Harry DeArmond

Harry DeArmond (January 28, 1906 - October 12, 1999) invented the first commercially available attachable guitar pickup in the mid 1930s. He established a working relationship with Horace 'Bud' Rowe's company to manufacture and develop these items. The company was located in a former schoolhouse at 1702 Wayne Street in Toledo, Ohio.

Initially, there were two models for flattop guitars, (the RH, and the RHC, which had an integral volume control); and two for archtop guitars (the FH, and FHC with volume control). Both types of pickup, initially called "guitar mikes", were passive electromagnetic, employing the same wide shallow coil shape with individual Alnico 2 pole-pieces.

The RH type was flush-fitted into the guitar's soundhole and retained with adjustable springs, to minimise damage to the instrument and to facilitate removal. As it projected only a few millimetres above the soundboard and had an edgewise, almost flush potentiometer knob, it hardly interfered with the instrument’s playability.

The FH type comprised a coil assembly first in a plain chrome-plated brass cover, a single slot then finally a two slotted cover fixed to a rod that lay parallel and slightly below the height of the sixth (low "E") string they called a pressure rod, nicknamed the "Monkey Stick" do to a quirky resemblance to a popular childs toy of the time. A small hole through the left side of the pickup allows the rod to pass through the pickup to lightly grip the 1/8" rod. This rod is clamped "to the guitar strings" behind the bridge. An half moon shape loop goes around the bridge continuing just short of the fingerboard. The pickup could readily slide along its length from bridge to neck, providing an infinite variation in tonality.

The FHC-B has a 12' cable but no volume control, commonly sold along with a volume pedal. The FHC-C has a volume control (potentiometer) in a small box 10 inches passed the pickup on the cable which then was attached to the monkey stick manually by the user. Clamping the rod to the strings helped with sustain and tone as the entire unit would vibrate in concert while playing the strings. A better ground is achieved by clamping the rod to the strings using your body as a ground source while playing. This grounding method is still used today on every electric guitar.

The Guitar Mike, FHC, and Rhythm Chiefs was also available with a shorter 6" pressure rod that fixed to the end of the necks bass side and extended over the body to hold the pickup that was secured using 2 screws through 2 holes in the rod attached just below the fretboard.

DeArmond pickups using the monkey stick first used an attachment cable with a threaded female connector on one end and a 1/4" plug on the other. These were called Screw-on Cables This threaded connector screwed over a male threaded connector on the volume box or "module" which completed the signal path to the amplifier.

The screw-on cables used the same wire as the connecting wire between the pickup and volume control which commonly dried out, became brittle, cracked and fell apart or became completely stiff, rigid and useless. This caused many pickups themselves to be connected to the control boxes using other wire types or usable original vintage wire.

Some time in the 60's these "Screw-on" connections and thus their cables were discontinued by DeArmond leaving many users without a replacement cable for their pickup if it were lost or broken.

A large percentage of these pickups needed to be modified by their owners, sometimes crudely, to keep them usable and at the time working without the cable not knowing the future consequences. When these modified pickups come up for sale these modified pickups are viewed as rather unpleasant to the eye of the collector or professional user today and sell for far less than their original counterparts. Those pickups that are totally original are getting harder to find and can demand a premium from the correct seller in today's vintage market.

Eventually the one piece (12 foot) connected cables as well as the threaded connectors were replaced with an 1/8" jack on the pickup and came with an 1/8" to 1/4" plug cable with the sale of the pickup.

The DeArmond Model 1000 "Rhythm Chief" archtop guitar pickup was introduced in 1954. It was soon followed by a more expensive relative with individually adjustable poles, and a fancier look (chrome plating, and later, gold plating)... the Model 1100. The 1100 is considered by many enthusiasts to be among the finest guitar pickups ever produced, others being the Charlie Christian model and the P-90, both produced by Gibson, as well as Gibson's legendary patent applied for (PAF) double coil "humbucker" pickup, originally developed by Seth Lover.

DeArmond pickups were widely used on instruments produced by Airline, D’Angelico, Eko, Epiphone, Fender, Galanti, Gretsch, Guild, Harmony, Hofner, Kustom, Levin, Martin, Meazzi, Messenger, Micro-Frets, Ovation, Premier, Silvertone, and Standel.

There are those that still somehow believe the Kay guitar company used DeArmonds on their guitars, this couldn't be further from the truth. No communications or contracts between Kay and DeArmond or Rowe Industries for that matter has ever been found in any way to make or acquire the use of their pickups. The Kay "Pancake" and "Speedbump" pickups were made by Kay for their own guitars. A key factor, Rowe-DeArmond pickups when dated, were marked with alpha-numeric dates, i.e.: Feb 28 1966, Kay used 6 digits i.e.: 022866 for this same date.

To promote the sensitivity of his pickups, Harry DeArmond developed a tapping technique, sometimes playing two guitars simultaneously. This method was later adopted by Jimmie Webster, Gretsch's designer and endorser, and popularized in later years by players such as Stanley Jordan, Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen.

In 1948 (perhaps a year or two earlier) he introduced the world's first effect unit for electric guitar, the Model 800 Trem Trol. This foot-operated floor-mounting unit comprised a mains voltage motor that rocked a small sealed bottle fitted with two electrical contacts and containing electrically conductive fluid. The variable frequency of the 'make and break' action of the mechanism created a type of tremolo effect. This effect unit was used by Bo Diddley and by many other artists.

Around 1998 a line of guitars was also made using the DeArmond name under Fender ownership, using Guild designs under the supervision of Guild employees, and manufactured in Korea and Indonesia. The top of the line Korean-built guitars featured USA-made DeArmond pickups.

Harry DeArmond retired in 1975, by which time his company had designed and manufactured over 100 different pickups for a wide range of stringed instruments, and many amplifiers and effects units. He made a major contribution to the design and development of pickups for stringed instruments and was granted several patents.