Univox Hi Flier Phase 3

[solderburn]

NGD

Just picked this up on craigslist for $375 last week, needed a lot of typical work for a 40+ year old guitar.  Now it's sounds and feels great to play.  No crazy mods yet, I'm considering making a coil split option for the neck pick-up, but for now I'm just happy to have it up and running. Just waiting for a replacement truss rod cover to arrive in the mail. 

List of things i did to make it playable again.  Nothing special...
-replaced D string tuner capstan and gear
-replaced bad previous nut replacement with a tusq nut
-replaced vibrato bar
-polished frets
-conditioned fretboard
-hammered and filed the bent and crowded bridge saddles
-loosened truss rod, now it has a very straight neck
-adjusted pick-up height
-full set up and lubrication

It's now ready to rock. First song I played on it was "About a Girl". 

[newey]

Nice! I've always liked the look of the Hi-Flyer (Mosrite-ish).

I have a 50-year old Univox semi-hollow. It was the second guitar I ever owned.

[solderburn]

This is my third Hi Flier, i have one Phase 1, and two Phase 3 models, they're all light weight and comfortable for me to play. And i'd say Univoxs are well built instruments despite being primarily a budget import copy brand.  

[thetragichero]

i play mostly strat-shaped guitars and basses (partly because of the availability of parts to swap around), but i LOVE oddball-looking guitars. it's like the designers set out to use their design chops instead of just copying a strat/lp
dig it!

[mistag77]

Hi solderburn!
Hey I’m brand new to this forum, so I hope I’m creating this post correctly……But I was just wondering if you could assist me in finding a truss rod cover for a Univox Hi-flier 3? I read that you were waiting on one to arrive, so just figured I would ask…..Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Mikey

[newey]

mistag77-

This thread goes back a few years, and solderburn hasn't posted anything recently, so I don't know that he will see your query. But maybe someone else has some info.

Oh, and . . .

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

Also, your second post was fine, but I deleted your first one since you didn't say anything in it.

[mistag77]

Awesome! Thank you newey! I appreciate that! Here is a photo of the Univox Hi-Flier 3 that I just bought last week……Got it for $100, so I think I did pretty well! I found a matching replacement for the “tophat style” volume knob on eBay…..Ya all I need now, to make it
100% complete (I think) is one of the white colored truss rod
covers…..I wonder if there would be any way to go about making one??

Anyways, ya thanks again! And if anyone happens to have a spare truss rod cover, or know where I might find one, please let me know!!

Thanks!
Mikey

[newey]

Your photo didn't post. There are instructions for posting images in the Reference section. Basically, you can't just attach images to a post, you have to have the images hosted elsewhere.

Eastwood Guitars makes a pretty accurate copy of the Hi-Flyer, not sure if they would sell you a truss rod cover or not, or whether it is the same as the original. If you're not concerned with being "vintage correct", making your own is probably your best option. You can buy square pieces of pickguard stock in various colors, make a template, and cut your own. However, there is going to be a learning curve with cutting and shaping the stuff, and you will need to have the right tools to get a good result. I'm sure there are probably tutorials on YouTube or elsewhere to teach you how to cut a custom pickguard, those can probably give you the basic techniques. You'll need a decent jigsaw, and you'll probably want to mount your plastic stock to a piece of wood so you can cut through the wood and plastic both, to avoid warping/bending of the plastic when you saw it. Then probably a Dremel Mototool with a small grinding bit to smooth the edges. But, again, there's probably better tips out there on the web. I've tried to cut pickguards in the past and had no good success with it, but I didn't have the right tools and did a half-@ssed job. So, I'm probably not the one to listen to on this.

Or, if you really aren't concerned with being perfectly correct, you could just find a truss rod cover from some other guitar that would be of a similar size/shape. But this would probably mean having to drill new holes in the headstock, not sure if you want to go there.

[solderburn]

Hi mistag77-, 

Great score!

I got the truss rod cover made by a seller on reverb.com.  He wasn't able to do a great job, not perfectly symmetrical,  and i had to warm up the plastic to bend it myself so it fit the slope of the headstock.  I lent him an original from one of my other Univoxes so he'd have something to go off of, i assume he still has the janky template.  Better than nothing i guess. 


Here's the seller;  I have no affiliation. reverb.com/shop/retro-guitars


Hi newey! I'm actually a big lurker,  I check back often, you guys always have something super cool underway. I'd post more here but i just feel like I'm a vampire sucking all the good energy from you guys, and not contributing anything worthwhile in return.  Also, lately i haven't been building anything because now i play 2nd guitar in two "Surf" bands; The Scimitars, and Tikiyaki 5-0 (recently joined) which takes up a lot of time.