Univox Hi-Flier

Kurt Cobain's Univox Hi-Flyer

Sounds like Bleach.

As modified by KC

Not really good for live. I do use it from time to time when recording. But I've left it as I got it. Apart from me converting it back to RH and taking his strings off, putting them away and putting my set on.

i have over 25 guitars and basses plus mandolins, ukes,ect..

i think its an 1969 univox hi flier. made in japan.
frets? enough! think its made from solid wood. you can see the wood shine through. one vol, one tone, input jack. it has two p90 style pus, noname. think the body is basswood, since its light. sunburst finish. has that jazzmaster-tailpiece-bridge-thing.
its a crazy body design, flipped strat, which i love.
tuners are noname plastic. neck is nice, a bit thinner than my usa strat. got the suitcase with it.

i love the sound coming out of this sweet piece of japan workmanship.
first i used the original p90, but i decided to swap the bridge pu out for a seymour duncan jb. sounds great. the original pus are a lil on the thin side. lots of treble, but great if the tone knob is at 5.
with the hum this guitar is a killer. you can get every tone you want, twangy, led zepply, nirvana...the only thing u have to to is to turn the tone knob the right way.
love it. sustains like...a mix between gibson and fender.

the set up was really nice, very low with almost no buzzing.
pus were adjusted great.
neck fits nice into the body, which??s very important.
since the guitar is 40 years old, sure, there are some nicks and scratches and a lil bit of rust, but nothing that would bother me.
electronics are okay, had to fight with the pots...but...hey, its very old!

i played it live, means jumping around, jumping into the drums...
no doubt it will withstand all stuff i do on stage.
dont worry about the thin neck...
i can depend on it as on every other guitar i have. (fender strat, squier jag)
i never play without backup...

...

love it, just love it.
i??m from germany, they??re very rare. love the looks, the sound...i just LOVE it. my new number one.
get one, they can be pricey, but...man, they??re too cool to ignore.

1971 Univox Hi Flyer Custom. Not sure what's "Custom" about this except for maybe the natural finish (solid wood) and the 4 ply pick guard. Solid wood body (I know because it is finished in natural), maple 1-piece neck, 2 p-90 pickups, a three-way pickup selector switch. Bought used and it's very old...no case, no whammy bar.
All original which I was looking for. Everything seems to work and DAMN, the tone...I'll get to that. I knew what I was getting, everthing works, and it's all stock so I'm giving it a 10.

Like other posters here, I can't quite figure out where this tone comes from! It weights about 5 1/2-6 lbs. yet sounds like a 12-pound Gibson. Unplugged, this is the most vocal guitar I own, and I own a few. I was strumming it uplugged last night, and my family was wowed! This guitar flat sings! A bolt-on-neck guitar shouldn't sound like this. I've been playing good Fender Telecasters for over 25 years, and NONE of them had the soul and vibration that this little Jap cheapy has. Unbeleiveable!
This guitar fits right into my playing of Roots Rock, Rock and Roll, Punk, Pop. It'll do anything I want it too. It's a little noisy, but the single coil pickups are old. The sound is FULL. The bridge pickup is warm and nasty, yet clear as a bell. The neck is ballsy, thick, and loud. Combined, this thing will honk better than my two Teles and better than any Telecaster I've ever heard. I can't get over it!

I got it off of ebay, unplayed by me. I knew I was taking a chance. It arrived with 9's and played well. The finish has been through years of playing and abuse, yet the neck was awesome...smooth, Tele-like, and pretty stable. Everything was in tact, and I kind of knew what to expect when I opended the box. I then proceded to re-string with 10's, do a complete set-up, and just get everything tight and in playing order.
This little guitar proved to be a challange! As soon as I tuned up the 10's, the action went south. I had to eliminate the adjustable thumb wheels under the bridge (about an 1/8th of an inch height) to get the strings reasonalby close to the fretboard. The frets were in great shape. I tightened all the screws and added dowels and super glue where and when needed. I inspected the neck pocket, and like others have said here, small cracks were present. Nothing major and the neck fits tight, but I'll have to watch this problem area. The neck is shifty, and can cause some problems.

It's a 1971 Japanese toy guitar, and it's lasted this long. How many new, and perfectly-playing Korean/Chinese guitars will be around in almost 40 years? I have no choice but to give it a 10, do I?
I wouldn't trust this without a backup, only because it is so old. I find myself handling this really carefully.

What?

I finally have one...and not because Kurt Cobain played one. This guitar is an amazing little thing. Rich and full, yet trashy and cheap. I'll keep doing whatever is needed to keep this functional. I love it and it will always be a part of my guitar sound.
It sits in the company of Gibson Firebirds, Les Pauls, Fender Telecasters, Vintage (Japanese) Ibanez's, and old Epiphone hollowbodies. A great player that I'll be looking for more of. I hope it dosen't break on me!

TO THE GUY BELOW...THOSE ARE SINGLE COIL P-90 STYLE PICKUPS...

