DeArmond S-73

It's your typical all solid mahogany SG style guitar. Thick but comfortable set-neck with easy access to higher frets with the double cutaway. The neck joint is sturdier than a Gibson SG by far.
3-way toggle and volume and tone controls for each individual humbucker.

The hardware is kind of different, it's like a 2-tone chrome and gold, like the pickups. The hardware and electronics are all made in USA so it's a pretty good quality guitar for being an import.
The USA Goldtone pickups are in a class by themselves.

Strap buttons are in a weird place but mine has an extra one screwed in on the upper horn for better balance.

It's a great sounding guitar. Lots of character in the tone. Pickups are awesome, they they fairly clear even when pushed in high gain settings. What I really like is the noticeable difference between both pickups (in the middle position) and the neck pickup. When you want to play the neck pickup by itself, you get a fat, creamy tone that still articulates each note in the chord. The bridge pickup is sharp and trebly but like a typical DeArmond, it sparkles. The pickups are medium gain but they shine. I use it through a Hiwatt Bulldog all-tube combo and the combo is incredible. It still sounds great through my Orange crush practice amp. Either with distortion or clean, it always sounds musical.

This guitar was bought off of the 2nd owner recently and it's practically flawless. It's 6 years old but it looks pretty new. Either this thing was built to last or he hardly ever played it. Or both.
Either way, the tune-a-matic bridge and stop bar tailpiece keep it intonated and the action is perfect (for me anyway). It's a nice red cherry finish with that tight mahogany woodgrain visible. I love the small black pickguard, only where you need it and not covering the rest of the wood like an SG. It's a well-designed guitar.

It's built like a tank, very solid and well-built guitar. I don't foresee any problems with it in the future.

It's too soon to say. Haven't had to deal with Fender, who bought Guild and this is a Guild product.

They discontinued the DeArmond line of guitars several years ago after Fender bought Guild and it's a shame this guitar isn't available. I've been playing for 30 years now and this guitar is better than most American guitars 3 times the price. Guild doesn't make cheap guitars and even though this is a Korean-made version of their Polara S100, it still lives up to Guild's reputation of being a high quality instrument. I used to own one back in 1999-2000 and sold it and was kicking myself. I'm so glad I found another and it was in great shape!

If you are reading this review you probably know enough about the guitar already, so I won't repeat what is already here.

I have owned this guitar for several years and finally figured it was time to do it justice by submitting a review. The sound is phenomenal for a guitar in this price range. It has a very smooth, full, melodic sound when you use the neck pickup at low volume, and can really deliver quality aggressive sounds when you crank up the bridge pickup (although not as crunchy as an open-coil Gibson SG). Overall, this is a fantastically versetile instrument.

The factory set-up was quite good. Any complaints are negligible, including a slightly sloppy neck joint and cheapish control knobs.

I would recommend switching out the factory strings for a heavier guage- this made a substantial difference in sound quality for me.

I have had this guitar for nearly 5 years now and it has never given me any trouble. The only parts that have visibly aged are the flimsy control knobs.

I have never dealt with the manufacturer, so who knows?

I absolutely love this guitar and would recommend it to anyone. It may not have the full visual appeal of the US made Guild counterpart, but the sound and feel are are first rate. I have played several SGs that cost many times more and always walk away feeling that I will always prefer my humble Dearmond. You just cannot go wrong with this guitar.

read others for features, i had the emerald green and natural mahogany colrs

the sound was good. i used it manly for metal. clean sounds amazing. better than my les paul. the american made goldtone pickups rock.

action was good. not as good as a les paul. the fretboard wasnt as smooth. but it was still fast.

no problem here

had no isues

ive been playing for about 3 years. i bought these guitars off of ebay. they are really good. i tried to collect all three models but the last model was too expensive. its a really good guitar. especially for 200-300. but i wouldnt never pay the 600 (never that much for a korean guitar) which was the original price that it came out with. anyway. my only complaint was the headstock. i just thought it looked funny thats all. otherwise its an all star guitar.

Well, the features have been very well described by other reviewers. Mine is the dark green one; it is SO dark green that under some stage lighting it becomes almost black.
I have owned this for about two years. I bought it right before FMC(Fender) discontinued the DeArmond line(too bad these are very underrated guitars).
What this is is a very good copy of the old Guild Polara but with DeArmond's own Gold Tone Humbuckers which are a bit hotter than the old Guild pickups. It is very similar in styling and body weight to a Vintage SG standard Gibson.

For all you AC/DC fans this Guitar is like having Malcom's Gretsch Firebird and Angus' SG rolled into one guitar. Lots of chunk with a fair share of brightness thrown in for good measure.
Thp pickups are quiet and there is a nice variety between the bridge and neck setting. I give it a ten because I am entirely satisfied with the sound.
It suits me fine for old school hard rock and blues that I like to play!

