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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: DeArmond 'monkey' pickups

5/15/2006 7:29 AM
David Schwab	Re: DeArmond 'monkey' pickups I used to own a Model 1000 Rhythm Chief.. this was way back when I first started playing. It's a wonderful sounding pickup. I even had it installed in my Rick bass for a while, to replace the treble pickup I broke (before replacing it with a Hi-A). I took it apart once and I seem to remember it had very thin wire.. I think I might have broken it too. I took a DCR reading on it (back using a cheap Archer analog VOM kit!) and remembered it had a very high reading... but I don't remember what it was. This was in the 70's, so details are sketchy. I really like the old DeArmond single coils. They have a unique tone... even the cheap ones on the Silvertones.

5/15/2006 7:29 AM

David Schwab

Re: DeArmond 'monkey' pickups

I used to own a Model 1000 Rhythm Chief.. this was way back when I first started playing.

It's a wonderful sounding pickup. I even had it installed in my Rick bass for a while, to replace the treble pickup I broke (before replacing it with a Hi-A).

I took it apart once and I seem to remember it had very thin wire.. I think I might have broken it too.

I took a DCR reading on it (back using a cheap Archer analog VOM kit!) and remembered it had a very high reading... but I don't remember what it was.

This was in the 70's, so details are sketchy.

I really like the old DeArmond single coils. They have a unique tone... even the cheap ones on the Silvertones.

5/15/2006 6:04 PM
Dave Stephens	Yeah the gold foil and Kay flat top chrome covered ones are cool pickups. I am about to receive some magnets I had made to replicate that tone in a humbucker housing, for the jazz and jump blues guys. They should be in next week. I wish there was more information on Harry DeArmond and Rowe too. DeArmond invented finger tapping guitar playing. Van Halen didn't. Harry I read used to take two guitars and set them on stands and play both guitars at once by tapping the strings, to demonstrate how sensitive his pickups were. He showed some musician how to play that way, who promptly stole the idea and took it on tour. Where Eddie came up with it I dunno......

5/15/2006 6:04 PM

Dave Stephens

Yeah the gold foil and Kay flat top chrome covered ones are cool pickups. I am about to receive some magnets I had made to replicate that tone in a humbucker housing, for the jazz and jump blues guys. They should be in next week. I wish there was more information on Harry DeArmond and Rowe too. DeArmond invented finger tapping guitar playing. Van Halen didn't. Harry I read used to take two guitars and set them on stands and play both guitars at once by tapping the strings, to demonstrate how sensitive his pickups were. He showed some musician how to play that way, who promptly stole the idea and took it on tour. Where Eddie came up with it I dunno......

5/16/2006 8:10 AM

Eric H

quote:
"Where Eddie came up with it I dunno......"

He stole it from Harvey Mandel ;-)

-Eric

5/16/2006 2:05 PM

David Schwab

quote:
"He stole it from Harvey Mandel ;-)

That's the story I heard too. Also of course Eddie was trying to imitate Holdsworth... who doesn't need to tap!

5/16/2006 2:54 PM
David Schwab	You know I never heard that story before... but reading up on DeArmond I see that he taught Jimmy Webster how to tap, and he seems to be the one that made it somewhat popular. You learn something new everyday! But I'm with you Dave, DeArmond was a pickup making genius.

5/16/2006 3:19 PM
Mark Hammer	The gold foil ones I've seen (and to my great shame destroyed) are very similar in some ways to the Epiphone "New Yorker" pickups. Both of these have the superficial illusion of being double-coil pickups, but if you give it a moment's thought, you realize the adjustable polepieces are much too close to the edge to acually be sitting in a coil. That's because they AREN'T. In fact, the coil sits in the middle of the pickup, and the visible polepieces are simply the physical extension of the magnet, as if the coil was wound around one wall/side of a U-channel. the sensing field therefore becomes the region between the tips of the U-channel. These deliver a nice meaty sound with lots of bark. It's been a long time since I played one (gave the New Yorker off my Epi Windsor to Mark Knopfler in 1986) but my recollection is they had less beef to them than P-90s but were sort of in that direction, as far as single coils go. The bobbin on the Silvertone was ridiculously thin and fragile material. I may still have it somewhere. I know I kept the gold foil, base plate and chrome cover. The magnet in my Silvertone was a ceramic that sat like a slug in the centre of the coil. I think it had holes for rivets to attach it to the baseplate.

