Univox

Parent brand: 

product types: 

  • solid state amplifiers
  • EQ effects
  • delay effects
  • distortion effects
  • fuzz effects
  • octave and pitch effects
  • volume and expression effects
  • bass guitars
  • electric guitars

Information: 

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 brand 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.

1 Comment

Univox

One must not forget the Univox Super Fuzz and the Univox CD2 condenser microphone. I owned both of these devices for years. The Super Fuzz was an all our fuzz machine. If you turned the drive down, you didn't hear much difference until is finally cut out. It also had an alternate fuzz switch. I was using this box throughout the 70s and early 80s, and didn't have much use for the alternate fuzz tone. But, with the scoop sound being popular, today, that tone would be much more useful. Other than having to replace the switch, this unit lasted me from 1970 to 1994, when it was stolen. The CD2 microphone had a spectacular upper range tone with very little feedback problem, and was my main vocal mic from 1974 until it died in 1990. I wish I still owned both of these devices.