DeArmond M-65

You have seen the other reviews, dbl humbuckers, single volume, single tone, three way switch. Tobacco Burst finish. Very Basic L.P. style guitar.

This is where I think this little baby shines. The Humbuckers in it are cheap but GREAT! Yep, I have no compalaints about the tones I get, deep warm fat lows, growling, blazing... I get everything, Sometimes it is a little to strong for a small room and it feedsback, when I stand next to my amp, but what do you expect... Very Bluesy, great for Jazz but also very kicken when you cover 80's rock.

Now, it is a little blockie and the action was a little high when I got it. But after having the bridge and action set to my standards, when I pick it up I can not put it down.

No krackle in the knobs. No problems with the tuners, infact it keeps tune perfectly. I'm not stoked on the bridge but it is liveable. I have dropped it and no scars. It lives in a case most of the time till I want to use it, never fails. The neck sometimes makes a little noise when I press the body hard driving feedback, but hey I'm pressing and pulling on a bolt on neck, that should happen. This is my backup to my Gibson Blueshawk. I have used it as a primary for cafe shows, but I always have another guitar on hand.

You gotta deal with fender, so no worries...
Haven't needed yet.

I am the first and only owner of this guitar and it just gets better with age, fun to play and nice to look at. I love it! It was under 200.00 new in 1999 and very well worth it.

No idea when it was made. somewhere asian. pretty basic guitar. cheapo weak dual humbukers. pretty heavy. one volume, one tone knob. 3 way switch. basic black finish. decent neck. frets are a little bit sharp around the corners. regular tuners. TOM bridge. it's your everyday basic learner's guitar.

the pickups are weak. not as hot as the stock pickups from my Ibanez SZ720. still not entirely bad though. they have a fat sound. new strings make it brighter. i use D Addarios 10, and they make it a bit better. Pickups are noisy. they hum. the bridge isn't grounded, so that might be the problem. the wiring is a bit funky when i checked, so that too. i might get DiMarzio Super Threes on it maybe. or any kind of decent aftermarket pickup. i'm considering a DiMarzio X2N in the bridge or a Seymour Duncan SH-5 in the bridge. then a Seymour Duncan PhatCat P-90 in the neck. with that it i'd believe that it's sound great. the guitar can't do hard stuff like metal or heavy punk. a bit too much bottem end for Ska. i usually play ska and punk. this guitar is decent. it can't do like Bad Religion or Operation Ivy stuff. it can do cheapo radio emo though. so emo kids can play it. I like that it's simple. pretty much the simplest any guitar can get. except for a Squier bullet special which only has 1 volume. the pickups sound mostly the same and can't really tell the difference from neck and bridge. the 3rd position is basically useless. it sounds the same. i dislike the body shape of it. the neck joint is kinda annoying.

the pickups weren't wired correctly when i got to it. My friend acually let asked me to fix this guitar for him. the pickups aren't wiring right. it's noisy. low output pickups. the jack comes loose a lot. the tuners aren't great. but it's a bargain basement guitar. i acually like cheap guitars, cuz i can upgrade the hell out of them. new hardwear and pickups and new everything. i'd even put a strat neck on it if it'd fit. but the finish was alright. the fretwire is a bit sharp on the corners. and the nut is kinda grabby and makes tuning a bitch. the bridge had a sharp point on the D string so it was always breaking. the pots were a bit corroded. but i'm just spastic and little things bother me

i have a feeling that this guitar will die in about 3 days of hard playing. so i will not trust it at all. or atleast in it's current condition. hardwear is already getting faded and the metal is tarnishing. jack is loose. i mostly depend on my Ibanez for shows and basically everything. the wood is heavy, i can hit people with it, so it'd be fun.

i've been playing for awhile. I own Ibanez guitars, in my opinion, best guitars available other the PRS. but PRS is uber expensive. used to owen Fenders and Schecters. hate Jacksons. if it was lost, i'd probably go and buy another one, cuz i have plans for this guitar. the beauty of this guitar is that it's not that expensive. i can mod it out to my liking. hate that it's in such shit stock condition. i like the neck's feel, but hate the frets. it took me like 1 hours to properly adjust the action to a nice feel. the neck was warped when i got it. that's not good. i wish it had hotter pickups. and something awesome like a bigsby and some locking tuners.

Don't know very much about it i'm afraid.

22 frets, black led paul style body and head. Dual humbuckers with no name. 3-way selector with one volume and one tone control.
Thin nice neck.

Well, it's a very cheap axe. So you can't expect EMG-on-a-les-paul-standard sound. However, it holds it's ground in surprisingly many situations. Clean sound awesome, some noise when heavily distorted. But only on very loud volumes. Other than that, fat and nice sound.
I played lots of metallica (this was my first guitar btw) and it suited my need very well during my first years.

