This page updated July 27, 2022.
The various DeArmond companies used a wide range of control knobs on their products. These knobs may sometimes be required when repairing or renovating DeArmond products, but identifying them can be a problem. It is hoped that the following photos and sketches may help in this process.
The DeArmond companies also manufactured and supplied complete wiring looms with pickups, switches, jack-sockets, potentiometers and knobs to almost all of their musical instrument manufacturing customers. An example of such a loom for a Fender Coronado guitar is shown in the three photos below, of an all-chrome pickup set. Note the flexible spiral conduit commonly seen in Harmony and other CMI instruments
The potentiometers used had a number of different shaft or spindle types as follows: 1/4″ plain, 1/4″chamfered, 1/8″ split and chamfered and 1/4″ knurled with either 18 or 24 splines. The knobs required for each of these shaft types are not readily interchangeable.
Control knobs as used in DeArmond’s numbered products are shown below, generally in chronological order.
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- Edgewise pot knob for RHC pickup: Edgewise black knob, 1.552″ dia. x 0.1″ thick (39.44mm. x 2.76mm.), Bakelite material with central brass ferrule 0.323″ (8.22mm.) in length, to fit a 1/4″ plain potentiometer shaft. Slotted grubscrew. The first pic shows the knob as installed in an RHC pickup.
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- NOTE: This type of edgewise controller was, with some minor variations, used on a number of pickups, including the Models RHC, RHC-B (the three versions – dark brown, white and translucent red coil-formers), 210, 220, 240, 450 and the attachable pickup manufactured for Fender’s flat-top acoustics – the Model FP-6, which included two edgewise controllers for volume and tone.
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- FHC Guitar Mike, 1st version: Mottled brown domed milled-edge knob, fixed with grubscrew. Note the overlapping pot box lid.
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- FHC Guitar Mike, slightly later version, again with an overlapping pot box lid.
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- FHC Guitar Mike, 60 & 60-A Tremolo units: Black chicken-head knob with white centre-line, screwfixed to 1/4” plain pot shaft
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- This knob was fitted on the first version of the Model 60 tremolo unit and appear in DeArmond’s earliest literature on it.
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- Transparent cylindrical knob, fixed with slotted grubscrew.
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- Transparent cylindrical knob, fixed with slotted grubscrew: Note the gold-filled circle and marker line on the top of the knob. Fitted to Models FHC Guitar Mike. Another version of this knob, without a grubscrew, was fixed to a 1/4″ pot shaft on the controls for the early version of the Model 1000.
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- FHC Guitar Mike and others: Clear acrylic knob with horizontal and vertical grooves, suitable for push-fitting on chamfered 1/8″ split pot shaft and secured by means of a spring steel collar fitted to the inside of the knob. When originally manufactured, these knobs were transparent. However, absorbtion of the UV component in light over time has caused this yellowing. The knobs were later produced in black and white.
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- Edgewise pot knob for Model 220 pickup, fitted to DeArmond’s first attachable humbucker for roundhole flat-top guitar. This edgewise knob was fitted to the integral volume controller.
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- Edgewise pot knob for Model 220
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- Model 900, Viola transducer pickup. This black ‘top hat’ style knob with a white marking on the otherwise plain skirt was used in the early 1960s.
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- These two photos of a later version of the above knob shows more clearly the fluted ‘riser’ and the addition of numerals to the knob’s skirt.
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- DeArmond tube amps, Model 900 Viola transducer, CF Martin flat-top acoustic electric guitars Models 00-18E, D-18E and D-28E: Clear acrylic knob with plain skirt with single-line marker, fluted ‘riser’ and concave chrome insert on top of knob. In other than color, this knob is exactly the same as that fitted to the Model 900 transducer above.
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- Model 700 Violin and Model 800 Flat-top roundhole guitar transducer pickup. This combined potentiometer and integral grey knob is marked marked CTL
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- Pointed knob, 1700 Square Wave Distortion Pedal, 1920 Tornado Phase Shifter Pedal, 1930 Twister Phase Shifter Pedals : Black plastic knob, 0.63′ (16 mm.) high x 1.05” (26.65mm.) at widest point, internally splined (with longitudinal parallel grooves), to fit a 1/4″ splined nylon potentiometer shaft. The splines prevent the knob turning freely on the shaft, eliminating the need for a fixing screw.
