Univox Hi-Flier Build/Restoration

[punkacc9]

Picked this little gem up for $120. I mainly wanted a guitar to work on for a luthier course I am going to be taking soon and this just happened to appear. I wanted something I had to do neck work on.
It is an early 70's Phase 2 Hi Flier neck and body. It's definitely one of the early Phase 2 models since it has the screw on logo (not the waterslide logo). The price was right and I've been dying to own one
of these ever since I sold my old univox project I bought off cooterfinger. That had an original Phase 1 neck but everything else was replicated.

I just got the guitar pieces today in the mail. It turns out the frets were recently leveled by the looks of it. Kinda a bummer. I should leave them alone but I really wanna refret it haha. We'll see. The body
really surprised me. I can't believe how thin these are. The one I bought off Cooterfinger was a replica of the Phase 1 bodies (thicker). This is so slim. The neck is actually fatter than the body. It is extremely
light too. It feels super solid though. The finish is to die for. It's such a nice burst and it really pops with the shape. I love the bright, sharp layered, 3 tone sunbursts with the bright yellow center. Not sure if I
wanna use a white guard on this or have Spitfire make me a bright red tort. Yummmm. Anyway, this is probably gonna be a slow build. I need to track down these parts. The pickups, bridge, and trem are gonna
be the challenging parts to find. Does anyone know what radius these are? Maybe I'll go with a new bridge if it is common. If anyone has any parts laying around for this or know of any elsewhere, let me know!




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[punkacc9]

Notice the second to last picture of the fretboard edge. This guitars build quality is really nice but this I found weird.. There were only a few fret side dots towards the higher frets. Looking closely I can see all the other ones had fret markers but they were black. I took a knife and etched over the black dots and right under them was the white fret marker material. Now this was the factory finish over top of it. It looks like they sanded the rosewood and cleared right over the sawdust. Lol.

[Amon 7.L]

Nice score!!
That burst is really amazing!!

If you don't mind taking some measurements, can I ask you some specs such as:
1) body thickness;
2) neck pocket depth;
3) neck thickness;
4) neck angle.

Thanks a lot

[empyrean]

I'm going to likely be parting out a few MIJ guitars, some of them univox or from the same factory. Looks like the bridge I have is definitely the nylon roller saddle one these Hi-Fliers came with, I spent months looking for one on eBay and finally paid a pretty price for it when I found it.

I think I might have a univox truss rod cover and I should still have a bag of a bunch of misc. vintage MIJ parts. I don't have hardly any spare time any more, but if I ever get my act together and track them all down to list them, I'll PM you.

I think my Univoxes are around 12" radius, but don't quote me on that lol, I should check.

[punkacc9]

1) body thickness; 1.187 inch
2) neck pocket depth; .57 inch
3) neck thickness; 1 inch at heel, .75 inch at 1st fret, 1 inch at nut
4) neck angle; Do you mean the angle from the nut to the headstock? After the 1st fret it goes back to an inch thick and then it angles down to .625 in thickness for headstock.
If you are referring to the angle of the heel fretboard cut it is .27 inch from the last fret on the high E side and .625 from the last fret on the low E side

5) 1.625 inch width at nut
6) 2.188 inch width at heel

Hope that clears things up. Haha.

[punkacc9]

I'm going to likely be parting out a few MIJ guitars, some of them univox or from the same factory. Looks like the bridge I have is definitely the nylon roller saddle one these Hi-Fliers came with, I spent months looking for one on eBay and finally paid a pretty price for it when I found it.

I think I might have a univox truss rod cover and I should still have a bag of a bunch of misc. vintage MIJ parts. I don't have hardly any spare time any more, but if I ever get my act together and track them all down to list them, I'll PM you.

I think my Univoxes are around 12" radius, but don't quote me on that lol, I should check.

Thanks man. Let me know! The trem and pickups are my main concern at the moment.

