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Univox Amplifiers |
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Univox Amplifiers |
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Univox 1226 60w head (EL-34 4-input bright/normal), daily rental $30.
Univox 2x12 combo (12-watt tube OD. Very smooth and musical), daily rental $25.
Univox 2x12 combo U-80,daily rental $25.
Univox U45B 1x12 combo (single 12 12wt. Plug in, turn up), daily rental $25.
Univox U45B 1x12 combo, daily rental $25.
Probably the best place to begin the history of Univox is in the early 60's, with the company Unicord purchased the Amplifier Corporation of America (ACA) in Westbury, NY and marketed a series of tube amps under the name Univox. Before that Unicord was a manufacturer of electronic transformers.
Around 1975, Univox and Merson split, but Unicord kept marketing Univox equipment for a few years after that, until about 1978. These included the old guitars and new ones, like a copy of a Rickenbacker bass and a Fender Strat. Plus, new solid state and tube amps were offered. Also in 1975 Unicord switched all its production from Westbury, NY to Japan. Apparently employees were only given a single days noticed. After that only a small crew remained to test imported amps and ship them to retailers.
In 1971, Univox also had its full array of effects for sale. Plus, they began to offer synths and computerized effects. It was at this time that Univox began its association with Korg. As the compnay released more synths, rythm machines, keyboards and other electronic equipment the Korg name showed up more and more on the products.
In 1978 Unicord stoped making the Univox line of guitars and equipment. They switched to an original line called "Westbury", which lasted until aobut 1982. Westbury amps were also made during this time. Also in 1978 Unicord started selling the exact same amps under the Stage and Univox name. The only difference between the amps was the label and color scheme. Unicord was trying to phase out the Univox name in favor of Stage. these changes came about primarily because the Univox name was seen as being "cheap" not because of the lawsuits going on over copying. Part of the image of cheapness came from the fact that Univox's designs, though solid and reliable, were simply copies of other companies work. There were few original designs at this time from Univox and no new development was being done. Even Univox's solid state amp designs were almopst 10 years old.
Finally, in 1985 due to the recession, Unicord was purchased completely by Korg, pretty much ending the story there.
Some other info about Univox equipment:
| • | Univox guitars were built by the Matsumoko guitar factory in Japan, which were OEM suppliers to Aria, Westbury, Westone, Epiphone, Fender Japan and several other brands at the time. In 1988, a disastrous fire shut Matsumoko down for good, at which point, most of the other brands went to Korea's Samick Musical Instruments to continue production. Of course, Univox was already defunct. |
| • | The "Blue" series of amps were designed in America by Kenny and the late Tony Frank, the team of brothers who were in charge of service and amp mods for Unicord's OTHER amp line.....Marshall. |
| • | ALL of the early Univox keyboards were built by Crucianelli in Italy. |
| • | After the G & W takeover, the person who pulled out was Bernie Mersky (hence "MER-son"). The other owner, Ernie Briefel, remained as a consultant, and later went on to form Music Technologies, Inc., and later, Music Industries Corp. |
| • | For many years Unicord was the US importer of Marshall Amps and Korg synth/keyboards. |
| • | Unicord designed transformers were used in the imported Marshall amps, because the company didn't think the Marshall transformers could handle the full 100 watts from the 6550 tubes (British Marshalls at the time used KT-88s which were lower wattage). Marshall of England eventually adopted Unicord's transformer design. |
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