Help please I have a 1960 Kay w/ two DeArmond pickups that have very low volume

[dlp]

I bought a Kay Sizzler with two DeArmond pickups and both pickups work but the volume is very low on both. Sound comes thru the amp when I play and they make noise when you tap on them but they are very quiet. I checked their resistance by plugging a cable into the guitar and checking at the cable connector with a $10 Sperry ohm meter and the needle hardly budges when set at rx100. I also noticed the magnets have very little strength compared to my DeArmond speed-bump pickups on another guitar.

Are these dead? Dead magnets? Could it be wiring?The solder joints all look tarnished and original but maybe a factory goof? Thanks for your help

[olddawg]

Could be a lot of things. A resistive selector switch comes to mind. I would temporarily wire a pickup directly to the jack. Got volume? Now try the other pickup. Same volume? Btw these are not high output pickups and magnets do degauss over time. When I wasa kid Kays were considered among the worse of the worst. I guess they are cool now just because they are old.

[dlp]

I unsoldered both pickups and no reading at all from either. I guess they're dead? I'm kind of puzzled how I can get sound out of them if they're dead.

[52 Bill]

I'm kind of puzzled how I can get sound out of them if they're dead.

Capacitance of the open coils acts like a very high impedance pickup, which is why they sound thin and weak.

[dlp]

Looks like I bought a guitar with 2 dead pickups. Thanks guys

[big_teee]

Looks like I bought a guitar with 2 dead pickups. Thanks guys

I have rewound a few different De Armond Pickups.
They were bad about soldering the very small start lead of the coil direct to the baseplate.
Gibson and others used a soldered 28 gauge wire soldered to the 42-44 Gauge wire.
Then they soldered the 28 guauge wire to the baseplate for ground.
This held up much better.
They can be rewound.
Can you post pictures of which pickups you have.
I can advise accordingly.
Good Luck,
Terry

[lonnieboy]

low volume pickups

Sometimes the pickups are mounted too low and too far from the strings.Just shimming them up will help.But it sounds like you have more problems then being too low...Lonnieboy

[big_teee]

I bought a Kay Sizzler with two DeArmond pickups and both pickups work but the volume is very low on both. Sound comes thru the amp when I play and they make noise when you tap on them but they are very quiet. I checked their resistance by plugging a cable into the guitar and checking at the cable connector with a $10 Sperry ohm meter and the needle hardly budges when set at rx100. I also noticed the magnets have very little strength compared to my DeArmond speed-bump pickups on another guitar.

Are these dead? Dead magnets? Could it be wiring?The solder joints all look tarnished and original but maybe a factory goof? Thanks for your help

You need to take the wire loose on one side and see if the pickup is open?
T

[lonnieboy]

Hi Aedann; I can understand your frustration. However let me say this. My first electric guitar was a Sears Silvertone I bought back in 1957. It sounded super. It had two speedbumps on it. However it was brand new at the time. It will be worth the effort if you can get them to work. I replied to your thread and told you to shim them up so they are closer to the strings. This sounds stupid but it really works. Your's may need to be re-wound in which case they will work like new. If you haven't heard them in action before google speed demon kay guitar. There's a couple of you tube vids with that pickup. They do sound awesome to me good luck with your project...Lonnieboy

[tonequester]

tonequester here.

I too had a similar problem. Now, I did not have "tarnished" solder joints apparent. I'm not saying that they ARE bad joints, but knowing well what problems
both constant, and intermmitent, can be caused by bad joints, I would, if it is possible, start there. However, if this is not the problem, the solution I found for my problem was to
use a quite cheap distortion pedal(Ibanex Powerlead, $20.00 at a pawn shop). It has a tone control that I leave wide open, not needing it at all. I also turn the distortion control
all the way down, which is basically off. Then I use the level contron to turn up the guitar's signal to the amp. This pedal has a lot of gain without using the distortion feature(which sucks of "fuzz-box"), and I find that I only need to turn the level up perhaps 20%-30% to get plenty of boost without causing pre-amp distortion. If you want to overdrive the pre-amp, it can be done by turning the level control up further. At full "blast" it will give you considerable distortion, but be forewarned that it will have that fuzzy
type of tone. The level control just gives one a "hotter" pick-up in a "round about" way. I hope this might help. Once you get the volume up to discernable levels, you may find thoes "weak" pick-ups have good tone. I'm sure that there might be other things causing your problem. My solution, or suggestion is admittedly a "band-aid" approach, but is pretty cheap, and adjustable to a great extent. Good luck and good wishes. tonequester.

[Sweetfinger]

To clarify, If your guitar is a Kay and has stock pickups, they are NOT made by Dearmond.

[lonnieboy]

I'm not the guy with the Kay guitar with dearmonds on it. I am the guy with Kay with the Kleenex box pickups. But my research has turned up some Kay guitars with dearmonds on them. Most however have the speedbump pickups the flat pancake pickups and the Kleenex pickups. Heck they were pretty much the cheapest guitar on the market and was putting anything on them that submitted the lowest bid. It amazes me that cheap old Barney Kessels bring 5 grand and up.

[Sweetfinger]

my research has turned up some Kay guitars with dearmonds on them.

More info?

[lonnieboy]

Ok I looked it back up for you go to Kay vintage pickups musical instruments. There is a 1965 gold foil dearmond pickup there listed on ebay for 5.50 no resreve. Personally im just quoting the ebay listing. I really don't know if they exist. But i've been all over the web checking for pickups. Iy's not the only one i've seen.

[Sweetfinger]

I looked at the listing- Those pickups look more like Dearmonds than other Kay pickups but are not Dearmond product. Dearmonds were always nicely made. The Kay stuff is more crudely done.