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Hello all. Just had my guitar tech install a Dearmond RC 1100 on my Harmony and the high E string is not being picked up at all. He's a good tech, and he could not figure it out and he/we tried everything: realigning the pickup, raising the pole pieces, moving the entire pickup closer to the strings, etc. Yes, my setup is fine, the E string sounds fine acoustically and it's not too far from the pickup. You'd really have to hear it to know what I'm talking about; can't figure out how to attached sound files here, so below is a link:
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Any ideas? I'm assuming it's just a bad pickup. Thanks all.
Tom
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04-20-2023 07:40 PM
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A bad pickup is the only thing that comes to mind. I've never seen that happen.
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Thanks for the response, that's what I'm thinking. But, check this out: I took the B string off and moved the E string over to the B string place...just for the heck of it, trying to see what the heck is going. Of course, the E string sounded fine in the B string spot, so there's nothing wrong with the E string (as if there would be, but trying to take things step by step). Having done that, I kept the E string tied to the B string tuning post and moved the string back over to its spot on the nut and the bridge - imagine the E string in its proper place, but tied to the B string tuning post. This is bonkers, but it works now. So...the problem isn't the pickup (well, I don't think anyway), the problem is...the tuning peg? Going to re-string and make sure I'm hearing what I'm hearing! Thanks again for the response.
Originally Posted by sgosnell
Tom
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I have a reissue RC1100. I had a similar problem with the high E immediately after it was installed, but solved it by relocating the pickup a small amount toward that string. The magnetic field apparently drops off very quickly on that end of the pickup, so a small misalignment makes a huge difference.
if you want to know what’s inside the pickup, watch the beginning of this video. The winding is a single coil of wire. The RC1000 has a much different construction. This guy had to rewind his pickup because the bobbin became unglued, letting some of the windings contact the polepiece. When he adjusted the polepiece it broke the winding! So that’s something to watch out for. I won’t adjust mine unless it seems absolutely necessary.
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That's really odd. Could attaching the string to the other tuning peg be exerting some torque on the pickup that allows a broken winding to make contact?
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Well, what I wrote was incorrect. Here's what the situation really was: when I moved the E string, I left it on the B string tuning post and the B string bridge location. So what I had was the E string over the E pickup pole piece, but connected to the B string tuning post and bridge location. That confirmed that nothing was wrong with the pickup - meaning, it wasn't a matter of me moving the pickup to "catch" more of the E string, etc. (I do appreciate folks who mentioned that I should try that). I re-connected the E string back to where it was supposed to be and it worked. My only guess is that there was some kind of weird grounding issue. Not sure if you heard my recordings, but it's wild...the E string literally was just totally "off", totally non-amplified. Originally Posted by starjasmine
Anyway, somehow I've got this thing to work, and the best part is, I love the sound of the pickup.
Thanks all!
Tom
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All I can say about that is that feces occur. I have no clue what happened or why. I'm glad you got it sorted out.
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Had the same problem with a Zoller floater.
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I don’t think any electrical issue including grounding could cause the high E string to be mute when the rest of the pickup is normal. After all, it’s a single coil of wire. I think it must be alignment of the string relative to the magnetic field.
Last edited by KirkP; 04-21-2023 at 11:15 PM.
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Thanks, me too. I was so frustrated, I was pretty damn close to doing a Pete Townshend on this thing in the backyard. Have a good one. Originally Posted by sgosnell
Tom
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I agree, I'm just guessing ground because what the heck. I honestly have no clue what happened, and if my guitar tech hadn't also experienced the problem (he's the one who alerted me to it) I would have thought I imagined the whole thing. The recordings I shared tell the story...you're playing along and the E string is dead...not just quiet, it's out. And moving the pickup around (laterally, etc.) didn't do anything. So anyway, maybe not grounding, maybe it's a gremlin, I really don't know. But I know something changed when I re-strung the E string - same string by the way, not a new one. I moved something, did something with either the tuning post or the bridge, it's my only guess. Originally Posted by KirkP
Anyway, thanks for the input, much appreciated.
Tom
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i’d love to know what caused that
problem
its very weird ….
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If I hadn't recorded myself demonstrating it, I swear right now I'd be thinking I imagined it. I just know that somehow, this got "fixed" by me screwing around with the E and B strings - tying the E string on the B string tuning post, putting the B string on the E string position (tuning post and bridge), etc., etc. It doesn't make any sense - as someone else noted, it can't be a ground issue because that would affect all the strings.
