Gretsch Deltoluxe Pickup

I wanted a not too expensive pick up for playing at home,for my top notch Eastman Dreadnaught E20D TC. With a cheap Behringer ADI 21 to mellow the "electric" sound abit , (or some good EQ) this is a great pick up. It lacks the woody sound, but it does not bother me. It does absolutely convey the quality of the guitar. Flageolets at the normal and abnormal places...it picks up all overtones perfectly. So even though it looks a bit strange, with the chrome,in that Martin 1934 copy, I decided to install it permanently. Needed to drill out the endpin hole a little but apart from that installing it was very easy. I did try it also in a small body parlor style guitar, sounds great as well. I play mostly fingerstyle blues. Maybe one day I´ll upgrade to a soundholepick up with a built in mic, but 6 months in I am still happy with it.

I’ve used DeArmond pickups since the late 1980s I have a monkey on a stick rubberised magnetic pickup on my 1930s gretsch archtop. It was my first “electric guitar” I also have a fender made DeArmond/Guild Star Fire Special that has “DeArmond” Alnico single coils which are apparently more p-90 than the original DeArmond 200’s which on early-mid 1950s Gretsch electrics were called dynasonics. The Star Fire pickups are great inho.
One of the great advantages of an Ohio made DeArmond pickup for an acoustic guitar from the 1940s-80s is that there are 2 coils 1 for the b and high e string and one for the wound strings (g d a low e) this allows for a balance of volume relatively speaking.
The deloluxe pickup has this quality and that is key.
It’s brighter and less full in tone than my classic rubberised magnet and alnico DeArmonds but through a tube amp it’s sounds great, nails the Elmore James/ Lightning Hopkins, pre Les Paul and telecaster Muddy Waters tone.
It’s pretty quiet, looks great and has a pretty good price especially since it installs very easily no holes to drill in the top of the guitar. I only wish it had the volume wheel like the Dearmond 210
This is a great sounding single coil electric pickup ! Well done fender/gretsch for making a great tribute to the dearmond pickup legacy.