Univox UC-2 resto ~ custom

[antisymmetric]

Nice project! IMO it would be a shame to lose that neck, to me that raised portion of the headstock is part of the charm of these guitars, it's a unique detail. Unless the neck is warped or seriously damaged in some way, or too narrow, or you want a different scale, etc. Even if it takes a whole new fretboard (worst case scenario), but a good levelling/ refret should be enough. That's my $ 0.02 anyway, the "save the neck" campaign.

[vr6pilot]

Thanks guys. I was pretty sure Surf Green was going to do it but when I actually saw the body in person I was floored. It was perfect and exactly what I wanted. 'Tis a fine colour, indeed.

As for the neck: Agreed on the headstock as it is a very unique design element. The neck itself is in great shape but the fretboard is spent, if you ask me. Have another look down the board and note how the frets are actually dished in the area around the 12th.



If I could retain the original neck and have a new maple fretboard set in place of the rosewood, that would be great..provided it could be done for not too many pence.

Anybody know the radius of this thing?

[pacemaker]

I agree that the neck should be saved if you can - the headstock is one of the best "fake Fender" headstocks (IMO), and the angled heel is unique and cool. There are folks here who can help you with the frets/fretboard.

This is a cool project! I was skeptical about the color at first, but it looks great. Have you thought any more about pickups? Maybe... lipsticks?

[vr6pilot]

Actually, yes. More chrome for that 50's vibe, for sure. Alas, all I could find were ones for the neck position. Got any links or search terms??

[antisymmetric]

GFS do them, in either Strat or Dano size, and a few different windings.(And as 4-conductor humbuckers)
There are also these:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 2743wt_907
I've just ordered some after having them recommended by mongoose and brianjdc on this forum. Super cheap!

[pacemaker]

These might look cool for this project too - however I don't know how they sound, so I can't comment as far as that goes. I believe I've seen someone on the board use them in a project here though. I've had good experiences with all the GFS stuff I've tried thus far so I think it'd be worth a go...

[vr6pilot]

Damn!! Those are some sexy pickups, bro. I like those alot. I will have to google my way to some reviews. And to get the pair I'd need for about $60; not bad.

Here's a pic to make it easy for thread watchers:

[vr6pilot]

Bit of a delay on progress as I had some water intrusion into the basement due to 3.25" of rain falling in one hour.

Still, the parts are rollin' in. Chrome knobs and some .012uf PIO caps are here and a one-off tremelo bar is on it's way. This one with a white tip and slightly shorter.

[desertlimosine]

This is coming out nicely. The new color looks amazing!

[Veitchy]

Cool resto on a unique guitar. That sunburst looked great, but the new finish just works with the vibe of the guitar. Keep it up, looks like it should turn out real tasty.

[croatan]

i have such hardcore GAS for a uc-2 or uc-3

[live-i-evil]

That green looks great. I love the headstocks on those old UC-2s.

[vr6pilot]

Time for an update:

Backside of the pickguard and the entire cavity is copper-lined.
Shielded and ran the jack wires thru the long skinny channel.
Mounted the 500K pots and toggle.
Drilled for the pickups.

Yep, that's it. Been dealing with the tear-out and associated headaches of having hardwood floors replaced.
But, my shop is back in order so progress should kick up a notch in the coming days.

[vr6pilot]

Now for pics:

First, the copperwork...



Now let's check out the custom tremelo bar...



Okay, pickup work. Dilemma was that if I drill the pickguard for stock pickups, conventional ones could never be used and vice/versa.
Look at the pic below and see how much further apart the holes are on the stock pickup covers (white) versus the contemporary sized ones (black). Then, I realized that the stock pickups were merely glued to some copper baseplates and that I could transfer those plates to any conventional pickup with a dab of glue thereby leaving myself the option to go back to stock magnets one day.



The black pickups above are Carvin H60 stacked humbuckers and measure at 8.3Kohms. They have some spank in that they read from only a single point unlike parallel 'buckers and are completely noiseless. They also distort in a much more controlled fashion than typical single-coils. I will need to grind down the tabs off the ends of the plastic housings for them to fit and will need to notch the copper plates slightly for where the leads come out of the Carvins. Then, I'll stick 'em to the baseplates and mount them into the pickguard.

[vr6pilot]

So I was going to swap a new neck onto another guitar, it came in the mail today. It's maple on maple. I thought I would check the visual appeal of a light maple neck on the surf green body...



Beautiful. Here's a preview of the guitar with the original neck...



Naturally, I had to explore the possibility of re-necking this project but the UC-2 is a 24 3/4 inch scale and a bolt on neck would be hard to come by in that scale. Even if I could find one, it will have to be hand-shaped to fit the UC-2's angled neck pocket. A challenge. This maple neck is in the Fender scale of 25 1/2 inches but....will it fit?

I aligned the two necks with the heel of the maple one lined up with the furthest part of the heel on the original one and compared how the frets line up and if I could get 25.5" from bridge to nut. Here's how I lined up the heels:



...and here's how the fretboards aligned...



At first it may appear like the maple neck will start too close toward the bridge but you must consider that there is an extra fret there and that, unlike the stock neck, the fretboard extends past the neck toward the pickups.

Ultimately, with the maple neck set onto the body, I was easily able to measure 25 1/2 inches to the nut! Additional advantages of the neck swap are slightly wider fretboard, slightly less radius, zero fret or board wear, replaces the damaged original nut with a perfect nut that is a slippery graphite compound, allows for use of Sperzel locking tuners, has a better transition at the heel, and of course - looks smashing screwed onto my surf green body.

The obvious challenge is shaving the sides down so I can stuff it in the narrow pocket of the Univox and working the heel angle to fit properly. Do I dare attempt it?