Univox UC-2 resto ~ custom

[vr6pilot]

I wonder if a bridge cover could be acquired there????? Meanwhile, back on the farm...

Trimmed the tabs off the Carvin H60s for mounting to the baseplates:



Here is one of the pickups with its first coat of white paint set in the pickguard:

[vr6pilot]

what? no "edit" function here?

[vr6pilot]

Crown City Loan appears little more than a common pawn shop so I think the ship has sailed for getting a part from them.
UC3...nice axes, bro. You can't have my pickup covers (sorry) as I'm too fickle and restless and there's no telling when I may get the urge to use them.
As for that 3rd (middle) pickup, you can have that all day. I had to wait for a UC-2 to come along as I just cannot play a 3-pickup guitar without my pick attacking the middle magnet.

Good news is: I am returning the "Ibanez 80s shredder thing" (lol). At a minimum, I might would re-order sans the reversed head; likely to use the maple/maple neck with small V head (coming off another guitar) OR might attempt a fretboard replacement as suggested by UC3.

[UC3]

Triumvirate of Trem… L to R - Univox, Epiphone, Sold as unissued(bar may be buzzstop or extra support for a 12-string)

Didn’t mean to send you on a wild goose chase with the PrawnShop – more anecdotal than anything else.

Yeah, the UC-3’s look good from afar, but far from good - up close, in need of lots of love.

Had no choice on the fingerboard removal as it was separating from the neck already. The truss rod nut looks like it had always been in contact with the underside of the fingerboard and may have contributed to the seperation. Besides, the rusted threads would have eventually been a problem. I am leaning more towards reproducing the neck in lieu of new fingerboard and have recently purchased some birdseye and flame maple (flatsawn) which I plan to “experiment” with.

Don’t give up hope on the ashtray cover. It has taken me years of semicidal eBay vigilance to procure the bridges that you see in the picture. Just place “guitar” after all of the following in a search string and something will eventually turn up.

Aria Diamond
Conrad
Crown Professional
Domino
Dorado(Gretsch import)
Electra
Epiphone ET
Harmony- CustomKraft
Howard
Lyle
Supro
Tempo
Toledo

maybe...

Winston
Heit
Princeton(have seen exact knockoff of Univox UC-1 bass branded as such)

I am going to attempt to contact a metal stamper tomorrow about producing some ashtray covers – not getting my hopes up just yet, as I suspect it will be a lot of money…

Good luck

[vr6pilot]

Wow...THANK YOU! Great cross-reference reference.

[skami]

Cool, looks great.

[vr6pilot]

Pickups painted and mounted to the backing plates; pickguard assembled. Of course, I'll have to pull it apart again in order to drill the mounting screw holes but for now...



Don't sweat the alignment...the bridge isn't screwed in so it is sagging just a tad in the pic above.



here's a better shot of the H60s, tabs ground off and mounted to the copper plates.



Next update will be when the wiring is completed.

[croatan]

i know you have to be IMMENSELY IMMENSELY tired of hearing this, but-

seeing the original headstock laying there next to the body makes me want to take you and shake you like they do the hysterical people in the old movies.

"PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN! YOUR HEADSTOCK'S RIGHT THERE!"

[vr6pilot]

lol... I can picture it. Throw a solid SLAP in there to really get the point across.
At least I did polish the heads of the mounting screws with my dremel.

[antisymmetric]

i know you have to be IMMENSELY IMMENSELY tired of hearing this, but-

seeing the original headstock laying there next to the body makes me want to take you and shake you like they do the hysterical people in the old movies.

"PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN! YOUR HEADSTOCK'S RIGHT THERE!"

I agree with this, I'm seeing the same scene play out, but in a Ren and Stimpy context.

Just a thought- as your guitar is coming together, I can see it with matching headstock (original neck obviously)- and maybe with the raised piece in the centre done to match the pickguard. Not quite sure how it would look, just throwing the idea out there...and maybe a maple fretboard?

[croatan]

just a thought- assuming your barbarian side wins out, are you interested in selling the old neck?

[vr6pilot]

I agree with this, I'm seeing the same scene play out, but in a Ren and Stimpy context.

Just a thought- as your guitar is coming together, I can see it with matching headstock (original neck obviously)- and maybe with the raised piece in the centre done to match the pickguard. Not quite sure how it would look, just throwing the idea out there...and maybe a maple fretboard?

ren and stimpy...hilarious!

Definitely want a maple board. Love the idea about pulling the colors to the head. Already been planning a white truss cover at a minimum. Otherwise, whether or not I paint the head will depend on the head, as of yet unchosen.

Announcement: You will all get to see the guitar with the original neck on it. I'm going to reinstall it, as-is, just to test drive and tune the electronics. Once that's all sorted, I'll move on to working out the neck...or the fretboard....or sumpthin....

[vr6pilot]

So, this week's lesson is this: drill the mounting holes first.
The pickguard that came off the guitar wasn't even right so using that as a template would have been a fail. Combine that with the fact that my pickguard had some minor shape changes and the difficulty of transferring the hole pattern in the body to a medium and then to the plastic...it didn't work and I am not satisfied with it 'as-is'. What I should have done was had the original holes filled, then I could have run the drill right thru the new PG and had a perfect match up.

All wiring was completed but the project goes on hold for now while I wrap up some important biz to include prepping for retirement (and ordering another piece of plastic). I screwed the neck and bridge down with the PG...everything but the strings...and shot some pictures.

Here's the wiring:





and how it might've looked ...





This will resume. Stay tuned....

[croatan]

dead.the fuck.sexy.

[druunkonego]

love it.