The neck is smooth and the action is moderately low. In short it plays well. Finish is good and it is REAL mahogany in both the body and neck, not that Agatis or Nato(the fake Mahoganys) woods used in alot of mid priced guitars nowdays. Since it is so similar to a Gibson SG I have compared it to a whole lot of the more moderately priced SG's Gibson is putting out nowdays and in most cases it compares to at least a 8 or 9 hundred dollar Gibson. You really have to pay over $1000 to get anything really nice from Gibson anymore. And it blows away an Epiphone SG!! The only real flaw is a small, very shallow "dimple" in the body wood about the size of a pencil eraser that only is shows up when the light hits the finish right. But its no big thing I can definately live with it.

IT should withstand live playing as well as any other decent solidbody.
I would always bring a backup guitar. Has anyone ever heard or breaking a string? DUH !

Fender has Discontinued this line of guitars. So I dont know or care about the warranty issues.

I bought this on a closeout for 299$(sweet) it originally retailed for around 650$. You would have to find one used now (2/2004) but if you do and you like a Dual Humbucker, Mahogany body, Gibson feeling type guitar
definately check it out before it gets away!!!!

made in korea, not sure when. 22 frets, solid top, 3-way switch, 2 volume, 2 tone. h/h pickup, mahogony body, transparent green glossy finish. blah blah

awesome sound, compared to my les paul studio plus, not as bassy. its a little brighter, highs sound great clean. lots of bit while distorted. not very noisy, full soundy. amazing pickups.

actions is sweet. the fretboard isnt as smooth as my les paul studio plus. however i can have the action lower, without fretbuzz. therefore its a lot faster. plays twice what its worth.

no problems

never had a problem

this is a kick ass guitar. i bought it after it became discountued. i had no idea how kick ass this guitar would be. i definately would recommend this guitar. im even looking on ebay for the other 2 color finishes. so that i can have all 3. this guitar is worth at least twice its value. lets just put it this way. i fell in love with my gibson les paul. and since i got the dearmond. its basically still resting in its stand.

Slab cut neck with scarf joint and three piece body (OK, one piece of the body is vertical grain, luckily the center section).

Alfred Dronge would roll in his grave if anybody mistook these for Guild S-100's.

That said, it's a nice lil' ol' generic guitar with good manners, playability, and sound (for the money).

I like the versatility of tones available from almost Jazz to almost Country. Bluesy and a bit more airy than a Les Paul. Not as pingy either.
The pickups have a nice bright lively character to them, and the string to string balance is good. I won't replace them, though I think a P-94 in the bridge might be a nice ballsy choice with the mahogany body and short scale length (think LP Jr).
I have a Rio Grande "Bastard" (P-94 type pu) kicking around I might try, but I have other plans for that pu, ultimately.

In the store through a Behringer it sounded worse than I expected for the design, so switched to a Twin-Reverb and it sounded much better.
I use it with a Tech 21 60w for Soul, Blues, Jazz, and Country.
It's my back-up guitar.

Action/fit/finish are fine though the materials are pieced together like a $40 Chinese leather jacket. I hope the neck tenon (set neck) is everything it's supposed to be.
Seems like a fairly well made instrument, though the finish is obviously thick poly, which can't help the body resonance.
The belly recess in the back exposes a portion of the adjacent body piece's wood (kinda tacky looking).
The neck and frets are fine and the feel is comfy.
Everything lines up straight and true.

Time will tell on electrical components. Luthiery is fine. Finish too.
Tuners are sealed and smooth.
The tune-o-matic style bridge seems a bit more precision than a lot of Korean stuff I've seen.

This IS the backup!

NOS as-is, I assume.

Playing since 1960. My main guitar is a Guild X-150D Jazz box, but I occasionally need a plank type guitar for more sustain and overdrive (and Country twanging).
I have generally had Fender Tele's and Strats for that, but wanted something quieter (with humbuckers).
It was cheap and attractive for some reason (looked like an old Guild?). Natural finish.
I picked it up and it seemed lively unplugged, which I wasn't expecting with the thick poly coat.
Next day I tried it plugged in.
I was impressed with the neck feel and sustain.
I wasn't actually in the market for another plank guitar, but I've gotten a bit weary of the Fender sound and hum lately.
This is crispy sounding enough, given the humbuckers. Surprising, actually.
For the price it's a great little guitar. A cut above a lot of the stuff out there, especially bolt-necks.
I've gigged it a couple of times now as the primary guitar and couldn't believe I was actually playing an imported guitar. I have been a died-in-the-wool American only player forever.
It's certainly not built like a Guild S-100, though those are fairly expensive now, for what they are. Haven't seen any of those around for a while anyway.
All in all it has a substantial feel and seems like a good guitar in its own rite.