Perfectly set-up when i got it. Not a single flaw. Shitty strings perhaps, but that's easily taken care of. I reccomend utting a set of 10-56 on this baby

Well, a large piece av the surface is off. But that's because i dropped it on the ground at high speed! I hate myself for doind that.. It can withstand very much otherwise. However, the swith needs replacement, and the input jack often get's loose. Small prolbems.
Would use it as a back-up live.

A PERFECT guitar for beginners, and witha couple of emg's and adjustments, it's good enough for a pro! Not many feauters, but that's not what was looking for. Reccomended for most people.

Bog-standard version with 2 humbuckers and one tone and one volume control plus 3-way switch. Sunburst finish, a la Gibson Les Paul Studio style. Angled tailpiece lifts it above the norm.

Play classic/heavy rock, Led Zep through to White Stripes. Sound is a bit flat with low power humbuckers doing their best to lift this basic instrument. I put it through a Boss GT-6 guitar processor and this makes all the difference. Through my Marshall MG30DFX practise amp it sounds average but with the GT-6 in between it sounds awesome.

Action is excellent. Almost as good as my 1980 USA Fender Strat. Great to play so I can't complain at all! Nice looking guitar.

Have used it as back-up only but if I had to I'd use it live. Through my Boss of course. A top pro once said to me, "forget buying different guitars, get the Boss GT-6 and anything half decent will sound great!!!

N/A

Well worth the money and a pleasure to play, so long as you don't expect miracles.

This guitar was made in 2000. I bought it in late 2000 from Coyle's Richboro Music in Richboro, Pa.
It was made in Indonesia and has a bolt on 22 fret neck, rosewood fingerboard.
Two humbuckers, one volume and one tone control and a 3 way pickup selector switch. The pickups are noname as far as I know. The above reviewers seems to believe they are American made but I doubt it.
The electronics are passive. Body is made of Agathis and I think the nack is maple but I'm not sure. The finish is transparent and the wood stained red, neck and body. The body is a single cu5away leps paul studio style. The bridge is like a gibson tuneamatic and the stop tailpiece has a cool diagonal look. The tuners are the cheapest crap you can buy but they work OK.
The neck is scaled sort of like a studio les paul but a bit wider. I dont know the exact specs. Accessories? hah!

I play a classic rock style influenced by Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia and Santana so any les paul like axe works.
I play in thru several amps.
The pickups it came with sounded terrible. They had very low output and sounded like they had precious few windings for humbuckers. I had some good old pickups laying around (a Seymour DUncan and a Dimarzio) that I put in and now it sounds great

Action setup was fine. Pickups were so bad they couldn't have been setup well.
Top looked and was fit very nicely. The routing and all the fretwork were fit and finished very smoothly, Impressive for it's price point.
The internasl wiring was the only major flaw besides the pickups. The wire was thin and cheesy and the soldering was barely adequate. I replaced it all.

Now that the pickups and wiring are replaced it's fine. The body is very solid. The 3-way selector snaspped off so all that is there is a stub but it works. I replaced the strap buttons with straplocks like I do for all my electrics so I can't judge the originals. They're in a box with the old pickups. The finish is getting slightly pitted for some reason but otherwise is holdiong up pretty well. I use this guitar as one of my practice axes so it sits out alot. i alway take a backup guitar to a gig.

No clue. In such a chep axe who'd expet much support. The store I bought it at has great support tho if I needed any.

Playing for 30 years. I have more other geear than I care to list. If this guitar was stolen I wouldn't bother replacing it. I got this as a spare beater but I'd rather have paid 40 or 50 bucks for it than have bought it new. Overall the quality of the body and neck is pretty good but since the pickups were so sweak it wasn't really a good deal for me. Still at this point I like it for a practice guitar and with the new pickups it has a good sound so I can't complain.

My 2000 model DeArmond M-65 is a stellar piece guitar history. I say history because it is no longer in production. From the smooth transparent cherry finish to the gentle glide mahogany neck, the M-65 has brought me four years of loyal playability. This particular model is handcrafted in Indonesia, Has double humbuckers, with a fat rich tone I might add, and the action came stocked with the Jazz player in mind. The tuners are a little unstable but easily modified.

When I Plugged in the M-65 I noticed more bass presence than all of my other axes. I play everything from Progressive Rock to Jazz Fusion
and it is very versitile to my many styles. I like the sound it has through my 1970's Peavey 400. In the studio the M-65 doesn't let you down. It is very low noise and volume pots aren't scratchy like most budget axes.

The action out of the gate was perfect for me. A little higher off the neck than I'm used to but great bendability for good vibrato.The three way selector switch needs replaced because it will not stay where I want it to. The input always needs tightened. These are small modifications though.

I can't tell you how many times I've walked away from playing this thing being tangled up in the cord, only to drag the guitar from across the room and dropping it face first to the ground. Not even a scratch. You would probably make a fool of yourself trying to brake it.

N/A

I've been playing guitar for about twenty years and I would reccomend guitar to beginners and seasoned pros. Once you fix the minor problems you will have a screamin' axe. Buy it you won't regret it.

