Did DeArmond make other bass pickups?

The EH Man

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
83
Reaction score
0
Location
Clear Creek, IN
I have a Bartell bass that has pickups that look fairly similar to a set of DeArmond guitar pickups being offered for sale in the Classifieds section. Has anyone ever seen these pickups on any other bass?

mystbass018.jpg



The guitar pickups I was referring to:

DSCN0305.jpg
 

mellowgerman

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2008
Messages
4,100
Reaction score
1,507
Location
Orlando, FL
I see the connection you're making here. However, I'm sure a lot of pickup designs, especially back in the day, influenced and were borrowed in the creation of other pickups across brand lines. Also, it looks like the screws heads on the said bass pickup act as poles. For the dearmond pickups, the screws were simply height adjusters for the poles. A lot more like the bisonic bass pickups made by dearmond.
There were many other companies at the time that had similar design bass pickups, the first that comes to mind for me is that of the pickups used on framus basses of the same time period. I used to own one of the Framus Sorento hollow body basses that had essentially the same design as your bartell bass's pickup, but with a single screw/pole for each string.
Interesting and thought provoking observation though! I would love for someone to prove my speculation wrong... Hans?

EDIT: here's a good photo of the framus pickups I was talking about
http://www.musikkeller.com/mk/_bilderve ... 0280mk.jpg
 

The EH Man

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
83
Reaction score
0
Location
Clear Creek, IN
mellowgerman said:
nice bass! how's she play? do you have any soundclips?

Once I took the saddle down it plays pretty good. I haven't plugged it in for a while so I don't remember exactly how it did sound.
 

gilded

Senior Member
Joined
May 2, 2007
Messages
3,479
Reaction score
197
Location
texas
Why don't you pop a pickup off the mounting ring and shoot a picture of the back side. I'd like to see it and compare it to other Dearmond pickups.

gilded
 

Walter Broes

Enlightened Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Messages
5,892
Reaction score
1,962
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
Wild guess, but looking at that bass, it looks almost like somebody redid the whole instrument, and put homemade pickups in Dearmond shells....? Never seen pickups like that before in any case.

Maybe send a pic or two of your bass to Deke Dickerson, (he's on the road now, but I'm fairly sure he checks his email on a regular basis) he's doing a lot of research on smaller California guitar builders for a book he's working on.
 

The EH Man

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
83
Reaction score
0
Location
Clear Creek, IN
gilded said:
Why don't you pop a pickup off the mounting ring and shoot a picture of the back side. I'd like to see it and compare it to other Dearmond pickups.

gilded

I'll try to do that tomorrow.
 

The EH Man

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
83
Reaction score
0
Location
Clear Creek, IN
Walter Broes said:
Wild guess, but looking at that bass, it looks almost like somebody redid the whole instrument, and put homemade pickups in Dearmond shells....? Never seen pickups like that before in any case.

Maybe send a pic or two of your bass to Deke Dickerson, (he's on the road now, but I'm fairly sure he checks his email on a regular basis) he's doing a lot of research on smaller California guitar builders for a book he's working on.

Is he a member here?
 

Walter Broes

Enlightened Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Messages
5,892
Reaction score
1,962
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
I don't think so EH man, but if you google his name his website will probably be the first thing that comes up, there should be an email link on there, I think. He's one of the top 5 acts on the current US (and world) Rockabilly scene, and a very nice guy who knows way too much about guitars.
 

gilded

Senior Member
Joined
May 2, 2007
Messages
3,479
Reaction score
197
Location
texas
Interesting. After looking at the Bartell site pics, I see some passing resemblance to the other pickups. I also like the idea of home-made pickups with Dearmond shells. Looks like they were made by somebody who was pretty inventive, who also had an idea of what other pickup features were out there 'in the good old bad days'. Kewl!
 

The EH Man

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
83
Reaction score
0
Location
Clear Creek, IN
gilded said:
Looks like they were made by somebody who was pretty inventive, who also had an idea of what other pickup features were out there 'in the good old bad days'. Kewl!


That would likely be Paul Barth if these are original (I see no reason why they wouldn't be).
 

mgod

Gone But Not Forgotten
Gone But Not Forgotten
Joined
Jun 23, 2008
Messages
568
Reaction score
237
Location
Los Angeles
Hey All-Knowing Guru of Electro-Harmonix:

Think you could get a Stereo Pulse Modulator working correctly?
 

The EH Man

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
83
Reaction score
0
Location
Clear Creek, IN
mgod said:
Hey All-Knowing Guru of Electro-Harmonix:

Think you could get a Stereo Pulse Modulator working correctly?

No reason why I couldn't. I had to fix mine when I got it. Drop me an email.
 
Top