MINE IS THE CUSTOM WITH THE ROCKER ARMS INSTED OF A 3 WAY TOGGLE SWITCH.

PHENOMINAL

PRETTY DARN GOOD. THOSE JAPS BEAT THE HECK OUT OF THE MEXICAN OR CHINESE BUILDERS.

KURT PLAYED THEM

LONG GONE

MY FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR AS A BOY BACK WHEN I 14...IM OLD BUT NOT GONE.
THESE ARE GREAT LITTLE GUITARS. GRAB ONE (NOT THE HUMBUCKER MODELS) AND I BET YOU WILL BE SUPRISED. I JUST GOT ANOTHER ONE (THE CUSTOM) IN NEAR MINT CONDITION FOR 700.00 SHIPPED...AND I DIDN'T THINK TWICE. GET LUCKY ON EBAY AND THEY RUN 300.00-500.00.

this guitar was made in japan in 1976. it has 21 frets.there is 1 volume and 1 tone there are 2 humbuckers. the brand is univox. they are the factory pickups. i think the wood is plywood and the neck wood is maple on maple.

this guitar definitely fits my style. i am a grunge fan and the world's #1 nirvana fan. i run it through a fender sp-10,a fender fm212r,a fender rumble 15 bass amp,a marshall mg15ms2 micro stack,a fender mini tone-master,but not my roland ac-60 acoustic chorus amp.i also run it through my two pedalboards which contain: mxr phase 100,boss ds-2 turbo distortion,danelectro chicken salad vibrato,behringer ut-100 tremelo,electro harmonix big muff pi fuzz nyc version,boss dd-3 digital delay,boss bf-2 flanger,electro harmonix polychorus,boss ds-1 distortion,electro harmonix small clone chorus,boss ps-5 pitch shifter,boss aw-3 dynamic wah,boss rc-2 looper,ibanez tubescreamer,proco rat 2 distortion,tecch 21 sansamp classic,fender pt-100 tuner,and a dunlop original crybaby wah.it has a replica sound for the album bleach and 3 songs on in utero.this guitar has the early nirvana sound.

the guitar is perfect,but it will rust a little like on the tuners and bridge

once again the guitar is perfect

i have been playing guitar for 5 years,keyboard and drums since christmas, but i have been playing air drums for many years.i own 12 guitars,6 amps,2 pedalboards,keyboards,digital drums,19 pedals,etc..i would buy every single univox hi-flyer in the world.i love the look of it, but im more of a single coil kind of person,but im not sayin the pickups suck.extremely highly recommended guitar.

My Father, the intrepid Yard Sailor, bought a Phase 3 or 4 for $1!!! It's purple, and looks like the original paint unless it was stripped. Obvious mods done: neck pickup changed to a Gibson, don't know if the brige is original but it's got square magnets, and a phase switch was installed. I put $55 Grover turners on it. It fed-backed like crazy, popped it open, saw the sodder joints loose or held on with masking tape. Once that was tightened up, it's been solid. Neck feels fatter that it should for the body, original tremelo with no arm.

Thinner, cheeper sound than I normal go for, but it's probably my drummer's fav of all my guitars (fenders and gibsons). I play it through fender tube amps with all types of distortion boxes. The clean sound is weak, treblely. Phase switch and tone knob do help.

-Nice low action, frets are in pretty good condition, and I play with telephone wires (thickest strings I can find).
-Pickups are well adjusted and firmly in place.
-Pots crackle a little bit, but the sound doesn't die out at all.
-Dinged up scratched all over but all there.
-Suprisingly wide neck, easy to chord on.

-Never gigged with this guitar, but it's been solid in practice.
-Would not trust it with out a back up.

I'm my own custumer support!

Well worth the $1 that was paid for it. And probably only worth the $55 I put into it. I'd like the arm, I know the trem works other wise from sticking an allen wrench down the hole! If you find one in a usuable condition for under $100, it's a great toy with a unique sound.

I have an early original Hi- Flyer custom, as far as I can tell. It has the original pickups,original double rocker switches,case(el cheapo),black-reddish orange to yellow sunburst, tortise shell pick guard, tremolo, and is still an absolutely fantastic guitar.

I got the guitar used in early '71, played a lot of Sabbath back then, met my needs very well.

Everything that's always wrong with one of these cheap Jap guitars, was wrong with this one. It took a lot of tinkering to get everything set up the way I wanted it.

In college I played almost every weekend at some bar or other,so---It's been dropped, thrown, used fer a weapon, and I'm still playing it now (although I play a strat or taylor much more).

Huh? Wass dat?I've been playing

I've been playing 37-38 yrs. This guitar is the FIRST one I owned. Since my playing has evolved over the years, I still find that every time I pick it up- Sweet Leaf just jumps out if it. I will never get rid of it!!!

