Replaced pots on a Dearmond Starfire Special

mad dog

Gone But Not Forgotten
Gone But Not Forgotten
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Just redid the pots, jack and switch on my new (to me) Dearmond SS. This is the second time I've upgraded a Dearmond this way. Just as effective this time. It's like a different instrument. When I got it, the guitar was essentially new, not a scratch. But the input jack was quite wobbly, and the p/u selector switch felt so cheap I was afraid to use it. Plus, the neck p/u tone was muddy, especially with volume rolled off, and neither tone control had much effective range.

Not so now. My tech put a treble bleed mod on the neck volume. The mud is gone. Tone controls are now really effective ... there's more bright than I need on both, so I keep the bridge p/u tone rolled down quite a bit, neck p/u less so, but not full up. Overall sound is much clearer. The downside is you can hear the hum better. These p/us are much like P90s in that regard. It matters which way you stand and turn. No hum in middle position only, but my favorite sounds are neck only and treble only.

These simple mods are really worth the money.
 

Scotter

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Hey,

I just did a similar upgrade to my CE-100D, new pots and single coil GFS NYii pickups.

If your tech went from 250K to 500K on your pot values, you'll notice an overall brighter tone with single coils that you may need to tame with the tone controls. The Dearmonds are single coils, right? Strats have this same issue, which is why they typically use 250K pots.

My CE had 500K pots and had humbuckers. I stayed with the 500K pots, and personally I like more brightness, but it can become too shrill, and you really need those tone controls to get the tone where you like it.

I put a 500K volume pot on my Strat, and then used a parallel resistor to pull the overall load that the pickup sees down to around 350K, as I recall. WAY too shrill, otherwise. I might end up doing that on the CE, but it's time to play it a bit, first. I don't usually do the treble bleed mod.

Scottie
 

Jas

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Hey mad dog
Did you order the parts
or did your tech get them for you..
Sorry I didn't see your post before I posted
a ?

Thanks
 
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