DeArmond Pilot Plus

its superb slim neck is real easy to slide along. the pearl white finish gives it real appeal as well as the fully covered pickups (which is one of my preferences) even though it is quite heavy it sits very comfortably and is perfectly balanced. this is all down to players preference but i find the 35 inch neck makes the first few frets to much of a stretch and can result in terrible hand ache.

it suits my rock style playing greatly. its run through a recently bought torque 200w full enclosed amp and can really stand up to a gig.
with the j pickup the middle eq can do great things when set to flat to give it that real funky tone.one of my favourite sounds is if you put the p pickup on full,roll up treble and bass and cut out middle completely, this gives you such a deep, acoustic like tone. but the jazz pickup is a real draw back and has so much potential but no real good tones are achieved from it.

the fret finsh is great as well as the necks finish. the chunky bridge gives you a real meaty sound and the centre notched controls are always a favourite. getting the intenation right takes a while for some reason and grease marks show up straight away on the bright finish so make sure you clean it often.

im pretty sure this bass can stand up to the test of time. ive owned 1 for half a year now and whenever im not asleep or eating its usually hung round my neck while i walk around the house and its took a few knocks here and there but you couldnt tell. its been carried from practice to practice and comes up without a blemish. as i keep pointing out the neck is brilliant, strong as an ox. the hardware is simple but solid with big hard strap buttons. to be honest you just cant knock this baby down.

this bass is great for beginners to pros and is very versatile and the active circuitry gives you power to die for which i like compared to the Dean USA jazz that i own which is passive yet still a brilliant bass. back to the point, if it was stolen i would definetly replace it and the prices there going for at the moment makes them worth twice the asking price. my favourite thing is the 3 band eq. the tone range covers everything. so if you want raw power from that mighty p pickup that will blow those bloody fenders away and get back up every time you knock it down then get one of these there a real workhorse and they do the job well.

same features as everyone else has stated.

ive had this bass for about a year now, i really liked it before but now i have new opinions on it.
the sound is fine, but the way to describe it is modern. i think the P pickup has too many highs, when using the EQ even at flat it has too much of a crisp top end that just isnt for me. i like the bridge pickup but it can be a little thin and isnt good for laying down a bassline while playing with loud guitars.
the sound just doesnt suit my style, it isnt for me. i also dont like active electronics much. so there you go again with it being for me. it doesnt sound bad at all, and it is great for the price, just someone else would be happier with it than i am.
also, this doesnt have to do with sound, but it has a very thin neck, maybe even thinner than a jazz neck. it's very easy to play on, bit i prefer big wide necks. it's what i learned on and what i prefer. so again, it's just not for me.

the action and the finish and everything is pretty top notch. it has a few small grease marks on the back of the neck, which kinda sucks, but what can u do? other than that everything is fine.

it's reliable, all the electronics are fine and eveyrthing. but it's made from bass wood, which is a soft wood that cant take a lot of abuse like Ash or Alder can. it's also a really light weigh body, so it'd be good for playing shows and u wouldnt have to worry about fatigue.

i have no idea
probably not very good considering they almost dont exist anymore.

i saw this thing on samash and i did my research and figured it'd be worth the money. was it?? sure. it plays great and sounds great for the price. even if it costed 500 bucks it'd sound and play good for the price, it's a pretty high quality instrument. if you like active modern sounds and thin jazz style necks i'd buy it. if you prefer a natural passive bass with a fat neck like, then i'd look into something else. also, it'd be great if ur kid wants to learn to play, this thing is definately better than a squier or rogue and costs less. they go for like 300 on ebay lately, which kinda sucks sense i got mine for 129. overall it's a nice bass, just dont try it before u buy it or use ur own discretion.

Made in Indonesia I believe. 22 Frets, rosewood on maple neck, die cast bridge, agathis body. "Contoured body" as well. If you don't know, these are the updated versions of the Guild pilots from the 80's. Since Guild was bought out by fender, as was DeArmond, they started making the import guilds under the DeArmond name. Passive pickups with an Active EQ preamp. I guess it's a J-Bass, because it has a very slim neck. Really fast compared to my Mark Hoppus signature.

Pretty tonally versatile. The onboard active EQ lets you shape the tone alot. The J pickup gets alot of hum, beacuse there's only one of them. It's a pretty bright sound, and you have alot of options with the pickup blending, tone knob, and the EQ on top of that.

I got mine second hand, so I can't vouch for the factory set up, but I have 1 other DeArmond pilot standard, and a DeArmond les Paul, and those were set up fine. I've never had a problem with a DeArmond product.

The bridge is really cool, and I like the sparkly wine red finish. Really cool. I also like the covered pickups, because I don't like when the poles show. I put a DiMarzio clip lock strap on because I do a lot of jumping around on stage, and those hold fine.

Never had to deal with them, but seeing as how Fender just killed DeArmond, I wonder what the deal will be now.....