I think this one is a 78' phase IV model. Maple neck/board body au-naturale, two buckers (one dimarzio super distortion in treb position)and leo quan badass swapped for standard univox compensated stop tail. Lightweight guit., easy on my back. Crap tuners hold tuning for days, somehow. I think this is a strat scale guit, 25.5. 3 way toggle, master vol/master tone.

I bought this off ebay and had no clue about the model's sound, playibility ect. I have owned supposed hi-end axes, including a 2001 1960 USA Les Paul Classic that would never hold tuning and pickup that were so hot...all they could do was melt faces. Even death metal player have to have turn down for cleaner rhythm parts...whatever. This guitar smokes...PERIOD. Bright and clear in a strat-like way, but ballsy and fat like a paul, great sustain, feeds-back easily. Slightly microphonic...but not in a bad way. If you find one of these, GET IT. It can cover a HUGE spectrum of sounds in a convincing way.

Biggest drawback is in access to high register. I was playing the lead to Free - Alright Now and the ending triplet phrase is REAL tough to get to, hand position wise. Depending on how often you play above the 17th fret, you may want to look elsewhere. For me it's not a huge issue, since I have great facility anywhere on the fretboard..but it kind of shocked me when this happened. Most electrics have acceptable access in this range. All else has good workmanship, nicely grained body, medium frets a pleasure, neck just right. Tight neck pocket

Definitely gig-worthy. But NEVER gig without a backup. Neck joint is probably a weak link, but unless you're a mindless ape, will be just fine.

NONE

I love it. It covers clean to "How much distortion can you handle?" The replacement of the treble pup with the Dimarzio definitely helps this thing scream and gives good contrast to the stock univox pup (this pup is good!) ...and I'm sure the wrap-around bridge creates that amazing sustain. The simple control layout is superior to gibsons, 2 vol, 2 tone. A winner in my opinion and that rating doesn't come easily from me. I'm a lover of cheap, underated axes...people should be wary on purchasing expensive guitars, when cheapos can sound and play superior to them.

Japanese made Phase 2 High Flyer
21 frets, one volume, one tone, 3 way toggle switch
Sunburst finish
Floating tremelo

I play blues and 60s rock and the High Flyer is perfect for both. I use it with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp, Vox Wha Wha, Guyatone Fuzz, and a DOD Grunge pedal. The sound from this guitar is simply amazing, beats any other guitar I've ever played. It sounds bright and trebly and hits the blues/rock sound dead on. The P-90s give it a Robbie Krieger type sound on a clean channel, Pete Townsend sound with the Guyatone Fuzz on and when played through my friends Marshall it gave a Cream era Clapton sound. Other than that it can make surf rock type sounds with the Spring Reverb turned up on my Fender amp and has a garage rock sound with the DOD Grunge pedal.

I bought the guitar used of course and the action was perfect after a few adjustments, Ive very low with no fret buzz. Pickups were adjusted fine along with the bridge. Whomever owned it before me took care of it well, no scratches or rust. Near mint condition, the pots are a bit scratchy but thats perfectly acceptable due to its age and the condition of the rest of the guitar.

I dont play live but I do play for at least an hour or more a day. Its held up fine and I'm shure it would do the same if I was gigging. Hardware looks solid along with the finish and strap buttons. I depend on it every day for at least an hour so its dependable by my defintion, not a single problem as of yet.

Never dealt with them, out of buisness from what I know.

Ive been playing for 3 years and I think this will be my main guitar for the rest of my life. If it were stolen or lost I really do think I would cry, I shudder to even think about that. If it somehow was lost or stolen I would desperately try to hunt another down. I've played Fender Stratocasters, a few Gibson SG's, an Epiphone Casino, a Gretsch hollowbody, a Rickenbacker John Lennon model and own a Telecaster, the Univox High Flyer beats them all in terms of playability and sound, at least for me it does. The perfect guitar by my definition.

i have the 70/71 model (golden univox logo painted between the tuners - like mosrite's) with 2 P90s in a 3 tone sunburst finish.
the body is made of some wood - i have no idea what kind. as those guitars were quite cheap back in the days i guess some cheap

it sounds killer!
very crisp punchy P90 single coil sound. it does great feedbacks and has massive sustain.
distorts easily - i don't even use pedals - i just play thru the overdrive channel of my fender twin and it roars like hell...

nice low action - fender feeling - keeps in tune

it is noisy - but i play punk/garage so why care?
i added some more string trees so the strings keep in the nut and i killed the trem - coz i hate tremoloes...

man i always wanted a mosrite! because they look so cool, and fred smith of the mc5 had one, and johnny ramone, and so on.. of course i'll never be able to afford a real mosrite so i kept looking for a univox coz i heard they sound cool and exactly like the original plus they were kurt cobain's guitars of choice in the early days of nirvana..
i've been playing in bands for like 15 years doing hundreds of gigs and played on about 10 albums almost entirely using telecasters. for recording i also use an sg and a danelectro 59 dc occaisonally.
this guitar slays them all! it replaced my favourite tele as my main guitar. it never goes out of tune and sounds just amazing - not to mention it's looks!