Gasalcoholics anonymous? whoever said this was a help group?

[crochambeau]

Local craigslist coughed up an Akai S2000 for $45. I just, I just couldn't resist. I know it's the ugly duckling. I just had to make a space for it in a home of rough and tumble orphaned gear still gasping for relevance in this computer age.

[dubkitty]

looks like another guitar is sneaking up on me. since i like my DeArmond M-75T with the DeArmond 2k single-coils so much i checked out the DeArmond Gold Tone humbuckers in the regular M-75s and they’re great pickups. so i was idly looking at stuff and Favorited a M-75 in my Reverb account and got a price-drop offer of $371 plus shipping which is a couple hundred below the average cost on one in good shape. so i’m going to figure out the best course and will deal with it within the 40 hours remaining.

i have to wonder: did DeArmond ever make a crappy-sounding pickup? all the ones i’ve heard, from the old gold foils and Dynasonics through the soundhole acoustic pickups to the ones in the Fender Coronado and the 90s/00s 2k, 2000, and Gold Tone lines, sound great.

[dubkitty]

yes, i bought it. here it is:

don't know if i'll keep the black guard or have Pickguardian make me another clear one like the one i put on the sparkly blue guitar. i guess i'll polish it out first. i note though that the M-75T's clear pickguard matches the clear DeArmond-branded knobs while the new M-75's black guard matches its black knobs. at the least i'll make new spacers the height of the ones on the M-75T's pickguard so it's up off the body a bit rather than tacked right to the face.

M-75T done.jpg (72.95 KiB) Viewed 204 times

the new one is meant to be my low-rent Guild Bluesbird, but i like the DeArmonds more than the reproduction oversized Guild HBs they put in the Thayil Polaras which would be the closest you could get to the 70s big buckers; they started doing Bluesbirds in the 60s as an adaptation of the standard M-75 Aristocrat with the HB-1s but went over to the big bois by the early 70s. early Bluesbirds had the harp tailpiece shown here while 70s ones used the diagonal bar tailpiece screwed down to the body a la the SG-styled Polaras, and also became solid bodies rather than the closed hollow body of the Aristocrat. this should be one of the rare guitars i get in that doesn't need much but intake, setup, polishing, and replacing some of the small rusty screws that hold on the pickup rings, truss rod cover, and other bits. I FUCKING HOPE.

[dubkitty]

this example is in better shape than the others i was stalking. no big dings or scrapes, no damage to the body edges, a full set of the correct knobs, and the gold print on the truss cover is legible while it's often worn partially or fully away. i see DeArmonds where almost the entire text block with the serial number on the back of the headstock is gone. and bizarrely i’ve seen multiple examples of used DeArmonds with the tip of the pickup selector switch sheared off, which i don’t ever recall seeing on toggle switches before other than tiny coil-split sized ones.

[dubkitty]

the photo of the new guitar is terrible in that the reflections and lens distortion make it look lumpy and a bit off. i'll get a better one when it arrives.

[dubkitty]

as far as i can tell from an extensive search online, the clear DeArmond knobs/pickguard combo was rare. almost all the DeArmonds i see have the black guard/knobs combo even on the "champagne sparkle" M-75Ts. seems kind of a waste to cover up nice finishes with big black guards.

[Blackened Soul]

Yeah, kinda why I remove pickguards from lps and hollow bodies most of the time..are those Gibson or fender scale?

[dubkitty]

Gibson. which is better for me...see numerous mentions of my “tiny mandolin-player hands.”

[dubkitty]

clear DeArmond knobs seem as rare as Wandré hardware; it’s even difficult to find the clear Guild knobs though they’re used on current Aristocrats and probably other Guild models. internet commentary has it that the clear DeArmond knobs were “fragile” and prone to cracks in the outer margin of the bottom of the knob. i wasn’t planning on swapping out the black M-75 knobs, though. i usually try to keep guitars more or less original visually unless there’s a compelling reason to deviate. it’s likely i’ll get a new guard from Pickguardian, though…his round-over treatment of the edges is much nicer than a straight cut or bevel, especially since the guards are meant to be suspended above the body on the outside edge.

[Blackened Soul]

WD will do that too, but they have to already have that shape/model available or you will have to mail them a form and a tracing…

[dubkitty]

Pickguardian did the one for the M-75T and it’s perfect, so i’ll have him do this one, too. he has a whole separate tab for DeArmond pickguards with 8 or 10 different models, which is odd because the only other dedicated sections are for Fender, Gibson, Reverend, and Rickenbacker. worth a shot if you need one of the stairstep guards for Guild Starfires and archtops given how seldom one sees official Guild parts. if i ever order that Grote version of the Guild Slim Jim i’ll see if something will work.

[dubkitty]

much to my surprise, trawling around eBay has turned up some clear Guild knobs which nobody would see as amiss. i suppose if i was feeling particularly bold i could try peeling the tops off the old knobs and sticking them on the Guild knobs. so a clear guard is very much back in the possibilities list. DeArmond knobs are still about as easy to find as moon rocks at 7-11.

i find it fascinating to poke around online searching manufacturer names under "Parts," seeing what sort of detritus washes up on the shore. you find the oddest things that way, like the aluminum plugs i used to fill the unused holes in the Kondor pickguard which are Supro/National snap-in plugs used to cover the neck and body screws. this was a decade before i had any Supro interest.

[dubkitty]

it just gets more peculiar…i’ve now seen a listing for a nice sunburst M-75 with clear knobs and a black guard. consistency does not appear to have been a big priority at DeArmond House though they were less haphazard than Gretsch in the 50s-60s…one reason there’s such a large number of Gretsch signature models is that details of the construction changed from year to year and even from day to day. my Stephen Stills White Falcon has trestle bracing atypical for Falcons reproduced from his original, and i’ve seen photos of multiple examples of 50s Gretsches where the headstock logo reads “GERTSCH.” i’m going to wait till it gets here and i see how it feels before deciding what to do on the accessorization front. i suppose if they did clear knobs and a black guard, i can do a clear guard and black knobs.

[dubkitty]

the guy who sold me the guitar is in the UK for work through Sunday, but says he’ll send it Monday.

[dubkitty]

i’ve now seen a DeArmond with black knobs and a clear guard. the absolute randomness of the non-standard examples and the inconsistencies in established lines—i’ve now seen a blue sparkle M-75T with black knobs and guard!—has convinced me that there’s no need to feel constrained by the factory combination on my incoming M-75. so i’ll probably get a clear guard. and i also just noticed that my Guild Aristocrat has clear knobs and a black guard, but it works, perhaps because the sunburst is pretty dark, perhaps because it has the typical gold-painted edge stripe and Guild logo.

why do i even care? because i like raised pickguards which let my picking hand bounce off a split-second earlier than sans guard. and because one of my underlying concepts in working on guitars is “let it be what it is”…i devised this after making over a orange Epiphone Wildkat with Gretsch jewel-arrow knobs and switch tip and Grover replacement Imperial stair-step buttons. my girlfriend of the time liked it, but it just didn’t feel right, and feel is a paramount characteristic in everything for me.