Univox

Univox is a defunct American musical instrument and amplifier manufacturer.

In the early 1960s the Unicord Corporation, a manufacturer of electronic transformers purchased the Amplifier Corporation of America of Westbury, New York. They began marketing a line of amplifiers under the name of Univox. The company was purchased by Gulf + Western in 1967. Guitar making operations moved to Japan in 1975 where they continued making guitars until 1982. Production under the Univox name was halted after a fire at the Matsumoku factory. After this time instruments were made in Korea under the name Westbury. The Unicord Corporation was purchased by Korg in 1985, effectively ending the line for good.

Univox was best known for making copies of instruments from better known companies such as Mosrite, Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Ampeg/Dan Armstrong, Epiphone and others. These copies are often referred to as "lawsuit" copies among collectors. The Univox Hi-Flier was largely based on the Mosrite "Ventures" guitar; it was popularized in the early 1990s by Kurt Cobain, almost two decades after original production had stopped.

Change from "Univox" brand to "Stage" brand

Per Frank Kosinsky, Unicord's Chief Engineer in the late 1970s, as told to Rick Reinckens, a short-term employee, the brand name developed a market reputation as "cheap" because Unicord copied designs from companies like Shure and Electro-Voice instead of doing major original research and development, in spite of Univox amplifiers and peripherals using time-proven electronic circuits and quality components. To combat this, Unicord developed the Stage brand. However, the only difference between Univox and Stage equipment was the nameplate, attached prior to shipping from Westbury.

Relationship to Marshall and Korg

Unicord was also the U.S. distributor for both Marshall amplifiers and Korg synthesizers. Unicord engineers designed Marshall's master volume control and redesigned the output transformer to handle greater output.

Univox Amps

A number of tube and solid state amplifiers were produced by Univox over the years. These ranged from small practice combo amps to powerful heads with separate cabinets. Some models had built-in spring reverb and tremolo effects. In 1971 Univox introduced the "U Group" amps, covered in blue or gray Tolex with distinctive ovalesque cosmetics [http://www.univox.org/amps/uniamp.html]

Univox Guitars

Around 1967, Unicord merged with Merson, a guitar importer which made various headstock-brand guitars such as Tempo, Giannini and Hagstrom. This new company was called "Merson Musical Products, A Division of Unicord Incorporated, A Gulf + Western Systems Company." Around 1968 they started producing the Univox guitars. In 1975 Unicord and Merson split. However, Unicord contined to make Univox guitars until around 1978, even adding some newer models. * [http://www.univox.org/ Univox.org]

Electric Guitars

*Badazz
*Coily
*Custom
*Deluxe
*Eagle
*Effie
*Gimme
*HR-2
*Hi-Flier
*Limited Edition Series
*Lucy
*Mother/Rhythm and Blues
*Pro
*Ripper
*UC-2
*UC-3
*Westbury Performer

Bass guitars

*Badazz
*Coily
*Hi-Flier
*Naked
*Precisely
*Professional
*Stereo
*UB-1
*'Lectra

Acoustic Guitars

*Auditorium
*Artist Series
*Dove
*'Grass

Univox Keyboards

*Univox Stringman (see [http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/pic/u/univ/stgman.jpglink] )

Univox Effects

Univox had many effects, but perhaps their most famous was the Super Fuzz Pedal. [http://www.univox.org] These pedals routinely fetch over $250 used now and are in scarce supply. They also produced the Univibe vibrato/Leslie speaker effect made famous by Jimi Hendrix.

External links

* [http://www.univox.org/ Univox.org]
* [http://www.matsumoku.org/arai_matsumoku.html "Lawsuit" copies discussion]
* [http://www.matsumoku.org/arai_matsumoku.html Matsumoku: Guitars Made in Japan]