1969 Univox U-1983 The Mother

In the USA, Unicord was a manufacturer of electrical transformers, especially for Marshall amplifiers that were imported. In the early 60s, Unicord bought ACA (Amplifier Corporation of America) based in Westbury -New York county- (this is important for the rest of the story) and decided to offer its own tube amplifiers under their own brand. : Univox was born.

When in 1967 Unicord was bought by the Gulf and Western Company, a subsidiary, Merson Musical instruments, was created. To enhance its Univox catalog, it was decided to offer guitars. The first copies of Les Paul and Dan Armstrong arrived in 1969, notably with the model presented in this article, the U-1983 “Mother” model (a black model under the reference U-1982 also exist).

These beautiful guitars were produced by Matsumoku. The pickups are atypical. According to the best MIJ experts, these pickups were probably produced by Nisshin Onpa, before Maxon stamped their serial numbers; we therefore speak of Pre Maxon.

In 1971 the Univox Badass, a copy of Guild, was launched. Univox and Merson went bankrupt in 1975 but Unicord continued to offer the same products until 1978, the year from which and until 1982, the company will sell its guitars under the Westbury brand.