Dearmond Rhythm Chief 1000 reissue

crookedpinky

I just got delivery of a reissued Dearmond Rhythm Chief 1000. I decided to go with the 1000 as the polepieces on the 1100 looked as thought they would be problematic even though I was concerned about the string balance. I've had a Dupont Stimer, two Krivos and Surdo pickups and, to be honest, I found them all to be ok but not great - maybe it's jut the way my guitars are set up. Anyway, I recently bought a Godefroy Maruejouls oval hole and I mounted the Rhythm Chief on that with some Blu Tac. plugged it into my 5 watt Bugera tube amp and wow ! Instant slightly distorted Django sound with really good string balance. Dial back the gain and it's a nice clean sound as well. This is one hot little pick up and, as far as I'm concerned, at half the price of a Stimer or equivalent I'm as happy as a pig in sh*t.

AndyW

so we all get to hear it at the session on Sunday?

crookedpinky

That depends on how well it works with the acoustic amp but hopefully yes. However I am aware of the volume issue and do not want to drown anyone out.

Buco

I want to try one. Michael on the product page says it's the most even string to string he's ever heard. But is it really 15mm thick? That would not work on my guitar.

crookedpinky

No it's definitely not 15mm it's more like 7 or 8mm, I'll measure it later. It comes with 2 small felt pads which I removed and mounted it with Blu Tac which is just like the putty provided with Krivos. Because my Maruejouls has a steep neck angle I can get the pick up right next to the end of the fingerboard.

crookedpinky

I've just realised that my original post is wrong about the 1100 pickups pole pieces. I must have looked at another pickup which had the pole pieces extending from the rear. The 1100 has a totally flat back, like the 1000.

MichaelHorowitz

Buco wrote: »

I want to try one. Michael on the product page says it's the most even string to string he's ever heard. But is it really 15mm thick? That would not work on my guitar.

@Buco sorry, thanks for pointing that out. Those specs were from the manufacturer. I just measured the height of the DeArmonds and they're 1/4" tall, so just about 6mm.

Buco

That makes sense, thanks @MichaelHorowitz

crookedpinky

Just an update on the Rhythm Chief. I used it at a gig yesterday through an acoustic amp after trying out settings etc at home, where it sounded good. However at the gig I just coukdn't get a decent clean sound. This may be due to the acoustics in the venue or whatever. Also the string balance wasn't as good as it was through the tube amp. So I've decided that in future I will only use the pickup for an electric sound through the tube amp but I would still recommend it as an alternative to a Stimer.

AndyW

I thought it sounded nice, though it's a surprisingly tricky wee gig to balance up on -

crookedpinky

Very tricky but thanks for that nice comment.