New-in-the-box, Korean made with solid mahogany body and mahogany set neck with rosewood fretboard, neck binding, and 22 med-jumbo frets. This guitar is based on the Guild S-100, which is sort of like a slightly offset Gibson SG shaped body. It has a typical Gibson-type setup with 2 humbuckers, 2 vol, 2 tone, 3-way switch, Tune-o-matic style bridge and stop tailpiece. The pickups are USA made DeArmond GoldTone pickups, and all metal hardware is two tone gold and silver, that makes for a very attractive combination, especially with the transparent emerald green finish. I didn't like where they put the front strap knob - on the back of the body at the "point" of the top horn - but that's easy enough to fix. I moved it to the heel joint of the neck (like on an SG) - it balances much better with a strap now.

I play mostly blues and improvisational jam stuff (like allmans, dead, etc), usually just running straight into a fender performer 650 with no effects except an occasianal cry baby. This guitar is just super - I don't really know what else to say about it. I was very pleasantly surprised the first time I plugged it up. I knew how good the DeArmond USA 2K single coils sounded in my Gretsch '57 Silver Jet reissue, but that was on a $1000+ guitar - I wondered how good the GoldTones would sound in a $275 guitar? Answer: like a $1000+ guitar.
The bridge PU has a nice brightness that combines elements of the "quack" and "honk" of a telecaster (minus the hum) with the "twang" of a Gretsch Filtertron. Clean, it does a great job on country sytle licks, and when you add some gain, it does a pretty good Malcom Young AC/DC imitation. It can also get an Albert Collins sort of "bite" to it, that most gibsons are just too fat sounding to pull off. The neck PU can get almost Strat-like "bell" tones, but mixed with a B.B. King sort of "sweetness". I love the tone in the neck position for clean blues. It wouldn't really do for metal or anything hard-core, but for what I play, it's really quite impressive, especially considering the price of the guitar.

This guitar was shipped to me new-in-the-box, and thus, I was expecting to have to set it up from scratch. I un-boxed it, replaced the stock Fender (I assume) .009's with Pyramid .010-.048's (the best roundwound strings on the planet, IMHO), and began checking it out. The nuts that hold the tuners in place were a little loose on a couple of the tuners, but a 12mm socket fixed that. The truss rod and saddle intonation were practically perfect after restringing with 10's. No adjustments necessary. A couple of minor adjustments to the bridge height wheels to suit my personal prefrences, and bringing the pickup heights up a bit was all it needed.

Overall fit and finish are quite impressive for a guitar at this price. The frets were finished quite nicely, and I thought the 5 ply pickguard (b/w/b/w/b) was a nice touch also. It's finished in transparent stained emerald green that lets the grain of the mahogany show through, also. The block inlay fret markers are imitation MOP, but then again so were the ones on my $1000+ Silver Jet '57 RI.

Feels solid, like a good guitar should. I think it's as durable as any set neck, mahogany body guitar can be. Hardware seems robust too - I might add a set of Grovers later, but then again, it probably isn't necessary.

DeArmond is no longer around - will Fender continue to support them? does it really mattter... I mean, sending a $275 guitar in for serious repair work is kinda like taking a hamster to the vet...
Although, on second thought, this guitar is NOT your typical $275 guitar, so if something serious did happen to it, it WOULD be worth having it fixed, I believe.

Been playing 20 years (can I really be that old?!?) Owned too many fenders and gibsons to count, a couple of newer gretsch's, and various other makes. The high end DeArmonds, like the S73, M72, and the Starfire series, are first rate guitars that blow away thier intended rivals (Epiphone and Squier). If you can find one at the blowout price, it's deffinately worth it. Great value.

Nice teal green finish allows Mahogany wood grain body to show through. Fret board is Rosewood with real (?) inlays. 2 Humbuker pickups with separate volume/tone control and three-way switch. Neck is apart of body. Gold/silver dressing.

Sound is excellent for this guitar. I picked this up ?new in box? off of EBAY for $275. I play out of a Marshall AVT50 (Trans-tube) amp and my style is Rolling Stones to Weezer, mainly heavy blues. I played a friend?s Les Paul through the same amp and thought, ?This guy got ripped off!? For a lot less money, I got a comparable sounding guitar. It has excellent tone. I?m not sure if you could get a ?Death Metal? sound, but I?m not looking for that anyway. The pick-ups make this guitar what it is.

I couldn?t find any significant flaws on my guitar. The action was very nice.

I have not had this guitar that long, but I?m convinced that it is a solid instrument. It?s just got that solid feel.