The bottom line is that string - the way it was attached in that moment - was not acting like a "magnetized" (wrong term probably, you know what I mean) steel string. It was as if that string was made of something else and the pickup was not getting it. My tech could not figure it out - we tried everything (as I noted before). We/he concluded that it was the pickup (which it wasn't).
And no, I'm not going to try to replicate this, hahaha. It works now, and I've had such a journey getting a pickup on this Harmony, I'm not messing with anything.
Tom
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fair enough !
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Any chance the tone control got turned down and then back up? Does turning the tone control down reproduce the problem?
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Did test the magnetism of the screws? You can make an easy test with a screwdriver or magnet whether it pegs to the screws equally. I guess there is no or opposite magnetism at the E String. If this is the case, you could try magnetize the rubber magnet with two strong Neodym magnets. I had the same problem with an old strat pickup which had a dead e string. I could solve the problem with remagnetizing the pole pieces. There are some tutorials on YouTube how to handle this.
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The polepieces on a Rhythm Chief are not magnets. Most pickups don't have polepieces that are magnets, that's mostly a Fender thing, although there are other makers who use them. Most pickups have a magnet underneath instead of individual magnetic polepieces. If the polepiece screws in/out, it's almost certainly not a magnet.
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Inside of the coil is a magnet as I know a rubber magnet that will cause the problem. I would try to remagnetize the whole Pickup between 2 strong magnets.
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You could also put a Neodym pill under the Pickup under the E string.
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PT, with respect, I would discourage anybody from trying to re-magnetize a vintage DeArmond 1100 at home. Originally Posted by Polytune
The original DeA 1100 is built differently from almost all other pickups in multiple ways.
1. Almost all guitar pickups use either AlNiCo bar or ceramic bar magnets. AlNiCo can de-Gauss over time; ceramic less so.
Instead, DeArmond 1100s use rubberized plastic -- rightly or wrongly think, 'refrigerator magnet.' I have never seen anything which suggests that it de-Gausses.
2. Almost all guitar pickups are wound onto bobbins. On almost all Gibson-style pickups the bobbins have magnets underneath them. On almost all Fender-style pickups the bobbins have magnets going through them.
Instead, the DeA 1100 is wound on the magnets without a bobbin. That's a big part of the reason it's so thin.
3. And here's where it gets really weird: Almost all guitar pickups are either single-coils, like Strat or Tele pickups or P90s with the wire wound on one bobbin, or they are humbuckers, with wire coiled on two separate bobbins
Instead, the DeA 1100 starts by winding wire around one magnet which goes under the low four strings. Then the winder stopped, and jammed-up the other magnet that goes under the two high strings, and the wire gets wound around both magnets for all six strings.
That means the bottom four strings have a bunch more wire than the top two, so they are hotter. That's a feature not a bug.
It's also a really hard build.
All that is why the original DeA 1100 is so unusual, and why nobody has bothered to do all the work required to accurately pirate it.
And in turn, why just saying, "I'm gonna re-magnetize that sucker!" is likely to yield unanticipated results.
We now return you to normal operations on JG.be: "What is the best strap for Benson-style picking technique?"
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OK Sam, it looks like you know what you're talking about!
The 1100 I have is not vintage, it's the reissue (I purchased mine from Djangobooks). Do you know if the wiring/construction of the reissue is the same as the vintage? I would think no, right?
I should also point out now that I am no longer having the problem, but I'm very much interested in what every one is posting, and I am interested in how/why this happened. Thanks all.
Tom
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I think this correct for the rhythm chief 1000, I wound 2 or 3 PUs like this, didn't know that the 1100 has the same principle. But putting a magnet pill under the e string would be something like first aid and you don't damage nothing. I guess your magnet has some strange orientation, so if it were mine, I would try to magnetize it...Instead, the DeA 1100 starts by winding wire around one magnet which goes under the low four strings.
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Tom -- Originally Posted by TPMCD
I heard that the reissue DeA 1100 is single-wound, more like a P90.
I've got a reissue like yours; it's a nice-sounding pickup.
But mine had the some condition as yours too -- that fussy high E.
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Does that suggest a solution?
How about, it's wound 4 and 2. The electrical contact for the wire under the B and E strings becomes intermittent. The B string still works, because it's close enough to the G string to be sensed by the 4. The E string is too far away. Then, something is jostled and the electrical contact is restored. Now the E string works again. The B string is probably louder, but that might be hard to tell.
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You can throw out the b screw and try without..
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