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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1960; 64 years ago (1960) |
| Founder | Thomas Walter Jennings |
| Defunct | 1987; 37 years ago (1987) |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Global |
| Products | Electric and acoustic guitars Bass guitars Amplifiers Electronic keyboards Effects units |
| Parent | Korg |
| Website | VintageUnivox.com (archive site) |
Univox was a musical instrument brand of Unicord from the early 1960s, when they purchased the Amplifier Corporation of America of Westbury, New York, and began to market a line of guitar amplifiers. Univox also distributed guitarsbyMatsumoku, effects units by Shin-Ei Companion, and synthesizersbyCrumar and Korg.
In 1985, the Wickes Companies sold Unicord to Korg, and the Univox brand was phased out.
In 1964, Unicord (a manufacturer of electric transformers acquired by Gulf and Western Industries in 1959) purchased the Amplifier Corporation of America and began marketing a line of amplifiers under the name of Univox.
Univox-branded fretted instruments (electric and acoustic guitars and electric basses) began being imported from Japanese contract manufacturer Matsumoku in 1968,[citation needed] In 1978 Unicord phased out the Univox line of guitars and equipment. They switched to an original guitar line called "Westbury", and an amp line called Stage which lasted until about 1982. The Unicord Corporation was purchased by Korg in 1985, effectively ending the line.
Univox was best known for its copies of instruments from better-known companies such as Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Ampeg/Dan Armstrong, Epiphone and others. The Univox Hi-Flier was based loosely on the distinctive Mosrite "reverse swept" shape; it was popularized in the early 1990s by Kurt Cobain, almost two decades after original production had ceased.
The Univox name developed a market reputation as cheap because Unicord had copied amplifier designs from companies such as Shure and Electro-Voice instead of doing major original research and development. Univox used time-proven electronic circuits and quality components, but to avoid the negative market perception Unicord introduced the Stage brand; the only difference between the Univox and Stage equipment was the nameplate, attached prior to shipping.
Unicord was also the U.S. distributor for both Marshall amplifiers and Korg synthesizers.
The Marshalls used EL34 output tubes, but as they could barely reach the rated output wattage Unicord replaced them with KT88 tubes before shipping to U.S. vendors.
Unicord had begun as a manufacturer of electrical transformers. When the original Marshalls came to the U.S., Unicord's engineers were concerned that the output transformers could not reliably handle the full output. Unicord redesigned the output transformers and told Marshall to use the Unicord design in all units shipped to the U.S., and Marshall could use the design outside the U.S. if they wanted to. Marshall did adopt the Unicord design for all their tube amps.
Tony Frank, the design engineer at Unicord, created the dual-volume-control two-stage pre-amp that Marshall introduced with their 4140 and 2150 amplifiers, which allowed a "super-dirty" fuzz even at extremely low volumes.
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 B Group amplifiers, covered in two-toned blue or gray Tolex with distinctive ovaloid cosmetics.[1] The C-Group (UX) line of amps were used by The Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin.[2]
In 1962, Gulf and Western acquired Merson Musical Products, an importer of various headstock-brand guitars such as Tempo, Giannini and Hagström. Around 1968, they started producing Univox-branded guitars. Unicord and Merson split in 1975, but Unicord continued to make Univox guitars until about 1978, even adding some newer models.[3]
Univox had many effects units, generally made by Shin-Ei, but perhaps their most well known was the Super-Fuzz Pedal, used by Pete Townshend.[3] Univox also produced the Uni-Vibe, a chorus/vibrato that attempted to emulate a Leslie speaker effect, popularized by Jimi Hendrix.
