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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 4:51 pm
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for anyone curious about Univox......

http://www.univox.org/catalogs/

mine was bought in '70 on Okinawa Island.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 5:44 pm
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I saw one of those for sale at Sam Ash yesterday, the head with one cab. $650, IIRC.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 7:05 pm
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How cool is that!!! The only thing that I was ever given free was a terrible dose of the flu-that's a bit of an exaggeration,one of my buddies gave me a '67 Kent solid body mandolin that he was given for doing a job for someone who never had enough to pay their bill in full.Those old UniVox amps may not have been up to Marshall and Fender standards in quality but they were one of the funkiest looking amp lines of the day.You are so lucky to get such a quirky but very cool and unique amp from days gone by.Please give us a full report about the speakers etc. when you get her all checked out.Enjoy.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 7:30 am
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Bender 4 Life wrote:
that sure looks familiar !!



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great amp.....loves to run "hot"
wish I still had it.......only have the cab now


These pictures look familiar. I have googled this thing left and right.
I'm glad another owner has posted! How would you describe the sound. I've read it sounds like a Showman, a Marshall, its crazy clean with no break up until really loud and that it breaks up nicely. It would be good to hear directly from someone who owns it. I've also read that the cabinets are rare. Anything you could tell me about this amp would be awesome!
I haven't had a chance to do anything with it. I really want to get it outside to clean it up and air it out, but between my available time and all the rain here, I have not had a chance. I get some time off at the end of the month, so I'll probably get a chance then to clean it up and then its off the see the amp doctor!

guitslinger wrote:
How cool is that!!! The only thing that I was ever given free was a terrible dose of the flu-that's a bit of an exaggeration,one of my buddies gave me a '67 Kent solid body mandolin that he was given for doing a job for someone who never had enough to pay their bill in full.Those old UniVox amps may not have been up to Marshall and Fender standards in quality but they were one of the funkiest looking amp lines of the day.You are so lucky to get such a quirky but very cool and unique amp from days gone by.Please give us a full report about the speakers etc. when you get her all checked out.Enjoy.

It's definitely a cool looking amp and I can't wait to hear it! As soon as I get to it, I'll pull open the cabs and post a few pics, before and after. Maybe a sound clip too!

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 2:24 am
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Yoda......I used a mix of ecc 83s & 82s in the preamp section (what it was loaded w/when I got it), and it was still heard clearly at 3/4 mile away.
the "bright" channel & #2 "bright" both get pretty nasty w/o excessive volume, and the "normal" & #2 Normal stay nice & clean even at high volumes.

having 2 full cabs (IIRC) you'll need to drop the variable ohm switch on the back to 4 ohms
as you can see, the spkrs are generic Japanese squarebacks, but quite nimble.

my take on the output tones were like running a HiWatt & Marshall together.

have your amp-tech be sure to check out your transformers......I fried one, and it almost killed me.(my own fault for letting it get rusty).

oddly enough, mine was also a gift.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 9:49 am
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3/4 of a mile eh? Thats pretty loud! I hope when you say nasty you mean a good kind of nasty!
I'm going to get the amp tech to go over everything.
The guy who gave it to me said "This is a 100 watt unit and the transformers are brutal...."

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:42 am
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yodacaster wrote:
3/4 of a mile eh? Thats pretty loud! I hope when you say nasty you mean a good kind of nasty!
I'm going to get the amp tech to go over everything.
The guy who gave it to me said "This is a 100 watt unit and the transformers are brutal...."


it was my wifes favorite amp (and still is, 7 yrs after its demise) because in her words "it has the least distorted overdrive i've ever heard"........and she's heard my amps since '85.
she STILL asks me....."can't you get an amp that will sound like your Uni?"
the only other tone she likes is straight into a Bassman.....says everything else sounds "harsh".
i'm pretty sure it was the mix of 82s & 83s (all old Mullard UKs) that gave it its' tone.....but 4 Amperex (sp?) 6L6GCs didn't hurt either.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:20 am
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Very cool! This one has Mullard pre amp tubes, and a mix of power tubes.
We'll see if they're still good once it gets checked out.
Now if it would stop raining so i can take this thing outside and clean it up!

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 7:49 pm
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Cool amp. 8) Here's something related, in case anyone's curious: http://www.univox.org/

It has some info on that amp, I believe.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:58 pm
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Bassman Paul wrote:
Cool amp. 8) Here's something related, in case anyone's curious: http://www.univox.org/

It has some info on that amp, I believe.


Thanks Bassman. I have been to that site.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 10:22 pm
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Very cool amp! Loving the pics!

Very interesting tubes btw.

The GE doesn't appear to be cooked. What your seeing is "side flashing". Where most tubes typically have the metal flashing on top of the tube, those simply have it on the side. It came that way new. You'll notice that the GE tube has the halo getters on the sides instead of the top.

The Westingouse tube is a mystery to me on first glance. Westinghouse was a re-brander of usually GE, Sylvania, and RCA. It would take some sort of code on the tube to better identify what it is.

The Japan tube is most likely Matsushita.

Which brings me to the preamp tubes. By my initial inspection of the pic, they appear to be Matsushita as well. It would be easier with a clearer background or a few more angles to know for sure. There are codes etched in Mullards and certain characteristics they have that are unique to Mullards. You would be very hard-pressed to find Mullards with angled getters. That's typically a characteristic of Matsushita. Matsushita produced their tubes using Mullard tooling, however, they didn't put a notch in the mica spacer. Matsushitas may appear to look very much like Mullards, but they don't sound the same. A Matsushita is typically much brighter and has early breakup.

Not sure whether you care very much about all of this. But as you can tell, I'm kind of a tube nutball.

Cool amp!

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 10:57 pm
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The guy who owned it said something happened with a transformer and he blew a couple of tubes. He worked at a tv station at the time and just grabbed some tubes from there.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:56 pm
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Nice grab.

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 4:01 am
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yodacaster wrote:
The guy who owned it said something happened with a transformer and he blew a couple of tubes. He worked at a tv station at the time and just grabbed some tubes from there.


"something" happened to a transformer may no be good.........
at 1st, my head started emitting a "sweet" smell, that I know now was burning varnish....
then yellow smoke and a very loud BRRRRRRR noise, at which point I yanked the guitar cable from the head and shut it down.
a few days later, after checking all the tubes and seeing none blown, I decided to try it one more time.......BIG mistake.
the total wattage on that amp is 300w (output is 105)
everything seemed fine at 1st.....no issues.....then BLAM, something exploded inside the head, & I was hit w/a shock that not only put me on my knees, it burned my fretting hand fingertips, and made my left arm numb for about 20 minutes.
at this point yellow smoke is POURING from the head, which is literally SCREAMING thru the speakers, and my wife was yanking the wallplug because I couldn't move.

the next time I tried playing that same guitar (through a different amp of course) it wouldn't play at all plugged in.......when I opened it up to find out why, I found almost all the insulation melted off most of the wiring, and later discovered the volume & tone pots on the neck pickup both ruined, as was the neck pickup.
yes, those transformers are Beasts !

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Post subject: Re: Free Amp Day! Univox U1011
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:58 am
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Yoda, it's great you're having a tech look at it first. That would go for any vintage amp IMO. Man you inspired me. I just ordered a Univox Super Fuzz kit from General Guitar Gadgets. :lol: I've been building stuff like crazy lately. I just built a crazyass fuzz from Mod Kits DIY, a clone of an Ibanez Flying Pan stereo panning phaser and now this. I'm modding the Super Fuzz so it has a tone control instead of a switch.

I hope you get the amp up and running. To me, It would be worth investing a few hundred bucks.

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