5/16/2006 3:19 PM

Mark Hammer

The gold foil ones I've seen (and to my great shame destroyed) are very similar in some ways to the Epiphone "New Yorker" pickups. Both of these have the superficial illusion of being double-coil pickups, but if you give it a moment's thought, you realize the adjustable polepieces are much too close to the edge to acually be sitting in a coil. That's because they AREN'T. In fact, the coil sits in the middle of the pickup, and the visible polepieces are simply the physical extension of the magnet, as if the coil was wound around one wall/side of a U-channel. the sensing field therefore becomes the region between the tips of the U-channel.

These deliver a nice meaty sound with lots of bark. It's been a long time since I played one (gave the New Yorker off my Epi Windsor to Mark Knopfler in 1986) but my recollection is they had less beef to them than P-90s but were sort of in that direction, as far as single coils go.

The bobbin on the Silvertone was ridiculously thin and fragile material. I may still have it somewhere. I know I kept the gold foil, base plate and chrome cover. The magnet in my Silvertone was a ceramic that sat like a slug in the centre of the coil. I think it had holes for rivets to attach it to the baseplate.

5/16/2006 10:29 PM
Ken	Hello... I loved the 'gold foil' DeArmonds too, I had a Harmony semihollow once with those and a Bigsby, I should have NEVER sold that one. I loved that guitar, but the neck was pure junk. I didn't mention in my last post above that once I opened up that RC, I didn't want to rewind it. I suggested to the customer that Mr. Lollar was the person to rewind that one (seriously - I did) and also I didn't have the proper wire for the job, but the owner just wouldn't take no for an answer. He was actually accusing me of stealing the silly thing by Saturday night. FYI - If you ever rewind one of these yourself... Thin Krazy Glue is your friend - the bobbin material is a brown fiberglass looking material so incredibly thin and fragile that it's like trying to rewind an eggshell. It will break for no reason at all, you have been warned. You will have to extract two of the magnets (B and high E?) to wind this coil, wind the coil up to the place where the fifth (B?) magnet was, then reinsert the magnets and fill up the coil the rest of the way. Do not even try to pot this, the coil is glued together from the factory with what looked like contact cement. I got lucky with the one I did (kinda), the bobbin on mine came loose over the two magnets I needed to remove to finish the coil so I could remove them relatively easily. This was the only luck I had in the whole deal. Ken

5/16/2006 10:29 PM

Ken

Hello...

I loved the 'gold foil' DeArmonds too, I had a Harmony semihollow once with those and a Bigsby, I should have NEVER sold that one. I loved that guitar, but the neck was pure junk.

I didn't mention in my last post above that once I opened up that RC, I didn't want to rewind it. I suggested to the customer that Mr. Lollar was the person to rewind that one (seriously - I did) and also I didn't have the proper wire for the job, but the owner just wouldn't take no for an answer. He was actually accusing me of stealing the silly thing by Saturday night.

FYI - If you ever rewind one of these yourself...

Thin Krazy Glue is your friend - the bobbin material
is a brown fiberglass looking material so incredibly thin and fragile that it's like trying to rewind an eggshell. It will break for no reason at all, you have been warned.

You will have to extract two of the magnets (B and high E?) to wind this coil, wind the coil up to the
place where the fifth (B?) magnet was, then reinsert the magnets and fill up the coil the rest of the way.

Do not even try to pot this, the coil is glued together from the factory with what looked like contact cement. I got lucky with the one I did (kinda), the bobbin on mine came loose over the
two magnets I needed to remove to finish the coil
so I could remove them relatively easily.
This was the only luck I had in the whole deal.

Ken

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