DeArmond pickups

[Logand0404]

I like the sound of CC pickups, but need a floating one and Pete biltoft is now out of business. I also like DeArmonds but haven’t heard them as much. I like the FHC guitar mike but they seem hard to come by and have problems due to age, does anyone know a good modern fhc - like pickup? Also does anyone know about the sound of new vs old rhythm Chiefs?

[deacon Mark]

I have posted many times about the reissues 1000 and 1100 buy one of them you are home free.

[Woody Sound]

Maybe the KA Floating Single Coil?

[omphalopsychos]

I think a small minority of people have owned guitars with original charlie christian pickups and vintage dearmonds. I'm probably in an even smaller minority of people who think the dearmonds sound better than the charlie christians. If you can find it, a vintage RC1100 or FHC would be amazing. The best FHCs I've played are from the 50s (the date is on the tab). The reissues are good as well. To my ears they have a bit less growl, but maybe that is just based on the pots. The old ones came with 1 megaOhm pots.

For modern pickups, nothing sounds better than TK smith pickups. He makes a floater that you can attach with putty. I had a luthier make a bracket for mine that worked quite well, but then I eventually sold the guitar I had it on.

[andrew]

You're going to get a lot of opinions and, if you search, you'll see quite a bit of ink spilled on the subject on this forum and elsewhere. But you're hitting on something that's near and dear to my heart, so I figure I'll chime in.

I'm a big fan of old single coil pickups in most of their flavors. They have a clarity to them that I find most humbuckers lack (particularly on the low strings). I don't think there's a wrong answer out of any of your suggestions and the ones above. That being said, a 'real' Charlie Christian pickup is my all-time favorite pickup. They are warm and fat, but also somehow clear. It's kind of an oxymoron. So many of my all-time favorite guitar tones were guys in the 50s and early 60s using amps of that time period along with older guitars with CC pickups.

I have had the Pete Biltoft floating Charlie Christian. It had the look, but I didn't think it really had the sound. Which makes sense, because the CC formula is a difficult one to replicate in a more modern, smaller form factor and doesn't easily translate to a floating pickup. I've tried quite a few modern CC pickups from all the usual suspects in both archtops and teles. The one that is the clear winner is the TK Smith CCII.

As mentioned above by omphalopsychos (we're both big TK Smith fans), TK's floating pickup is very nice too. It's brighter than his CC pickup. Now that I'm trying to think of words to describe it, I'm realizing that it vaguely reminds me of the tone of the old McCarty floating pickups/pickguard assemblies.

I have both a vintage and a modern Rhythm Chief 1100. They're on different guitars, though. I've never put them both on the same instrument and had a direct, head to head shootout. (I suppose I should do that one day.) I will simply say that they're both good. But I do prefer the sound of the FH-C. (They varied quite a bit in build and tone over the years, so they don't all sound the same). I suppose the RC 1100s do a better job of more accurately capturing the natural acoustic sound of the instrument, but my '40s FH-C has a warm, fat, almost nasty-ness (in a good way) to it. More "old school with a little hair on it".

[Rodney Gene]

To the OP, TKs floating pickup sounds excellent, it's an excellent choice, although it is hard to say what the wait time will be. He doesn't make a floating style CC pickup, which is relevant and honestly should be expected of any integral tone head. Same as Andrew mentions above, despite any 'look' some pickup builders offer, a properly built and voiced CC pickup is much too big for the end of any archtop neck. If you understood the size of coil wire and magnets used, even when the design is modified (like TKs standard CC) its still basic physics.

As for TKs standard mount CCs, they have the largest footprint of any on the market and require the most routing as he uses machine screws directly into the steel plate. Despite the fact they are built different that the originals, they sound excellent, authentic and really work well for vintage tones.

[2bornot2bop]

Here’s to Pete!

[58flame]

I have a factory RC1000 on my 86 Artist Award and it's a fantastic pickup. I have no experience with the 1100.

[entresz]

There's a bit of variation between the Vintage Vibe CC pickups too since Pete did so much custom work. I have two of them (both floating), one with 38 AWG wire - this sounds the most like a 'real' CC, the other is a much lower profile pickup with 42 gauge wire. The lower profile one is brighter and has a more mid heavy tone, a bit more like a P90 to my ears, or even a jazzmaster style pickup.

But yes, the reissue DeArmonds are nice. I've got an 1100 reissue and even though they have a lower DC resistance from the originals, they still have 'that' sound.