The Electra Forums

Ran across a Univox Coily today, for the price of $150. Plugged it into my amp and there is no sound. What's the possibility that the pups are toast? The amp works with other guitars. The pickups may or may not be original, there are screws missing and a few others are damaged. I think they are supposed to be humbuckers, but these are singles.

http://www.univox.org/guitars/




:edit:
Needs rewired. Pulled the electrics out and the wiring is junk. Pickups have definitely been changed (wires spliced and wrapped with tape), insulation falling off, broken connections... I'll see if I can get some shielded wire at my local guitar shop.

I saw onel iek this on my local CL, but all original.

_________________
Addicted to Matsumoku.

I drove around to at least half a dozen places today looking for some shielded wire and nobody has a replacement. I do have one lead, if they are open when I get off work. Right now it looks like I will have to order from Stew-Mac.

At least my two Phoenixes have been trouble free.

You can get most or every thing you need at,

http://www.stewmac.com/

and I might be interested in those pick ups If your going to toss them.

_________________
SlmGuy

I don't believe the pickups to be original, so I am thinking of replacing them.

I've already checked stew-mac, they do have the wire, but I only need 5 feet or so. Stew mac wire comes in a 50 foot roll for $25. If I have to...

They also have a basic wiring package with enough shielded and none shielded wire and a few caps to do a guitar for $5.63 or you can get a kit with pots, wire, switches and jack from $15.00 to $50..00. Its got everything but pick ups. The catch is I think it has to be a $30.00 order to ship.

That is a nice looking guitar. Is that a floating bridge or is it glued? Depending on the age the pick ups could be original. Mine is not an Electra but dates to around 74' and the soilder job sucked. But the Electra/Apollo catalog shows that style pick up. A while back I talked to a member here and was told that most of these brands came from the same shop. Do some more research, they could be the right ones. I have thought of a set of TV Jones pick ups if I cant find a replacement for mine. They might work on yours to if you want humbuckers.

I'm doing a resto on a hollw body and have been looking for a pair of single coils in the chrome oval covers like those. Hope this helps you out, and good luck. Show pics when your done.

_________________
SlmGuy

I don't think the pickups are original because there's extra screw holes in the body and the pickup wires have been cut and soldered.

The bridge is a Bigsby-type, minus the arm and spring.

I'm looking at the basic wiring package on Stew-Mac (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics ... ckage.html) and I see it only comes with 24 inches of shielded wire. There must be 4-5 feet of wire in this thing, and it's all shielded. My Westone doesn't appear to have much if any shielded wire. Is there going to be a difference in sound between shielded and non? the guy at the guitar store said no, but I'd like more opinions than one guy.

Yeh, these are not original, all Coilies have/had some form of humbucker.

_________________
Addicted to Matsumoku.

These guys have great wiring setups and parts: http://www.rsguitarworks.net

_________________
Free Your Mind and Your A$$ Will Follow......

that's what I thought, but the few pics I have seen some of them have single coils.

I now know for a fact that they are not original, they don't fit quite right, there are two sets of screw holes around the pickup slots, and the pickup wires have been cut and soldered.

At least one pickup is known to work.

If you open them up be carefull, the top and bottom have a dimple to snap together but should have some kind of glue in it and if its like the others I've seen it will have a chip board wrap around the winding. If you repair them, could you tell me how many wraps were on the coil when it was unwound?

_________________
SlmGuy

The most I will do is replace them, but it may be awhile as I put new strings on and I can at least use it as an acoustic.

Not true! By no means did all guitars like this have single coils. In fact, it was pretty common (as on Electra slimlines) for them to have what looks like a humbucker cover with only a single coil inside.



The pickups could certainly be original, those are the usual kind used in early Aria and other guitars. And I wouldn't assume it was made by Matsumoku, some Univox were but not all. They came from distributor Arai (whose own brand was Aria). And in the early days Arai (who was selling guitars with jsut those pickups) was making their own guitars but getting parts (not just whole guitars) from Matsumoku. My theory is that some of these had Matsumoku necks, but that's really not certain. Some parts or guitars also seem to be from Terada.

I googled a bit and found next to nothing on Univox, there was one website with some pictures. Some had humbuckers and some had singles. None looked exactly like mine.

I got the idea that it is a Mat guitar here. http://www.univox.org/history.html
this is just about the only Univox info source I could find. http://www.univox.org/guitars/

Try the Guitar Gallery site, the premier source of Matsumoku information:

http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/