Dearmond 1000, 1100 reissues?

[deacon Mark]

I have 2 Dearmond 1100 reissue pickups I bought when they first came out seems like over 5 years. I also bought a 1000 that does not have the individual pole piece adjustment screws. I even bought one of the 1000 in chrome. I find they compare very well with the originals, and I have 3 of the originals on my other guitars. They are a bargain for the price by far. I used one for my 38 L5 and it sounds wonderful and the other I put on another carved top it was the 1000 i gold. It sounds in particular very good and dare say one of the better pickups I have used.

Now comes another situation. I have a Heritage Ghost build D'angelico NY with one of the Dearmond 1100 reissue like the other ones. Well I have always thought this pickup seem to drop off in sound on the high E string and a bit with the B. The other 4 strings are great. I tried all sorts of tweaks to the pole piece screws but nothing seemed to do a thing. The sound was just sort of dead or plinky in character. I got tired of it and finally yesterday decide to break out on of my new saved 1100. Same exact pickup. I tried it out first and noticed big difference. I then went ahead and solder the new connections and the pickup is tremendous. It sounds basically like others and finally my guitar is playing electrically great. I normally just play it acoustically mostly but wanted amplified sound to be stellar. I am a happy camper and wish I had done this a year ago.

Now comes the question. Given I replaced the pickup with the exact same pickup I wonder if this has maybe to do with imports and quality control or possibly where they are made, could be different factories? I measured the output on the dud pickup and it was 7.29. I measure the output on the one I replaced it with at 6.95. I am not an expert on pickups but I know some out in the forums are pretty good with pickups. Any explanation? I realize pickups can vary even among same model but in this case huge difference not acceptable.

I will also throw out my anecdotal evidence that the 1000 reissue without the individual screws for adjusting actually sound better to my ears a little hotter. I going to get another one for a spare.

[Archie]

Sounds good. I look forward to the results. A friend of mine makes pickups and I was going to ask him to make a series of accurate reissues, using the carcasses of the re-issues but if they stand up on their own, they might be no point.

[deacon Mark]

Sounds good. I look forward to the results. A friend of mine makes pickups and I was going to ask him to make a series of accurate reissues, using the carcasses of the re-issues but if they stand up on their own, they might be no point.

No need, I suggest just buying the reissue and see how it works. Honestly, I have done many pickup comparisons and at some point and price it margins are not worth the results. Many great options and the Dearmond's work because of the low profile and application for guitars with shallow neck angles. I also have to say the Bartonlini that is on my Heritage Johnny Smith is without exception the finest really. It simply is even and powerful. It is not necessarily better than the Dearmond's in some cases, but I really find it amazing. It has a pretty thin profile too.

[sgosnell]

It seems you may have received a defective pickup. Feces occur. I've had a couple of 1100 reissues for several years, and have had no issues at all, they're my favorite pickups by far. I've heard that the Rhythm Chief pickups have separate windings for the treble strings, but I have no actual evidence, because I don't want to tear into my working pickups. If that is the case, a defective internal connection could be the issue. I have no opinion on the 1000, because I don't own one.

[Cunamara]

Used to be that the polepieces for the four bass strings were wound together first, then all six strings wound the rest of the way so that the pickup balanced for bronze wound strings. So the treble strings would thus have lower output, noticeable with "electric" guitar strings. I don't know if the reissues are wound this way.

[KirkP]

As I recall from my internet research a few years ago, the 1000 and 1100 have very different magnet and coil designs. The 1100 winding is around the full perimeter, but I think the 1000 has more windings on the top two strings. The 1100 magnet is a ferrite-loaded rubber material. So one shouldn’t expect them to sound identical.

I have the reissue Guild/DeArmond 1100. Its response is very sensitive to positioning. My 1100 was initially installed very slightly offset from the strings, transversely. As a result, the response from the high E string was muted, may 1/4 or so of the B string. A very slight realignment corrected that. Pickup and pole-piece height also have a very strong effect on tone and string to string volume balance. I imagine this is because the magnetic field is concentrated over each pole piece. Since the 1000 lacks discrete pole pieces, I’d expect it to have a more uniformly distributed magnetic field, so it might be somewhat less sensitive to positioning.

There’s a video on youtube of someone rewinding a reissue 1100. He said the rewind was necessary because there was a defect in the bobbin that allowed the threads of a pole piece to contact the winding, eventually cutting the wire. It’s sometimes possibly to get a signal out of a pickup with a winding break due to capacitive coupling between windings, but I doubt that’s the case on your defective unit since it didn’t show an open circuit at DC.

Here’s a teardown of the RC1000:
<https://www.jroadman.com/instruments/dearmond-1000-rhythm-chief-repair>

And a rewind of the RC1100:
<

>

[deacon Mark]

As I recall from my internet research a few years ago, the 1000 and 1100 have very different magnet and coil designs. The 1100 winding is around the full perimeter, but I think the 1000 has more windings on the top two strings. The 1100 magnet is a ferrite-loaded rubber material. So one shouldn’t expect them to sound identical.

I have the reissue Guild/DeArmond 1100. Its response is very sensitive to positioning. My 1100 was initially installed very slightly offset from the strings, transversely. As a result, the response from the high E string was muted, may 1/4 or so of the B string. A very slight realignment corrected that. Pickup and pole-piece height also have a very strong effect on tone and string to string volume balance. I imagine this is because the magnetic field is concentrated over each pole piece. Since the 1000 lacks discrete pole pieces, I’d expect it to have a more uniformly distributed magnetic field, so it might be somewhat less sensitive to positioning.

There’s a video on youtube of someone rewinding a reissue 1100. He said the rewind was necessary because there was a defect in the bobbin that allowed the threads of a pole piece to contact the winding, eventually cutting the wire. It’s sometimes possibly to get a signal out of a pickup with a winding break due to capacitive coupling between windings, but I doubt that’s the case on your defective unit since it didn’t show an open circuit at DC.

Here’s a teardown of the RC1000:
<https://www.jroadman.com/instruments/dearmond-1000-rhythm-chief-repair>

And a rewind of the RC1100:
<

>

Kirkp that was tremendous information. In my case the 1100 was positioned as it should all the strings ran directly over the polepieces almost exact. Infact had to be careful because it you move polepiece up too high it would contact string on upper frets. I sent a note to Guild asking if they would allow me to swap in out for a new one. Probably they won't and the cost to rewind about as much as a new pickup. The 1000 though I think is the way to go.