T-Armonds in a Newark Street Starfire iii

I'm new here so thanks in advance for any help.

I've got a Newark Street Starfire iii and would like to put TV Jones T-Armonds in it.

Does anyone know if the Dearmond mount screws into the same holes that the LB1's use in the body of the guitar, or would I have to drill new holes (something I'm not keen on doing to such a nice guitar).

No answer to your question, but - Welcome to LTG, jakey!

walrus

I have no idea......but here's the good news: TV Jones now makes the T'Armond in a Filtertron size cover with mounting ears for use with pu mounting rings. I don't know how Guild Mini 'buckers match up size wise with Filtertrons (which are more like mini-'buckers) but hypothetically it does sound more doable than with vintage style surface mount T'Armonds. I would contact TV Jones directly for advice. From what I gather, they are very helpful. What I do know is that a set of T'Armonds would definitley make a significant change in the tonal characteristics of a Starfire III. The late Howard Herbert who owned a local music shop in Philly and was a Guild dealer had as his personal guitar a vintage Starfire III in Caddy Green w D'Armonds and a Melita bridge and it had a very fat, percussive, ringing, clear tone. The cool thing is, you could have two NS Starfire III's, one w/ stock Guild Mini-'buckers and the other with T'Armonds and it would be like having two totally different sounding guitars that felt about the same.
Hope it is doable sounds like a cool idea.

This thread, particularly page 2, discussed this very issue. Forum member parker_knoll seemed to have some experience with the change. He and I exchanged some emails and I thought he showed some pictures but I do not find them at this time.

http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?189474-Questions-about-Dearmond-Dynasonic-and-T-100D&p=1729263#post1729263

There is also this link as well that you might read:

http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?190215-anyone-switched-pickups-(instead-of-mini-humbucker)&p=1738192#post1738192

TV Jones makes all or most of their pickups the same size. (That size happens to be smaller than a standard P-90 or humbucker, so you can also buy TV Jones pickups inside P-90 or humbucker covers, but this is not relevant to this thread.) It turns out that that size is almost exactly the same length but slightly wider than new issue Guild LB-1 pickups: 70.7 x 34 mm vs 70.6 x 33 mm. That means almost any TV Jones pickup, including the T-Armonds will almost fit in LB-1 mounting rings. You need to remove very little plastic from each side of the ring to get the TVJ to slip through. I don't think anyone will notice the change if you put the LB-1s back later.

The mounting ears on the TVJ "English Mount" have screw holes ~78.5 mm apart whereas the LB-1 ring holes are ~79 mm apart. Close enough to work just fine.

DThomasC said:

TV Jones makes all or most of their pickups the same size. (That size happens to be smaller than a standard P-90 or humbucker, so you can also buy TV Jones pickups inside P-90 or humbucker covers, but this is not relevant to this thread.) It turns out that that size is almost exactly the same length but slightly wider than new issue Guild LB-1 pickups: 70.7 x 34 mm vs 70.6 x 33 mm. That means almost any TV Jones pickup, including the T-Armonds will almost fit in LB-1 mounting rings. You need to remove very little plastic from each side of the ring to get the TVJ to slip through. I don't think anyone will notice the change if you put the LB-1s back later.

The mounting ears on the TVJ "English Mount" have screw holes ~78.5 mm apart whereas the LB-1 ring holes are ~79 mm apart. Close enough to work just fine.

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You're talking about the Filtertron size and not the Dynasonic size, right?

parker_knoll said:

You're talking about the Filtertron size and not the Dynasonic size, right?

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Yeah. I'm talking about what they call "Universal Mount." They used to offer an "English Mount" pickup with ears, but now they offer add-on ears for the standard Filtertron size with screws through the cover. The Dearmond Mount doesn't have ears for use with the LB-1 mounting rings.

As far as I can tell, the T-Armonds are the same size as other TV Jones pickups, except maybe those made for Teles and Strats. I suppose I could be wrong though!

DthomasC is right on the money. They should fit with very little modification. I was looking awhile back at doing the conversion on a repop T-Bird but never got around to it. If I recall correctly they would have fit with some small modifications.

TX

You want to get the T'Armond in the Filter mount (it has the same footprint as a Filtertron pu). The size/footprint of the regular surface mount T'Armond is different. You may not even have to mess with the stock LB-1 mounting rings as TV has mounting rings for the T'Armonds that will line up with the pu ears. The only problem with the TV mounting rings could be that they won't line up with the holes for the LB rings.

you can get the T Armond in the original surface mount Dynasonic size as well. it will basically cover the hole for the LB-1. As mentioned above (with link) this has been covered elsewhere.

parker_knoll said:

you can get the T Armond in the original surface mount Dynasonic size as well. it will basically cover the hole for the LB-1. As mentioned above (with link) this has been covered elsewhere.

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This is how I would prefer to do it. TV will do white bobbins.

dhdfoster said:

This is how I would prefer to do it. TV will do white bobbins.

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Make sure you've got enough string clearance for top-mounted DeArmonds, first!

The Newark Street guitars have a pretty high neck set and neck angle, top mount DeArmonds will fit. And will look much cooler and more like an original Starfire than any other way of putting a DeArmond pickup on there.

Wow...I didn't know the regular top mount Dearmonds/T'Armonds cover the original footprint.... that's even easier/better IMO. Can't wait to see/hear the results.

I would suggest that you call Tom (TV) Jones and discuss this with him. He may have some experience with people doing this and have some suggestions/solutions. He is a great and very easy guy to talk to and will probably be able to help.

Guildadelphia said:

Wow...I didn't know the regular top mount Dearmonds/T'Armonds cover the original footprint.... that's even easier/better IMO. Can't wait to see/hear the results.

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Any updates Jakeymate?