If you can find one of these basses, buy it. While I don't think they'll be collector's items in 30 years, the things sound incredible for the price range. I own a DeArmond Pilot standard, this Pilot Plus, and a MIM Fender P-bass. While nothing can replace my Fender, I always bring one of the pilots along as a back up, and Drop-D bass. They're just great for the value. It's a damn shame Fender discountinued these after a year, and they're not even going to be made under the Squier name like the rest of the DeArmond line. Damn you Fender!

This is a brand new bass with 22 frets and an onboard active eq.

I am running it through a Crate bx-100, and it sounds great. You can get a variation of several different sounds by working the pickups and the eq.

The finish was absolutely beautiful. But the strings were about a mile off the fretboard. A few turns with the allen wrench and it was just fine.

It seems to be very sturdy body-wise, but the one I got has a short in it somewhere. The sound just stops right in the middle while you're playing. So I'm gonna have to drive an hour and a half to the nearest authorized service provider to get it fixed.

After waiting on the phone for half an hour, I talked to a guy who wasn't very helpful, and he couldn't have cared less that I bought a faulty product. Didn't seem to surpised either, maybe there are more out there with the shorting out problem that I have.

I am going to give it a 10 assuming that most of these basses don't come with wiring problems. Because for $139, I can't imagine there is a better bass out there at that price, new or used.

This bass is loaded with features. has a 3 band EQ, balance/blend knob, and volume knob (those come in handy you know!). Has one P pickup located by the neck and one j pickup located by the bridge. same as those fender P and J deluxe basses you see. 4 strings, black finish. black hardware. Has small gotoh style tuners and the headstock isnt any bigger than a strat headstock, which is a good thing because my old 80s charvel had a huge headstock and if u werent careful u could bump it into stuff. that's not a cool feature if you ask me! also came with a plastic thingy under the volume and eq knobs that indicate which knob is which. didnt come with a manual. also has an active preamp with it's own battery compartment (which was a pain to get to the first time!). all this stuff for under 150 bucks?? i give it a 10 for value, but a 9 overall because of the battery compartment which took me a while to figure out how to open ,and i had to really work at it to get the thing off. other than that everything is great.

Now keep in mind ive had this thing for 2 days. I couldnt wait to post this review. The sound of this thing is seriously very nice. Compared to my piece of crap charvel, it sounds like heaven. The EQ is great, u can dial in exactly what you want to hear, and with the 2 pickups and the blend knob u can really fine tune what you want to hear. I mainly play finger style rock, but i like to slap and that kinda stuff every now and then for fun (even though im not very good at it). New strings dont fit my style very well, but basically i played the crap out of the my D'adarrio strings i have on this thing, and they're dulling up and are sounding very nice, very warm. This bass also has very nice dynamics. when i play something soft, it sounds soft. if i start hitting on it hard, it actually sounds louder and punchier! what a concept! my charvel would NOT do this. I really like how the P bass pickup sounds with this thing, and when i use it i dial the balance knob almost all the way to the p bass with just barely going towards the J section for added mid range. sounds very nice, very good for rock styles. The J pickup sounds good too, but it sounds a little too honky for me BUT i think thats because of my amp, not the bass. I like to use it i nthe same kind of way i use the p pickup. with the balance knob in the middle it has a great slap sound, and it sounds nice and big AND growly too. still though, it comes through my amp a little honky. but like i said, i think it's my amp (yorkville bass master 200). also, yes, the j pickup hums. i dont think it's a big deal at all, unless im recording in a studio which i will probably NEVER ever do, so im not sweating it. the P pickup has virtually NO hum, which is cool, but like i said hum doesnt make a difference to me. it sounds amazing for 139 dollars. i'll give it a 10 for value again, but for just plain sound i'll give it 8, due to the honkiness of the J and because i dont have any high end basses to compare this too. i love the way it sounds, just 9s and 10s should go to Laklands and Moduluses!!!

The finish on this bass looks expensive. it's not just plain jet black, it has little sparkly shit in it too which looks really cool. u probably cant see it in the pics u can see here on the net. it looks realyl cool, and it's very smooth. the neck plays great, and the action is perfect. nice and low, and no buzzing frets or anything like that.
BUT this bass came with a problem. the j pickup was not functioning. there would be no sound out of it. I tried changing the battery, no difference. i tried raising it up and down just to see if it'd do anything, nothing. i checked the electronics and i found a little silver wire that wasnt attatched to anything. i found out that it was the j pickup's ground, and i grounded it back to where it goes and now it works perfect. it didnt take longer than 5 minutes to fix, BUT a new bass should NOT come with a disfunctional pickup. if i was a beginner or didnt know anything about electronics i woulda had to send it back and had it fixed and pay for shipping and all kindsa other bs. but it works great now, and everything else was fine. i think my bass is a rare case, it seems like no one else had this problem, so i wouldnt sweat it if you're looking into buying a bass like this. so im gonna have to give it a 6. without the screwed up pikcup thing i would give it a 10.

