Harry DeArmond

Harry DeArmond (January 28, 1906 – October 12, 1999) invented the first commercially available attachable guitar pickup in the mid-1930s. He established a working relationship with Horace 'Bud' Rowe's company, Rowe Industries, to manufacture and develop these items. The company was located at that time at 3120 Monroe Street in Toledo, Ohio. A DeArmond pickup was famously used on a 1939 English Clifford Essex Paragon De Luxe guitar for the original James Bond Theme. Vic Flick was the guitarist making the recording at CTS studios in Bayswater, London.

They began with four models—two for flattop guitars (the RH, and the RHC), with an integral volume control—and two for archtop guitars (the FH, and FHC with a volume control). Initially called guitar mikes, these passive electromagnetic pickups shared the same wide shallow coil shape with individual alnico 2 pole-pieces.

The RH type flush-fitted into the guitar's sound hole, retained with adjustable springs to minimize damage to the instrument and facilitate removal. To avoid interfering with playability, It projected only a few millimeters above the soundboard and had an edgewise, almost flush potentiometer knob.