Univox U-1226 Head

[rocknrolldork]

I saw one in a pawn shop for $150.00. Sometimes that old shit is hit or miss. Anyone have any info on this head? Has anyone owned or played one?

[kentuckyklira]

Look here

http://www.univox.org/amps/uniamp.html

Unless the guy got the number of power amp tubes wrong, then it must be a pretty odd circuit, only getting 60w out of 8 6L6 tubes!

Looks pretty cool otherwise, and I doubt you can go wrong for 150!

[Nitro Express]

A lot of that stuff was made for electronic organs. 60w out of 8 6L6 tubes means the amp is deffinately running Class A which means the tubes run hot and are on all the time. You get 8-10 watts per tube and the tubes don't last as long. Some people think this amp design sounds better. If you run class A/B you can get 25 watts out of one 6L6 tube and they are running only half the time. Most Marshalls and Fenders are class A/B at least anything 50 watts or more.

Class A was the normal way to build an amp until RCA engineers found a way to use an extra preamp tube in a signal splitter circuit to split the signal in two and amplify both sides using the push-pull technique. This actually was a major breakthrough in amplification technology and allowed larger wattages with less tubes.

Before this a 100 watt head would have 10 power tubes in it and it would run hot as hell!

[Nitro Express]

The EL-34 tube was Phillips answer to the American 6L6. I have an original booklet that brags how much thinner and smaller the EL-34 was to the 6L6. This was before transistors were common. LOL! Yeah man, you can make that hi fi amp smaller because it's running our El-34's! The bragging was big power in a small package.

[rocknrolldork]

Tons of great info Nitro! Thanks man.

It looks similar to this but is cleaner and has all the knobs.

http://www.univox.org/pics/amps/u1226.jpg

It doesn't have channel switching from A to B. Do you think I could run one of the channels as a pre into the other channel to get more distortion and breakup? Is that even possible?

[Nitro Express]

Sure. You can do a lot to tube amps but if the amp is using printed circuit boards it's more difficult. That's why people who do amp mods like the old point to point or peg board wiring.

One trick I do on a Fender Bassman or Marshall JTM 45 is use a patchchord or a splitter box to run my signal into both channels and dial in the tone I want using both volume knobs. One reason I love those amps.

It really depends on how that amp is setup up circuit wise. A lot of times the only difference between channels is a capacitor or resistor and they both use the same pre-amp tubes.

You can spend a lot of money on modding an amp and still have something that sounds like ass. Amp voicing is a real art and there are so many people into doing it and do it well, it's just cheaper to buy their amp already made.

If you are into tinkering with amps then it might be fun but beware of the high voltages inside the filter capacitors, they can kill you! If you don't know how to drain the filter caps you have no business playing inside and amp. You can get yourself killed!

I would say play the amp. If you like it as is, buy it. A tube amp for $150 sounds great but many tube amps sound like shit and that money could be better spent on a bottle of absinthe or something. LOL!

[rocknrolldork]

I got it. That's it on the Marshall cab in the background.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i265/rocknrolldork/guitars010.jpg

It's not a bad little head. I can turn it all the way up and it's not peeling the paint off the walls. Close to a MIG 50 sound. I might be able to get that Sovtek groove out of it if I keep tweaking it. It gets a decent natural distortion when it is cranked and hot. Pretty good clean tone too. The reverb on it sucks but I rarely run reverb through the Marshall cab anyway. The Tremelo in CH1 is good. I need to put new tubes in it for sure. Ended up spending $130.00. Not a bad buy.

[ELVIS]

Who painted the corners and the handles red, you ??

[rocknrolldork]

Originally posted by ELVIS
Who painted the corners and the handles red, you ??

Nope. It was like that when I bought it. I don't dig the red. I'll probably paint them black.

[BrownSound1]

You don't need channel switching if you have a volume knob on your guitar. :D

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by BrownSound1
You don't need channel switching if you have a volume knob on your guitar. :D

Very true if you have a good amp based on the old RCA schematics that Leo Fender copied and then the Brits copied Leo. A old Fender or Marshal will clean right up with the guitar's volume knob but some of the modern amps today do not. One reason I still pack a single channel, single volume amp with me as a backup or to use for Hendrix shit.