[Amon 7.L]

1) body thickness; 1.187 inch
2) neck pocket depth; .57 inch
3) neck thickness; 1 inch at heel, .75 inch at 1st fret, 1 inch at nut
4) neck angle; Do you mean the angle from the nut to the headstock? After the 1st fret it goes back to an inch thick and then it angles down to .625 in thickness for headstock.
If you are referring to the angle of the heel fretboard cut it is .27 inch from the last fret on the high E side and .625 from the last fret on the low E side

5) 1.625 inch width at nut
6) 2.188 inch width at heel

Hope that clears things up. Haha.

Oh my God... you're splendid, brother!!!
Thanks a billion!!

P.S.:
About the point 4, I meant the neck pocket.. is it flat or angled? (or is flat neck pocket with angled neck heel..)
I'm slowly rebuilding an Hi-flier for my sister but with the first one I build I've had a problem with the badass bridge which it was WAY TOO TALL even recessed within the body to get a decent action, hence the question about the neck angle..

[punkacc9]

Ah ok. Second look at the pocket and it looks like it is an angle, actually. .57 inch from the inside to .438 inch on the edge. Heel on the neck doesn't angle.

[Amon 7.L]

Ah ok. Second look at the pocket and it looks like it is an angle, actually. .57 inch from the inside to .438 inch on the edge. Heel on the neck doesn't angle.

Probably is me not getting it right, but.. you mean the other way round? Starting from the top of the body, the neck pocket depth goes from .438 inch on the inside (toward the bridge) to .57 inch on the edge (toward the headstock)?

[punkacc9]

Ahhh im sorry I gave you the wrong measurement. Replace the .438 with .688 (top towards neck)

I think I gave you the pocket depth towards bridge and the pocket thickness towards neck instead of the pocket depth.

[Amon 7.L]

Ahhh im sorry I gave you the wrong measurement. Replace the .438 with .688 (top towards neck)

I think I gave you the pocket depth towards bridge and the pocket thickness towards neck instead of the pocket depth.

It's ok, no biggie... Thanks a lot for your patience and will to help out, much appreciated

[punkacc9]

Does anyone actually know the true radius of these guitars?

[punkacc9]

Been a while since I started this. Parts are either ridiculous in price for these guitars now or near impossible to find. I was going to go the full vintage correct route until I came to this conclusion. But, I decided to just do whatever works.

To start off, this trem I can't find anywhere. I used to see these all of the time too. Luckily there is a faint indent in the finish from the old one. I couldn't get a proper template from it but I got one close enough for me to make a hole cover out of an old mutilated musicmaster pickguard. I was just gonna do it real punk rock and use a tailpiece mounted by the strap button until I found a trem solution (still a possibility lol) but I have a few sources at the moment that are supposed to get me a tracing of the trem plate. Then the plan is to have Kevin James make the plate and I will use the guts out of a jaguar trem.

Next, the pickups and covers are hard to find and ones I have found, I don't wanna pay the price for them. I have plenty of old humbuckers laying around so why not use em? At least until I break down and buy the p90's.. So I did some measurements and Cross made me a 3D template of the rings modified for humbuckers. Shapeways printed them and they should be here tomorrow.

Lastly (for now), the bridge. The original bridges pop up on ebay but they're once again... like a broken record, pricey. From what I read, they really aren't even that great. So the solution... the bridges floated on a slim piece of metal mounted in the middle by two screws. Then the ends were just thumb screws mounted to it for height adjustment. This looks easy to make. I'll be using a piece of aluminum I have laying around. You can see the dents of the old bridge post thumb screws. they are the exact same length as mustang bridge posts and Tune-o-Matic bridge holes. I can either knock mustang posts off or use a TOM but I'm not sure of the radius of this thing. No way of measuring it either. Anyone know? More progress to come. Stay tuned


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[theworkoffire]

Is this any use to you?



It's not quite the right bridge for the base - there are gaps between the wheels and the bridge that will need washers, but it's the right Univox base.
I don't have the neck plate I thought I might have (too many threads!) - sorry.

[punkacc9]

Is this any use to you?

I would definitely be interested in that! It'll save me having to make the plate. That bridge looks pretty cool too. It's like a rounded TOM. I'm sure I could make it work if I don't use one of my bridges.