Last updated February 18, 2022.
Standel guitar and bass headstock.
Harptone guitar headstock.
Koontz guitar headstock.
The Standel Company was founded by Robert ‘Bob’ Crooks in Temple City, California in 1953. His main business was in the design and construction of very successful high-quality guitar amplifiers. In conjunction with Semie Moseley and Sam Koontz, he also produced a line of solid-body guitars which did not use DeArmond pickups. In 1967, a range of DeArmond -equipped archtops was designed by Sam Koontz and manufactured by the Standel Solid State Manufacturing Company in Del Monte, California. A small number of these were later branded Harptone and a yet smaller number of Koontz-branded instruments were produced, including an archtop with an oval soundhole. The total number of instruments produced was in the hundreds. All of the guitars and the bass (excluding the Model 920S fitted with the DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1100) are shown in Standel’s catalog with dog-ear bezels (see below). I have seen no examples of that bezel type to date.
The body finishes as described in their 1967 catalog are:
Suffix -N: Neutral (blonde),
Suffix -S: Sunburst,
Suffix -C: Cherry.
A fourth suffix V denoted the inclusion of a Vibrato.
The instruments currently shown here include:
Standel 400-C Bass (only one Bass model appears to have been produced),
Standel 1967 410 SV, two pickups with central poles
Standel 1967 420 SV, two pickups with central poles
Standel 430-S, 1960s, two Model 2000-type pickups
Standel 1967 430-S, two centre-pole pickups with white infills
Standel 1967 510-S, two Model 2000-type pickups
Standel 520-S, two Model 2000-type pickups
Standel 520-S, two Model 2000-type pickups
Standel 1000-N, one gold Model 1100 pickup with pickguard-mounted volume control
Koontz Blonde archtop with Florentine cutaway, F-holes, a Model 1100 Adjustable Rhythm Chief pickup and pickguard-mounted V and T controls
Koontz Blonde archtop with Florentine cutaway and unusual oval soundhole, a Model 1100 Adjustable Rhythm Chief pickup and pickguard-mounted V and T controls
Standel catalog 1967 – page 1 of 4.
Standel catalog 1967 – page 2 of 4.
Standel catalog 1967 – page 3 of 4.
Standel catalog 1967 – page 4 of 4.
The DeArmond pickups fitted in these instruments are shown below.
Standel 400-C bass (photo copyright of Jon E. Blade, USA).
This pickup was fitted in the Model 400-C & -S Basses. This pickup appears to be a bass version of the Model 520-CV guitar pickup below, in the same chrome-plated brass frame, with a 2+1 height adjustment screws arrangement (B0456 photos copyright Vic Gerard).
1967 Standel 420 SV
Standel 410 S (B0652 – copyright
Standel 430-S, 1960s Standel with two Model 2000-type pickups (B0230).
1967 Standel 430-S with two centre-pole pickups with white infills using the Model 2000 pickup chrome-plated brass frame with a fixing screw a teach of the four corners (B0427).
Standel 1967 510-S, two Model 2000-type pickups (B0607P, photo copyright Guitars West, Southern CA, USA)
Standel 520-S guitar with two Model 2000-type pickups. (photo copyright Retrofret Vintage Guitars).
Standel 1967 520-SV (for Vibrato) guitar. Note the replacement bezel for the neck pickup in stainless steel.
This pickup is a variation on the Model 2000 pickup, as fitted in the Standel 520-SV guitar above.
Another example of the above pickup, with the original B/W/B bevelled edge bezel. Note the assembly method used here, where the pickup’s interior is inserted and the metal base is then soldered in position at four points (B0572 Photo copyright Henry Brown of The Bonfires Vintage, Portland, OR, USA).
Standel 1967 520-SV (for Vibrato) guitar (photo copyright Jon, Fine Art Limited, USA).
This pickup, fitted in the Model 520-SV guitar, is not the same as the pickup below, as the poles are larger and are screwed in from above. The black infill on this pickup versus the white infill on the first pickup is merely a cosmetic difference (photo copyright Jim L)
Two pickups installed in a Standel 420-S archtop guitar. These pickups have individually adjustable centre-poles and are individual pin-magnets fitted with threaded metal oversleeves, inserted through the underside of the pickup This pickup has just two height adjustment screws (photo copyright richard metro1).
Standel 1000-N guitar with a gold Model 1100 pickup and one Volume control on the lower RHS of the pickguard with a black conical ribbed knob in the lower RH corner of the pickguard (B0282 – photo copyright Van Hoose Guitars).
A Koontz Blonde archtop with Florentine cutaway, fitted with a Model 1100 Adjustable Rhythm Chief pickup and pickguard-mounted V and T controls with white conical DeArmond knobs.
A Koontz Blonde archtop with Florentine cutaway and unusual oval soundhole, fitted with a Model 1100 Adjustable Rhythm Chief pickup and pickguard-mounted V and T controls with transparent conical ribbed DeArmond knobs. (photo copyright The Music Den).