What can i say, this bass seems really reliable. the strap buttons are very secure, along with everything else on this bass. I dont play live gigs really, im 17. but im sure it'd stand up to a live playing, especially cuz i dont jump around or anything when i play, so i think it can handle me. i'll give it a 9.

i have no idea.

I cant imagine a bass for under 500 bucks being a better deal than this. i really cant. i played an Ernie Ball Music man Stingray, and it was great, but for about 1000 dollars more than this bass i dont think it'd be worth it. unless i get really serious abut playing or get rich im not gonna buy another bass unless im gonna get into really high end stuff like Lakland or Modulus. Also, i dont think im good enough to deserve one of those yet! so this is fine for me now. and the value CANT be beat. u can get a rogue or squier for around the same price, and ive played both, and this thing DESTROYS them in every way imaginable. i mean it's not even funny, and its for probaby CHEAPER than the squier. go figure!!! this thing gets an overall 10 for pure value and it sounds and plays wonderfully. i would recommend it to anyone.

2001 made in Indonesa. Has P and J pickups, active pre-amp, and on board EQ--controls for volume, balance, treble, mid, and bass. It has the type of bridge with the little roller bearings. You can tell just by looking at it that it is a lot of guitar for the money. If you compare it to other basses in a music shop it is at least as good as the $300-400 models. It is a hell of a bass for the money.

Sounds great to me, but I have only been playing for a short time. It has a ton of possibilities with 2 pickups and on board EQ.

Seemed great to me fresh out of the box. The only problem I found was a cross threaded screw on the battery compartment on the back of the bass. I ended up chipping the paint to open the compartment....

Seems to be made of high quality stuff, no problems yet.

I havn't really tried, but all the bass came with was a little 2 inch by 2 inch tag.. no manual or info at all.

This is by far the best bass deal on the market today, and I did a load of research. Besides this one, the best thing you'll find for less than $140 will be a stripped down squire or a used piece of garbage from a pawn shop. The local pawn shop scene around here seems to be monopolized by a strange man known as "Bad Ax". He only sells guitars that will "burn your fingers up" and he works at at least 3 different pawn shops. I am wondering if he is some kind of a cloned pawn shop clerk, because he seems to be everywhere. His shop reminds me of the pawn shop scene from Pulp Fiction. I am lucky to have escaped with out having the gimp ball strapped to my head.

Guitar is made in Indonesia, purchased in June, 2001. It has passive P and J type pickups with an active EQ preamp with a separate compartment for the 9-volt. Controls include 1 volume, 1 balancer (for balancing sound between the 2 pickups), and treble, mid-range and bass level knobs. It is a 34" scale bass with a fretted rosewood fingerboard.

Between the EQ and the pickup balancer, this has a tremendious range of sounds. This is particularly useful for me because I play a wide variety of music. The pickups are relatively quiet, however it does develop a bit of a hum when using just the bridge pickup. The hum is not severe and not enough to dislike the bass, but it is my only complaint about the sound.

I looked but could not find any flaws. The finish is a beautiful metalic red and is smooth and very uniform. Fit on all components is tight. Everything was straight, aligned, and ready to play right out of the box. Actually, the factory setup suited me fine so I didn't need to make adjustments. Strings were low and without buzz. Frets are nice and even with absolutley no over-hang. I could not find any disappointments with the quality of the finish or assembly.
I really like the playability of the bass. It has a fast slim neck with a very smooth satin finish on the back - very easy to move up and down the neck compared to some of the glossy necks that your hands seem to stick to.
It is also a comfortable bass - nicely balanced and not too heavy.

I am a relatively calm player - no jumping, screaming, dropping, fires, or live animals so I expect that it will survive my style just fine. More seriously, the components appear to be quality - both the finish and the mechanics of the black tuners, bridge, and strap knobs appear to be high quality that will not corrode or degrade in any way. The red finish on the body and the black finish on the face of the head appear to be quite durable. Tuners are keeping the bass in tune nicely. Being a fairly new guitar, I have not needed to make any truss rod adjustments yet, time will tell. Again its a new guitar and I can't really comment on reliablity yet.

It carries a Lifetime "limited" warranty which means it does not cover everything (electronics are 1 year). However DeArmond is a "Fender" company, so hopefully, they'll be there for me if I need it in the future

I had gotten away from playing bass for some years and just played 6string guitar. But I wanted to get back into it so I picked the DeArmond and found a used Acoustic 150B amp. I compared many different basses including Ibanez, Peavey, Fender, Dean, etc. I looked in all the usual places..local stores, Ebay, internet, and found that pricing on this bass is all over the place. The list is $450 and prices are typically between $2-300. I don't know how Sam Ash is pricing them so low, but it really makes the value untouchable, even when compared with used. It is really a nice bass. Bass Player magazine also has a review of it - go to www.bassplayer.com for more info.