Impressive inexpensive pickup in a friend’s guitar…DeArmond Tone Boss

[Jinder]

Hi all,

            I’ve recently done some work on a friend’s mid-2000s 12 fret Faith parlour guitar, a really sweet little instrument that was hamstrung by a busted OEM barn door pickup/preamp. 
 

I removed the original electronics, did a setup, polished the frets and made a cover for the barn door hole from some EIR veneer, and installed a DeArmond Tone Boss soundhole pickup at the request of the owner.
 

Not only is it a really stellar little guitar that is very well made, resonant and has a neck that I could play for days, I was also really impressed by the Tone Boss. It has a microphonic quality and picks up some top resonance and air, has a decent output level (surprisingly strong for a passive pickup) and is really responsive to dynamic shifts and attack changes. 
 

It has a very different character to my Sunrise pickups, and is more in line with Baggs units such as the M1 and M80 in Passive mode. Considering the price (around £80 in the UK) relative to Baggs mags (around three times that for the M80), I’d say that’s a fair achievement from DeArmond. 
 

The volume wheel on the pickup is a nice addition too, I found the sweet spot was backed off from full by about 1/5th of a turn. Sounded really nice through my AER amps. Great for fingerstyle and a nice wash for strumming too. I’ve been meaning to try one of these out for a long time. I may well put one in my CF100 copy as I’ve repurposed the Sunrise in that for another guitar, at £80 it’s hard to argue with the Tone Boss for an instrument that’s going to be doing occasional duty!

[Larsongs]

It looks & sounds cool.. Install looks pretty easy.. Not too expensive.. I might have to buy another Acoustic so I can get one.. 

 

[zombywoof]

Guild has been on a roll distributing new versions of Dearmond pickups starting with their take on the Rhythm Chief.  I still though have several old Dearmonds on hand.  The only thing I have had to do to keep them working is to replace cables.  But as Gibson kept their acoustic version of the P90 extremely close to the vest, the Dearmonds and various knockoffs such as those offered by Kent pretty much remained the only game in town until Bill Lawrence stepped up to the plate.  Not the most acoustic sounding pickup ever made but if you dig a Lightning Hopkins/Elmore James vibe they are just what the doctor ordered. 

[Dave F]

I wanted an old looking pickup for a '41 Regal Recording King. I found a non-working monkey on a stick and had it rewound and a new volume pot installed. I was blown away by the sound. Gives me an option for the three acoustic arch tops I have, Sound hole-wise I have a sunrise.