The De Armond series of guitars are Far East imports of various models of vintage and current Guild guitars, which is owned by Fender. The De Armonds are made, or as it states in on the neck, "crafted" in Korea. Based on my experience with the De Armond Starfire, priced at $1,029.99 MSRP, I would say that crafted is an apt word to describe this guitar. The guitar is incredible for the money.
Specs/Features
Fender sent a black Starfire sample, housed in a nice TKL case with the De Armond logo. The Starfire mimics its Guild brethren, a 335-type guitar, with a double cut away, set-in maple neck and maple laminate f-holed top, back and sides. Scale is a Fender-ish 25.5 inches. Inside, the semi-hollowbody is a solid maple block that the bridge and a tune-o-matic type tail piece are mounted. There also is a harp tail piece that the strings are ultimately anchored - just like a Guild semi-hollow and hollow body jazzers.
The hardware includes excellent sounding, USA-made, De Armond Goldtone pickups, a bottom-cutaway located PU selector switch, and separate volume and tone controls for each PU. The knobs are bit too old hi-fi like for my taste, with their deep ridges, but they are functional. The pickguard is vintage Guild in its look. The maple neck with rosewood feels nice and the overseas tuners held tune pretty well.
The Audition
Playing the Starfire through a Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb, a 1964 Vibroverb and a Marshall JCM2000 DSL-201, the guitar revealed itself as a very versatile for a semi-hollow body with superb tone. It can produce credible jazz warmness as well as crunch, grunge and blues tones. Those USA- made pickups are killer. The bridge PU has bite, but is not too thin and the neck PU is full and warm. They are not totally noiseless in high RF environments, but they are not as noisy as a regular single coil or P-90 pick ups. The fret board felt good with only one fret that had a little buzz. (To make sure that quality was consistent, I even went out and played one at a local music store; it was just as nice). I eeked out a little better amplified presence, suiting my personal taste, out of the guitar when I switched to D'Addairio strings. Acoustically, with or without the different strings, the Starfire, didn't sound as thin as other 335-type semi-hollow bodies I have tried. The unamplified tone has more body.
The only negative was that the painted f-hole's had a few spots where the wood was showing.
The Verdict
The De Armond is probably the best budget 335-type (about $600 on the street) of guitar that I have ever played. Its very good fit and finish, set up, excellent sounding pickups and easy playability makes this a definite best buy. It may even give some American-made 335s a run for their money in terms of tone.
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