1950s DeArmond Model 400 Tenor Guitar/Mandolin Pickup

Trading-buddy Paul included this little guy in one of our deals recently. I've been meaning to check if it works and -- behold! -- it does. The output is good, it has the clean/clear/balanced sound these are known for, and it's in good shape. This style of pickup is intended for mounting on tenor guitars or mandolin-family instruments and can be "monkey-stick-mounted" with a helper wire hanging off the neck's fretboard extension or "bolt-mounted" onto a pickguard or the top of an instrument -- or both at the same time.

Work included: wiring new leads to a new Switchcraft jack and also adding a ground wire to attach to a tailpiece/string hanger. It's ready to mount and install internally or you can wire-up your own leads and install as you see fit.

Width (side to side): 2 3/4"

Width (neck to bridge): 1" with 1/4" bell-out for cable

Depth: 5/16" without two brown felt pads, 3/8" with

Useable string spread (how wide your string spacing can be over pickup): 1 3/4"-1 7/8"

It comes with the weird, homemade clear pickguard it'd been mounted on. The black-wrapped metal bit is an improvised "monkey-stick" support.

For an idea how many of these were installed, check this blog post on an identical unit I sold a few years ago.