DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1000 On a gypsy guitar?

Feruza2134

Hi guys, i dont know anything about guitar tech. Is it possible to use a DeArmond rythm chief as a pickup for a gypsy guitar? and what would i need to set it up, because it has like one wire? but what would i connect that wire to and where could i buy it?
So basically if anyone knows what to buy and where to buy to completely setup my gj guitar with a DeArmond please let me know!

EDIT: http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/16198/dearmond-monkey-on-a-stick-pickup-mount-reproduction
Something like this is what im looking for, what are those volume things, and where can i buy that and how do i connect it all? The guy in forum post says it sounds great!

Buco

Pickup and the amp is all you need.
Lots of info here:
http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/16660/dearmond-rhythm-chief-1000-reissue/p1

Feruza2134

How am i supposed to plug that wire into an amplifier?
haha, im really a newbie so sorry if im not seeing something??

Buco

Ah I see. Yes that one requires some handy work. There's a wired version, Michael sells it:
http://www.djangobooks.com/Item/dearmond-rhythm-chief-1000-gold-gypsy

Feruza2134

Im in the Eu so i can't pay 200 euro's for shipping while the pickup is 180 haha! What kind of handy work would the pickup require?

Buco

You'd need to solder a female 1/4" jack on it then you can use a standard 1/4 cable to connect to the amp. 10 minute job for someone who can solder.

Feruza2134

I saw in the one picture the guy had like a volume knob, what is that called? could i solder it to that as well and then plug the jack in that?

Buco

That's tone and volume controls. It's more of a convenience, not necessary for pickup to work and unnecessary complication if you're not familiar with this kind of stuff. For example Krivo pickups don't come with tone/volume, just a cable that goes to the amp. Of course you could have it done by someone add tone/volume control to the Rhythm Chief. Tone/volume control that he used is coming from the Kent made pickup, it's a vintage contemporary to the DeArmond, made in Japan.

crookedpinky

Feruza, you can buy a Rhythm Chief way cheaper from Thomann, they're based in Germany - apologies to Michael for this promotion. They are good pickups but not perfect. The balance between strings is good but the b string is slightly louder than the other strings. This is a common problem with most pickups and you just need to adjust your picking a bit. As Buco said you can fit a jack socket or you could solder it to a normal jack plug, I soldered mine to a 10 foot jack to jack lead and cut one jack off. The pickup can be mounted on an oval hole with blu tac/magic putty as the brass mounting rod which comes with the pickup doesn't place the pickup in the right place and you can't bend the rod. I ended up making a brass rod to fit. However that means drilling two small holes in the side of the fingerboard to fit the mounting rod.

Feruza2134

Thanks a lot guys!

MichaelHorowitz

Feruza2134 wrote: »

Im in the Eu so i can't pay 200 euro's for shipping while the pickup is 180 haha! What kind of handy work would the pickup require?

Shipping would just be about $17 to the UK for the DeArmond Rhythm Chief.