Univox Limited Edition TV1

70's Univox TV1 or Limited Edition double cut Les Paul Jr. copy. Made in Japan. 22 fat frets. Mine seems to be pancake bodied, you can definately see a seam but it is solid wood and look like mahogany. Not too light, not too heavy. volume and tone knobs and an output jack on the butt, just like the Gibson. Mine has an authentic Gibby P90 in it and it also is from the 70's, so lucky me on that little nugget. The finish on this one is the wine red and has held up really well. It lets the grain through, shines up nice and seems a little thick (probably why it holds up so well). Has a compensated wrap tailpiece that I personally love because you can palm mute the heck out of this guitar. I replaced the tuners (were some junk Chinese tin) with Klusons and they keep the strings dead nuts in tune. A huge improvement.

How does it sound? Hmmm. Perfect. This guitar sounds dark and really deep. It sustains well acoustically and feeds back easily due to the pick up, but again, that's perfect. This guitar makes me sound like Paul Westerberg on a perfect night. I run this through a 70's Music Man tube amp and it just lights up. You can't do a lot with the tone other than darken the sharpness of the P90, but I like the sound this one does. You can change a lot of the tone with pedals or push it hard for true bluesy grit. It can sparkle a bit with a bigger amp than I currently have. I am not disapointed in the sounds this one gets. It is my only P90 guitar and I have never owned another so my comparison range is pretty narrow. Sweet bold dark LOUD tone out of this guitar.

This guitar came to me a few years ago via an internet sale and I made some mistakes when I bought it. I had wanted an old double cut P90 for a long time and the price was right. The pick up was wired badly, the posts for the bridge needed to be reset to off set some typical bridge dive (the post on these tend to pitch forward after many years) and worse of all: the fret board had a small crack on the treble side and was starting to lift up. All unnoticed by my star struck eyes. My local guy spent some of my money fixing it up as much as he thought I should and said "dude, you are either going to have to live with it or spend some serious money shining up a turd". So I took my shiny turd home and put it aside in shame. Mistake. I pulled this baby out recently and can't stop playing it. It is one of my best, most favorite guitars. Ever.

I don't play live anymore so I won't likely get to stage test this one. I also wonder how much abuse an old guitar with a neck joining the body this far up the fretboard would handle. As it is, the neck and body joint are tight and stable. You can get some neck detuning with one hand on the headstock and one on the horn, ala Jimmy Page. As much as this guitar is far from perfect, it has a personality and feel that none of my other guitars can touch. It may be the P90 or the way I can muck around palming the bridge. Whatever, I don't think it can take a beating in my school punk bands like a Strat but it doesn't sound like a Strat either. This thing sounds wicked and dark, not tinny.

Only customer support for a Univox nowdays is eBay and craigslist. Maybe some parts out there if I need them.

I have been playing and playing with guitars since 1985. I have had a butt load of stuff. Now I have the Univox, an '83 Epiphone Spirit, an '84 Gibson Spirit, a '97 Les Paul Classic, a '66 Silvertone hollow body set for slide, a '72 Guild D-40 and a couple junk guitars for the kids to bash. I play through the Music Man, a Peavey Classic 20 in the living room, and a '79 Peavey Classic twin copy in the back yard when I want to piss the neighbors off. Dumped my college amp, a '67 Twin Reverb for an SG but that story just makes me cry. This guitar is just the *****. I love the way it looks, the way it sounds and for all its faults the way it feels. It is my guitar and it makes me a rock star, which is what it's all about anyway. I searched a long time trying to find one of these. They don't come up that often. If you can find one in good shape, go for it. You won't be sorry.