold to the American market. 1988 saw the reintroduction of National in the form of the California based National Resophonic Guitars.

VALCO, CHICAGO, 1964

A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, VAL-PRO NATIONAL, 88

Details

VALCO, CHICAGO, 1964
A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, VAL-PRO NATIONAL, 88
Bearing the logo National at the headstock and National Val Pro at the pickguard, serial number plate applied to the back of the headstock G 23708, with later hardshell case bearing a label inscribed NATIONAL BLACK #G23708 US MAP and SERIAL NO. DG1092; accompanied by facsimile copies of the original sales invoice from California Guitar to Mr. Dave Gilmour dated 27th September 1979, and the UK customs receipt, dated 1st December 1979
Body length 17 ¾ in. (45 cm.)

Special notice

Please note lots marked with a square will be moved to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn) on the last day of the sale. Lots are not available for collection at Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services until after the third business day following the sale. All lots will be stored free of charge for 30 days from the auction date at Christie’s Rockefeller Center or Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn). Operation hours for collection from either location are from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm, Monday-Friday. After 30 days from the auction date property may be moved at Christie’s discretion. Please contact Post-Sale Services to confirm the location of your property prior to collection. Lots may not be collected during the day of their move to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn). Please consult the Lot Collection Notice for collection information. Lots made of or including (regardless of the percentage) endangered and other protected species of wildlife are marked with the symbol ~ in the catalogue. This material includes, among other things, ivory, tortoiseshell, crocodile skin, rhinoceros horn, whalebone certain species of coral, and Brazilian rosewood. You should check the relevant customs laws and regulations before bidding on any lot containing wildlife material if you plan to import the lot into another country. Several countries refuse to allow you to import property containing these materials, and some other countries require a licence from the relevant regulatory agencies in the countries of exportation as well as importation. In some cases, the lot can only be shipped with an independent scientific confirmation of species and/or age, and you will need to obtain these at your own cost.

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Lot Essay

David Gilmour purchased this guitar from Frank Lucido’s California Guitar in Ventura, California, on 27th September 1979, during final recording and mixing sessions for Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall at Producers Workshop in Los Angeles. The guitar saw occasional studio use throughout the 1980s.

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