2 DEARMOND
“Rickenbacker were major players in the lap-steel market, which was huge back then, but, during the 30s and 40s, it was Epiphone and Gibson who were really pushing the design of the electric guitar forward. So, Rickenbacker sort of fell behind. The first Rick models with conventional single-coil units came in 1956 with the arrival of the 400 series ‘tulip’ guitars. The early tulips also used a radical design for the time, which featured a neck-through-body with wings literally bolted on to the sides.
“F.C. Hall had the pickup made by DeArmond (Rowe Industries). It didn’t have a model name as far as I know, and I’ve never seen it on another guitar. It’s pretty rare and only appeared for about a year or so between 1956 and 1957. In mid ’57, F.C. decided to design his own pickup that sat under the strings which is when the famous ‘toaster’ was developed.”