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DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1100 reissue pickup

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:06 pm
by John Clifford
I just finished installing one of these pickups on one of my archtops. Rather than use the "monkey on a stick" attachment, I made a mounting bracket out of a couple strips of cedar that is glued to the bottom of the finger rest. It took awhile to get it properly aligned, but I like how it ended up, with no new holes in my guitar. The pickup sounds great with acoustic strings. I have Martin Retros on it right now, but I think I'll probably go back to D'Addario phosphor bronze.

Re: DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1100 reissue pickup

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 6:45 pm
by Joshua Levin-Epstein
Hi John,

Where did you get this pick up? I know the new Guild is selling them. I'm impressed it works with "acoustic" strings but the Monel wrap is nickel. If the phosphor bronze are not satisfactory, apparently D'addario is making a bronze string with a nickel coating,'

That guitar looks great! I can only aspire...

Re: DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1100 reissue pickup

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:25 pm
by John Clifford
Hey Joshua-

I bought mine from a vendor on Reverb.com. It looks like others are available there. Apparently they are being made under the Guild name (by some factory in China). I mainly liked the looks of it, as it seemed to fit this particular guitar, but it ended up sounding great as well. It has adjustable pole pieces that can be staggered quite a bit, so that's why it works well with acoustic strings. I had to screw the B string pole piece way down compared to the others. The Monel wrap is a nickel/copper blend that definitely does not excite a magnetic pickup like electric guitar strings do. Maybe more than phosphor bronze, I don't know yet.

Re: DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1100 reissue pickup

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 4:10 pm
by John Clifford
I'm happy to report that D'Addario phosphor bronze strings (13-56) work just fine with this pickup. I had to make a couple of small pole piece adjustments after the Martin Retros, but no problem. To my ear, the D'Addarios sound way better when played acoustically, and sound more like an acoustic guitar when played through the pickup. So I would say this pickup is definitely worth a try if you're looking to amplify an archtop that is optimized to sound good acoustically.