slider313 Posted July 23, 2013 Posted July 23, 2013 DeArmond is well known for their floating archtop pickup, gold "foil" pickups and volume pedals. The company did build, or should I say "overbuild", amplifiers for a very short period of time; 1959 through 1960. The R5 was a single ended 1x10 "Champ" type amp, the R15 was a 1x12 tweed Deluxe type circuit and the R25 was a 2x10, 6L6, cathode biased thing all its own. These amps used oversized transformers which is what sets them apart from most any other 5, 15 or 25 watt amp at the time. My 1960 R15 has a power transformer that looks like it belongs in a blackface Bassman and an output transformer that is closer in size to a blackface Vibrolux Reverb than its is to a 1960 tweed Deluxe. They don't come up for sale very often and when they do, they usually bring some heavy coin. Once in a while someone gets lucky, when a seller has no idea what he has, as my friend did a couple of years ago. I traded him, straight up, a very clean '66 Fender Pro reverb for this amp. The picture shows a G12H30 in it but it was too loud so I recently installed a Celestion Creamback G12M-65. If you come across one of these, for a "nice" price", don't ask too many questions and just grab it. You'll thank me later.
DetroitBlues Posted July 23, 2013 Posted July 23, 2013 That looks really clean considering its over 50 years old. Any clips?
golferwave Posted July 23, 2013 Posted July 23, 2013 I have never seen or heard one of those in person. Pictures and articles only.
111518 Posted July 23, 2013 Posted July 23, 2013 Cool amp, Mike, and thanks for the post. Nice to learn about the under-appreciated or just little-known classics out there. One more to keep an eye out for.
H Posted July 23, 2013 Posted July 23, 2013 A piece of history Why did Dearmond discontinue them? Couldn't compete with Fender on price perhaps?
slider313 Posted July 24, 2013 Author Posted July 24, 2013 A piece of history Why did Dearmond discontinue them? Couldn't compete with Fender on price perhaps? I believe DeArmond; which was a part of Rowe Industries, got into the amp making side of the business because of a contract from CF Martin to supply them with a few models. Martin thought they would try to grab a piece of the electric guitar and amp market and had Rowe build them a few different amplifiers. That clearly was not to be. Rowe "tooled up" and decided to "package" its own version under the DeArmond name. I would guess most players in '59/'60 wanted a known brand like; Fender, Ampeg, Gretsch, Gibson, etc. and I'm sure price point was an issue. I also own a Martin 112, which is the same amp as the DeArmond R15 except for the cosmetics.
slider313 Posted July 24, 2013 Author Posted July 24, 2013 That looks really clean considering its over 50 years old. Any clips? I used it on a couple of recordings and thought I should have turned it up a bit more. It had the G12H30 in it and I was afraid it would be too loud. Go figure. It's on Can't You Hear me Knockin and Strange Brew. http://www.reverbnation.com/tinwhistle
golferwave Posted July 24, 2013 Posted July 24, 2013 The amp sounds good. Have you had to replace caps or any other parts on it? BTW, I enjoyed all of the songs on the link!
slider313 Posted July 24, 2013 Author Posted July 24, 2013 The amp sounds good. Have you had to replace caps or any other parts on it? BTW, I enjoyed all of the songs on the link! Thanks man. I did replace the FP twistlock 40uf/20uf/20uf can and two .05 coupling caps that were leaking. There are a strange group of components these amps have called the "inverter pack" which is actually a bunch of caps and resistors covered in a mylar like coating. These amp were, IMHO, the first "boutique" amps; before the word was used to describe a guitar amplifier. I'll see if I can dig up a picture of the inverter pack. I also used my 140 on both songs, tuning to open G for the Stones tune.
slider313 Posted July 24, 2013 Author Posted July 24, 2013 Inverter pack photo: The inverter pack is on the lower chassis wall. It's a maroon plastic/mylar coated group of components.
golferwave Posted July 24, 2013 Posted July 24, 2013 How do you replace those? Do the parts slide out of the mylar, or do you have to fabricate the pack?
slider313 Posted July 24, 2013 Author Posted July 24, 2013 How do you replace those? Do the parts slide out of the mylar, or do you have to fabricate the pack? I haven't had to do anything with those yet. You would have to slice the outer "coating" off and read the values of each component. I guess you would also have to install a terminal strip to take its place because I doubt you would be able to salvage the packet.
golferwave Posted July 24, 2013 Posted July 24, 2013 I haven't had to do anything with those yet. You would have to slice the outer "coating" off and read the values of each component. I guess you would also have to install a terminal strip to take its place because I doubt you would be able to salvage the packet. Hopefully they'll last for a good while longer. Things made with that kind of care were designed for the long haul.
slider313 Posted July 24, 2013 Author Posted July 24, 2013 So is this 'inverter pack' doing phase inversion? Yes, it's part of the phase inverter circuit. It is strange that it's covered up and the schematic lists it as the inverter pac , with no values listed for the components inside. Now we know where Dumble got the idea to cover parts of his circuits with epoxy!
SouthpawGuy Posted July 24, 2013 Posted July 24, 2013 Cool amps, probably none of those made their way over the Atlantic to Europe.
slider313 Posted July 24, 2013 Author Posted July 24, 2013 Cool amps, probably none of those made their way over the Atlantic to Europe. You never know where things will turn up! My guess is they may be found in basements, closets and attics in the Toledo, OH and Nazareth, PA areas, as Rowe Ind. was in Toledo and CF Martin in Nazareth. Most of these were probably sold in local dealer shops in those areas, to test the market. Being they were only made for two years, it seems their really was no market for these two. Check those yard sales!
bolero Posted July 25, 2013 Posted July 25, 2013 wow that's pretty interesting!! I've heard of those Martin amps, didn't know DeArmond branded them as well I always thought Gibson built them, I guess I was wrong a Martin amp like that showed up for sale locally about a year ago
212Mavguy Posted July 25, 2013 Posted July 25, 2013 One of the true sleepers of all time has truly been unveiled for us. Thanks Slider 313. This would be a great amp garage forum contribution as well.
slider313 Posted July 25, 2013 Author Posted July 25, 2013 Here a schematic for the Martin 112T. The "T" models had tremolo. The sister amp would be the DeArmond R15T.
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