Bought brand new in 1998 as my first electric guitar. Don't really remember the specs on it except Les Paul studio style, 21 frets, dual humbuckers, 1 vol and 1 tone knob, and 3 way selector switch near the knobs. Body was in a red finish and neck was rosewood fretboard and was bolt-on.

As my first guitar, I didn't know what to look for except I wanted to get a guitar like Tom Scholz. :) Since owning it, I have gone through 10 or 11 additional guitars and now have a distinct taste for guitars. The pickups definately were not high gain, and sounded muddy and thin.

Action was set up decent, pickups were set up decent. Smooth finish, paint looked brilliant.

Tuners were pieces of crap and CONSTANTLY went out of tune. Neck was fine and never warped or buzzed on the frets.

As stated before, this was my first guitar and at the time I didn't know what the differences between good guitars and crappy guitars. This guitar was probably worth the $200 I paid for it new, but I have found much more luck with used guitars for $70. You can't even put the words "M-65" and "Gibson Les Paul" in the same sentence. As a regular beginning guitar it will suit your needs until you get to know guitars more, but as a Les Paul copy it is hideous.

I bought my guitar brand new in 2000. It was made in the US. it has 22 frets, black body, black mohogany neck, and the head is metallic black with the de armond logo. i have a single volume-single tone setup with 2 dual coil pickups with a toggle switch. The neck scale is thin with standard sized frets. the strings that came with the guitar are de addario mark tremonti custom thick wound strings(nice!) that give the guitar a thick, rich sound when playing.

it depneds on what strings you use, but for the most part it has a nice thick and rich sound.

very nicely put together. no flaws

very durable.
i.e. if it can survive my room w/o a case (an 18yr teenage girl) it can prob survive anyting.

have had to deal with them

Actually, i dont know THAT much about the guitar, but i'll write what i can.

21 frets, 1 volume, 1 tone, 3-way selector. Passive humbuckers in a black Les Paul body.

It has all that a beginner can ask for in my opinion, and for my first electric guitar, it suited my needs perfect.

When i started playing i played Metallica all the time, over the years i have evolved my playing and complexity, and this guitar covers most styles pretty well.

When heavily distorted it can be very muddy, but the clean sounds is great!

- distorted
+ clean

It had a black finish, with no mistakes/glitches on the body. Everything was perfect. (for a 220$ guitar :) )

It HAS withstand several live gigs, and it holds quite well. It has a weird tuning problem sometimes, but i guess i have to live with that.

Never had to contact them.

I have been playing for 5 years, and i own a Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul with EMG-81 and EMG-85 pickups, 3 acoustic guitars.

If this guitar were stolen, i would not buy another one, there are so many other guitars out there that are better.

Indonesian Model i dont know when it was made but i bought it used from guitar center about 2 years ago so I would say late 90s. It's got 2 american made (yes- american made pickups although the rest of the guitar was thrown together in indonesia) 3 way switch, cheapie tuners and the ol' tune-o-matic style bridge given to all de armond models in this series. Agathis body and what looks like a maple neck painted over- i dont have a problem with it though because i bought it as a cheap beater guitar. the finish is the tobacco burst and looks pretty nice considering the price ($89). The body has a real les paul junior feel- really light and flexible. the cap on the 3-way switch broke off before i bought it and I couldnt fix it.

This guitar is great for a cheap jazz guitar believe it or not. The pickups (like previously stated) need to be adjusted for the correct output. I raised the neck PU a little and greatly increased the definition of the sound. The NOT CHEAP AMERICAN PICKUPS sound great and have a lot of character. I ended up replacing the stock ones with seymour duncans and it sounds great with them too. I adjusted the truss rod a few times and the The neck joint is a little shakey and it creeks sometimes but all in all it's a solid guitar and is a lot of fun to play. This is not a guitar I would worry about getting stolen or the paint chipping or anything like that. It seems to sound better the more I own it. I've played it through a vox pathfinder, fender frontman 25, blues junior, super amp, champ 110 and a deluxe 112. It adds a lot of power behind every amp i put it through.

I'm guessing because i bought it used that i can't guage the factory setup as well because whoever owned it before may have jacked up the action, "broke the switch" , "left beaten nasty stretched out strings on it forever", or something else like that. The tuning pegs just blow- I realize that cheap tuners sometimes fluke and are really good but these just kinda match the stereotype of being really shitty. of course the output plug is loose and never stays tight reguardless of how i tighten it.

I dont think anything will kill this guitar short of stage-smashing. When i replaced the pickups, i made sure all the soldering was solid to prevent any future problems. the finish on the head is wearing off (this thing has falled out of a closet in Lackland AFB about 7 times right on the head though so that's understandable. the strap buttons are as solid as they get. I dont think i would play this at a gig without a backup because i have a very fickle taste for the sound i get when I play- sometimes i like a humbucker sound and sometimes i want a single coil one and this guitar cant do both so 2 instruments really is a prerequisite for me.

customer support? i fix everything on my own!

I love this guitar! it's shakey and cheap but in an charming sort of way!