THE UNIQUE GUITAR BLOG Univox Guitars. The Unicord Corporation manufactured electronic transformers. In the early 1. 96. Unicord acquired a Westbury, New York firm called Amplifier Corporation of America. Unicord began production of the Univox amplifiers shortly thereafter. About the same time frame that CBS acquired Fender Guitars and Amplifiers, Gulf and Western purchased Unicord and were now in the profitable guitar business. Event Tracing For Windows Viewer Help there. The year was 1. 96. Ok i have a Westbury standard with the first digit of the serial number is a 4 now according to what Ive seen the first number is the last digit of the year it was. We carry a full line of Fender Electric Guitars including. Serial Number. Add to Cart Quick. The Westbury guitar and its relatives in the Island Series. By 1. 96. 8 Gulf and Western added guitars to their the product line. Patch My Tomtom Systems here. This was accomplished due to a merger with a Westbury New York company called Merson Musical Products. Merson was a guitar importer and distributor. They distributed Hagstrom guitars from Sweden, Giannini guitars from Brazil and a cheap brand of acoustic guitar called Tempo. Unicord and Merson parted ways in 1. Japan at the Matsumoku factory. I have previously discussed the Matsumoku companys importance in the world of imported guitars. Matsumoku was a furniture company started around 1. In the 1. 92. 0s they built sewing cabinets for Singer Sewing machine and later built affordable guitars under different labels for export. Unicord continued using the Univox name on guitars until sometime in 1. In 1. 98. 2 production in Japan ceased when a fire occurred at the main factory. The manufacturing responsibility shifted to Korea. The Korean instruments were sold under the Westbury name until the Unicord Company was acquired by the Japanese firm the Korg Company in 1. Many Univox guitars were copies of American made instruments such as Fender, Gibson, Ampeg the Lucite Dan Armstrong model, Guild, Rickenbacker and Mosrite. The most famous of Univox guitars was probably the Mosrite look a like known as the Hi Flier. It is a shame that Mr. Mosleys instrument was chosen and he received only a nod of recognition. Westbury Electric GuitarSemie Mosley was an outstanding luthier and guitar designer, but he was not a good businessman. Subsequently he was taken advantage of and did not have money to hire attorneys to sue for patent infringement. The Hi Flier was a copy of the Mosrite Ventures model and appeared around 1. Like the original it had 2. The neck was bolt on style, which differed from the original. The first models feature a white truss rod cover. The later ones looked more like the real thing. The initial models of the Hi Flier came with two P 9. This guitar went through modifications through the years, such as the addition of humbucking pickups and a change in the headstock logo. Univox also manufactured a short neck bass model. In 1. 96. 9 similar Mosrite guitars were selling for 4. The Hi Flier sold for only 8. This was a big difference, especially to a kid starting out in a band. UnicordUnivox was also known for their amplifiers which were built with tubes or solid state or even hybrid tubesolidstate. These amplifiers ranged from practice amps to 1. These were not inferior amps, however due to Unicords lack of research and developement and reliance on copying other companys amplifier designs, Univox amps developed a bad reputation. The company attempted to mend this by adding a new brand called Stage. Whether the product was labeled Stage or Univox the only difference was the logo. Univox also manufactured guitar effects, drum machines and imported electronic keyboards from accordion manufacturer Crucianelli of Italy. There are a couple of interesting facts resulted from the sale of Unicord to Korg. Merson founder, Bernie Mersky quit after the Gulf and Western takeover. His partner, Ernie Briefel went on to form Music Technologies, Inc., and, Music Industries Corporation, which was in business until recently as a music product importer and distributor. Unicord was the original U. S. importer of Marshall Amplifiers and Korg synthesizers. Marshall amplifiers actually used Unicord manufactured transformers in some of their models. The relationship with Korg was probably what prompted the acquisition. Korgs USA division then became the US distributor for Marshall. In 1. 98. 8 the Matsumoku factory in Japan was destroyed by fire which shut down manufacturing for good. In 1. 99. 2 Korg acquired the Vox musical instrument company from its parent Rose Morris Music of the U. K. and manufacturing shifted to the Far East. This turned out to be not a bad thing, since Korgs research and development department has redesigned the AC3. Tom Jennings original sound only using modern construction. As of last year, 2. Marshall ended its relationship with Korg USA and now distributes its own amplifiers. Basic Laser Physics Pdf Mechanics. Eastwood Guitars currently makes a copy of the Univox Hi Flier, which I find quite ironic since it is a copy of a copy. My. Rare. Guitars. UNIVOX guitars were imported to North America from Japan in the late 1. They had many different models most popular of which is the Hi Flyer but also included an array of Les Paul copies, Hagstrom, Fender and others. UNIVOX guitars were built by the Matsumoko guitar factory in Japan, who also built guitars for Aria, Westbury, Westone, and several other brands at the time. This model, the Coily Bass is based on the Epiphone Casino.