Pickup Lines
Portishead’s guitarist explains why the DeArmond classics affectionately known as ‘monkey-on-a-stick’ pickups are no toy…
“Everyone knows the sound of a DeArmond monkey-on-a-stick pickup,” begins Adrian Utley.
“Vic Flick famously used one – a Model 1000 Rhythm Chief – when he did the James Bond theme with his blonde Clifford Essex Paragon De Luxe archtop.”
Taking a break from his busy recording schedule, Adrian has met with Guitarist
post-lockdown to catch up and chat about his love of these rare vintage DeArmonds.
“I first became aware of them much later on from listening to jazz,” he continues. “Kenny Burrell’s sound is beautiful, and he used a D’Angelico with a DeArmond 1100 Rhythm Chief. His tone was incredible – is
incredible. There’s a great video on YouTube of Grant Green, Barney Kessel and Kenny Burrell; Grant is playing a blonde Epiphone Emperor with a McCarty pickguard, and Barney is using a Gibson ES-350 modified with a Charlie Christian pickup. I love those sounds. But when you hear Kenny Burrell’s tone with the DeArmond/D’Angelico, it’s just phenomenal.
“I really love DeArmonds. As much as Kenny Burrell’s tone is beautiful, they can also sound ferocious. I think they work really well with fuzz boxes generally, and some of them with a high output will crank the shit out of your amp. One of the reasons I like the monkey-on-a-stick DeArmonds is there seems to be a certain graininess to them. They have the sound of a record before they’re even on a record; it’s like there’s a kind of squish coming out of your amp within a certain frequency range. I find they sound particularly good with my 1963 Vox AC10, which I use to record with a lot. It’s all there in the top-end and the mids are really present. I’ve never had Rhythm Chiefs up very loud, though, because they’re usually on a massive old archtop acoustic and you can’t turn it up or you’ll be howling!”
Currently among Adrian’s collection of fine vintage guitars are two Gibson archtops that – after some experimentation – have been paired with monkey-on-astick DeArmonds.
“There’s the Rhythm Chief Model 1100, which is now on my 1947 L-12,” he says. “Unlike the Model 1000 Rhythm Chief, you can adjust the polepieces on the 1100, which can be handy as it always seems like the B string is too loud. My 1937 L-5 has now got an old DeArmond monkey-ona-stick from the 1940s fitted called an FH ‘Guitar Mike’. The same pickup used to be on my L-12. I actually like the sound of that pickup more than the 1100. It’s only slightly different but it sounds a little grainier. It has more of a honky, bluesy sound to it that I love and it’s not as ‘perfect’-sounding as the 1100. I got the FH really cheap as they’re not as sought after as the 1100.”
But what about attaching these intricate devices to a delicate archtop – surely that’s a job that most people would rather hire a luthier to do?
“It can be a bit of a faff making sure they’re fitted correctly and in the right place,” says Adrian, “so I recommend hiring someone who knows what they’re doing. There are different ways you can approach it. You can attach them to a pickguard, and you can attach the long monkey-ona-stick bar behind the bridge. You can also discreetly fix some of them to the end of the neck. My L-12 isn’t as valuable as the L-5, so that’s what I did with the 1100; we attached it to the neck and cut a little bit out of the pickguard to get it lined up with the strings correctly. I also had the volume control built into the ’guard. But I don’t mind messing with reproduction pickguards. I replaced the original [cellulose nitrate] ’guard because they gas off and damage other parts of the guitar. It’s safely sealed in its own plastic bag now!
“My other main DeArmond is an old RHC-B model – a soundhole pickup like the one John Martyn used. It pretty much lives in my late-60s Gibson Southern Jumbo. I really like DeArmond goldfoils, too. I used my 60s Harmony [H54] Rocket on the last Portishead album, Third, a lot.”
“I love DeArmonds. As much as Kenny Burrell’s tone is beautiful, they can also sound ferocious”