Guitar Gear Forum

So today was running errands with the Mrs. Part of that was picking up a 1981 Ibanez Super 58 pick up for 50 bucks. Score. They are hard to find not attached to a guitar and are great pickups. Shouldn't have sold the one I had long ago. Didn't have a purpose for it but couldn't let the opportunity to snag it up go by.



Then a few hours later, still running errands, we have to return something that's in the same shopping center as a Sam Ash so I go in and look around. Rarely do I ever find something for me in those stores but today I see a used Soul Food for 30 bucks. Another score. I've been noticing them on boards of people and friends who have discerning tastes and been meaning to pick one up anyway. Then I keep looking around and notice this DeArmond single humbucker guitar for about 100 bucks. I play it for about 15 minutes unplugged to see if I like the feel and it's aight, not great not bad but the fretboard feels good. It's a cheap decent ride for that Super 58 and found on the same day so blammo. I snag up the guitar too.




Once we got home I started rummaging through my parts stash and find a pair of CTS 500k pots and decide to just replace all the electronics and threw in some cloth covered wiring just to be cute. Also threw on some cool knobs out of my knob stash







This Super 58 was a neck pup so is backwards in the bridge position. Does that matter at all?

Also the overall sound is very bright for a humbucker. It has a .02 cap in it right now and will try a .047 to see if it mellows out. It's got an interesting sound as it is also kinda weird... can't put my finger on what makes it weird though. It's very snappy sounding for a humbucker... A humsquire, as it were.

This is a really cool guitar. Straight up rock machine.

Not sure why you mounted the pickup upside down? It doesn't matter if it's a "neck" pickup, you could still mount it the right way.

In terms of tone, it matters with some pickups, but not all. It looks weird though

BTW, the guitar is a M-55.

GuitarBilly wrote:This is a really cool guitar. Straight up rock machine.

Not sure why you mounted the pickup upside down? It doesn't matter if it's a "neck" pickup, you could still mount it the right way.

In terms of tone, it matters with some pickups, but not all. It looks weird though

I mounted it so that the wire was pointing toward the hole not realizing that it was "backwards". There's enough wire to switch it around though. But if it doesn't matter for sound then whatevs no care. I guess maybe the only way to know with this one is to swap it and see.

Yeah some pickups have asymmetrical coils and that would make a big difference.

But for the love of God just fix it

Holy fuck balls!


Turned it around and now it's got balls, it's got fire, AND it's got huge tiddies! !

Made a HUGE difference. For $170 total this is a fucking MONSTER of a guitar. This makes my 4th single pickup guitar. 2 Esquires, an SG Jr, and now this.

Yeah I like these guitars quite a bit. They're usually not very expensive around 300-400 but still you got a solid score at that price.

I have a really sweet DeArmond M-75T in black and it's really really a nice guitar. Plays like it's made over seas but has a lot of weight (probably plywood body) and is like a low end MIJ Gretsch. I play it a lot and the pickups are really good. I believe they are DeArmond USA DynaSonic pickups. All in all these guitars are great for the coin...

Nice scores! Reminds me of my first guitar - a red DeArmond M60 (?). Whichever model it is that is the double hum quad knob (LP style) version of yours. So cool to put all that together.

mortatone wrote:it's got huge tiddies! !

Always wanted one of the fancier Dearmonds with the GoldTone pickups or whatever they're called; those things look fucking awesome and are still pretty affordable

Well these tuners suck dirty dawg balls

Amazon has Grover 18:1 copies on the cheap. Put a set on there and call it a day. I really like the looks with the knobs on their!

Mike Oxhuge wrote:Amazon has Grover 18:1 copies on the cheap. Put a set on there and call it a day. I really like the looks with the knobs on their!

Thanks, I'll check 'em out.

Yeah man I love those knobs. I had bought this weirdo frankenstein collab amp between Standell and Gibson and it sounded horrible but had a 15" JBL, an Oberheim Maestro Phaser circuit card and these knobs. Couldn't sell it so it got cannibalized for those goodies.

Ah cool... digging through some old parts boxes and found a chrome set of Schaller 3x3's. It's like the slow and gentle forces of time and chance are allowing this guitar to build itself with minimum energy consumed. Very little static inertia, in other words