The Univox Story

1960's Univox Guitar

The Tempo-Merson Company was a distribution organization founded by a man named Bernie Mersky. At some point in the company's history, Tempo-Merson was purchased by another man named Ernie Briefel. Little more is known of the origins of Merson, but  we know that the company was already marketing Tempo Merson brand archtop electric guitars and amps in the late 40's.

Early Tempo Merson Guitar Amplifier

The first Tempo Merson guitars and amplifiers were advertised in Music Trades Magazine.  An ad for "The Merson Tempo"  appeared in the December, 1948 issue. The Merson Tempo and other Merson instruments from this from this period were not widely distributed and distribution was confined to the Eastern United States.

1950's Tempo
Guitar Made by Kay

The instruments distributed by Tempo-Merson in 1948 would have included brands with names such as Kay, Harmony, Kamico, Favilla, Tempo, Giannini, and Supro electric guitars. Originally some of these instruments built in the U.S. while other instruments were imported  from Japan, Europe, and Latin America.

 Vintage Hack Guitar  (I'm joking)

There was another  company called Unicord, which was owned by Sid Hack. Thankfully he did not use his own surname on guitars or amplifiers!

Amplifier Corporation of America

In 1964, The Unicord Company purchased the Amplifier Corporation of America (ACA), which was located in Westbury, New York, a northern suburb of New York City. Amplifier Corporation of America specialized in building reel to reel tape recorders, and amplifiers for record players. The company's location is important later in the story.

1960's Haynes Amplifier

ACA made Haynes guitar amplifiers and also made an early distortion device powered by batteries.

After the acquisition, Unicord began marketing tube amplifiers made in Westbury, by ACA, carrying the Univox brand name.

It is quite possible the name Univox was chosen to compete with an amplifier company located in Manhattan called Multivox.

Multivox made the Premier brand name amplifiers,

1966 Univox UB45

These American-made amps featured tubes and use high-end Jensen speakers. The Univox logo was on the upper corner of the grille on a large piece of plastic. Early models were covered with black tolex, and the controls were in the back.

Late 1960's Univox U-102 Amplifier

Later models featured a cabinet which was covered in charcoal-flecked tolex with white beading, with a grey grillcloth. The front-mounted controls included two or three inputs, volume, tone, tremolo with speed and intensity, plus footswitch jack. The jewel light on these early Univox amps was a little red square. Unicord used ACA to build amplifiers under the Univox brand name.

The Unicord company had already been importing guitars from the Matsumoku Company, as well as effects units, built by Shin-Ei, both of Japan for distribution in the United States.

In 1967 Unicord was purchased by Gulf + Western (the oil company). At this time, Unicord was merged with Tempo-Merson, which Gulf + Western had already acquired. The new company was called "Merson Musical Products", a division of Unicord Incorporated, a Gulf + Western System Company.

Leland Sklar 

The Unicord aka Merson Musical Products continued to offer guitars, and amplifiers. The Univox amplifiers that were made during this era were a hybrid of tubes and transistors. And Univox did build some nice bass and guitar amplifiers.

Jimmy Page with
his Univox UK Stack

There were some well known players that used Univox amplifers such as Leland Sklar, James Taylor's bass player, and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

In fact Unicord designed transformers were used in the imported Marshall Amps because the company didn't think their own British transformers could handle the full 100 watts from the 6550 tubes (British Marshall's at the time used KT-88's which were lower wattage). Marshall of England eventually adopted Unicord's transformer design.

Unfortunately Univox got a bad reputation in the industry, due to the fact that instead of doing their own research, they copied amplifier designs from other manufacturers such as Shure, and Electro-Voice.

1947 Fender Princeton Woody

Let me insert here that early guitar amplifiers such as Leo Fender’s, and Doc Kaufman’s designs were originally based on schematics from radio, and tube manufacturers. These schematics were available free of charge from the manufacturers. Yep, the original Fender "Princeton" Woody's electronics were partially based on a tube manufacturers schematic. Leo and Doc were running a radio repair shop, and would have ready access to these plans. I digress,

Univox U-400G & Stage 400 

As a response to this perceived negative reputation, Univoxs' response was to change the amplifier brand name from "Univox" to "Stage" amplifiers. The only difference between a Univox and Stage amp was the badge.

It is not known how long Tempo guitars and amps lasted, but they did not survive the breakup of Merson and Unicord in 1976.

1969 Univox Hi-Flyer
Phase 1

In 1968, the famous Hi-Flyer line was introduced and remained in distribution under the Univox brand for several years. As Univox made changes to the instrument, they changed the designations, by listing them as "Phase", one through four.  Kurt Cobain of Nirvana favored the 1975 Univox Hi-Flier Phas 3 model.

1970's Univox
Les Paul Copy

Around this period time period, Univox also started copying Les Paul's and Ampeg Dan Armstrong Lucite guitars and importing them into the U.S.. The were made by the Aria company of Japan.

Early 1970's Univox "Lucy"

Around 1970, Univox changed the logo on their guitars from plastic ones to the decal under the finish

1971 Univox Badazz

By 1971, Univox introduced a guitar, and bass, they called the Badazz. This was a copy of a Guild S-100 Polara.  This guitar  was also made by Aria of Japan.

1970''s Univox Super Fuzz

That same year, Unicord added a full array of effects to their catalog, and also offering synths and computerized effects.

As mentioned before these were made by Japanese firm Shin-Ei.

1970's Univox Stringman Synth

As the synth and effects division came more to the forefront, the company turned to Korg as a source for imported products.

Univox Copies

By 1975, Univox was importing copies or Rickenbacker’s 4001 Bass, and the Fender Stratocaster.

76-'77 Westbury
 Performer

That same year Unicord abruptly gave its employees a single days notice that the company would move its facility to Westbury.  By 1977 Unicord came out with the Univox Westbury Performer.

This was a precursor to 1978, when the Univox name was dropped in favor of the Westbury brand of guitars. Westbury guitars were sold through 1981.

1971 Giannini
Craviola 12 string

As part of their acquisition of Merson, Unicord/Westbury imported Giannini guitars, and folk instruments from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Most notably these included the Giannini Craviola 12 string instrument. Merson had been importing these instruments for years. Westbury Musical Instruments was the importer of Giannini instruments through 1981.

Click on the links under the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.
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