I?m not sure if Fender is going to support the Dearmond line after dropping it.

I have been playing for about 2-3 years. I was about to fall into a Fender Strat/Les Paul trap. I mean, these are really nice guitars, but overpriced in my opinion. I played a $2250 Les Paul through my Marshall AVT50 and my $275 Dearmond S-73 and couldn?t tell the difference. These guitars are a STEAL and some fortunate people are lucky to have picked one up. You can find them brand new on EBAY for $275. These guitars were retailing for $750 before Fender divested the line. So, if you can bear owning something that does not say Strat of Les Paul on the front of it, you are going to have a great guitar!

Dual Humbucker, Natural Finish, 2 volume and 2 tone controls, 3 way toggle switch. I don't think a gibson sg has that many or any more features.

I play mostly cotemporay christian and praise and worship music so this guitar is fine for my needs right now. I am using a ibanaz 10 watt amp with overdrive/distortion on it and it sounds pretty good although probably not nearly what it would on a marshall or a fender. It has a regualar, bright and flat tone to it. Nice sweet fat tone to it.

When I got it from musicians friend it did not need anything done to it other then tuning. However, I did not like the strings that they put on it so after awile i put some martin light strings on it and now its sound great. As someone else mentioned the pickups seem kinda low to the body, but I don't think it affects anything.

I have used the guitar playing live once and its seemed fine. ( I switch between an acoustic and my electric when I'm playing.) It has fallen a couple of times and nothing has happened to it (whew) I would use it without backup if I was sure I didn't break a string. :-)

My guitar was on backorder for like 3 months and first it was supposed to be in late september but got pushed back to october then I finally got it early november. I had contacted them a couple of times and it went pretty well

Great guitar for the price although i havn't played many eletrics. If it was stoled I'd probably want to try out another guitar just for the heck of it. But hey for the price, I'd diffently buy again.

Mine has all the features previously listed, so I won't be redundant. I ended up with the "Transparent Teal Green" model (my first choice, "Transparent Crimson" was unavailable) which is more like a dark Emerald Green - VERY sharp looking. I was drawn to this axe after having purchased an M-72 (previously reviewed) a few months back and absolutely falling in love with it. Since I wanted to ad an SG-style guitar to my collection this seemed like an obvious choice. The neck on this is noticably chunkier than it's LP-style sibling and the frets seem a tad larger making it very playable for us larger handed folk.

Since this had the same pickups and knob controls as the M-72 I was expecting much of the same sounds out of the S-73. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this guitar has a tone signature that is completely it's own. While the M-72 has a bright, pleasing tone with loads of sustain - perfect for jazz, blues and most lighter shades of rock (ie. anything short of true metal or power grunge) the S-73 has a fatter, fuller sound that will take care of my heavier/edgier playing needs as well as most rock and blues tunes. I think this must be attributable to the difference in the body designs of the two.
While the M-72 has a figured maple top and a chambered mohagany solid-body the S-73 is just a solid slab of mohagany which creates a fatter sound with only slightly diminished sustain as compared to it's sibling. It also causes the S-73 to be quite acoustically audible with little or no amplification going - not a problem when the amp is turned up to moderate levels.
As for my set-up, I am using this mostly with my Behringer GX-110 Ultraroc (although I occaisionally crank-up the Peavey Classic) with a Dunlop 535Q wah peddle and a DOD American Metal Distortion peddle going through the effects loop.

I had to lower the action a bit, re-intonate for 10 gauge strings and adjust the neck a bit, but that was it! The S-73 didn't need the filing and reseating of the nut, the raising of the p/u's or the crowning of the fretwires that the M-72 required.
The knobs seem a little less stylish than those on my other DeArmond though their action is very smooth and even, and the SG-style placement of the switch can sometimes get in the way of exhuberant playing.
As far as the finish is concerned, it is quite nice. A nice clear coat seems to be protective and durable. Some sloppy work with the glue gun seems to be standard for DeArmond's craftsmen. The S-73 has evidence of this where the fretboard meets the body but is only noticable on close inspection. There is also a small drop evident on the third fret but not noticable when playing.
Like the M-72, the hardware is beautiful and the tuners are solid! It is so nice to have guitars that stay in tune - and these do!!
All in all, decent fit and finish for the price. Once the set-up work was finished it really played liked butter.

NEVER gig without a backup! With that said, this puppy is solid. The finish looks like it will last longer than me and the hardware is built like it should be. I tend to sling my guitars around a bit and these strap buttons seem up to the task. I've only had the M-72 for about 4 months and this for about a month, but so far these guitars seem quite durable and have been very reliable.

Lifetime warranty, but I wonder what will happen with that since Fender is dropping the DeArmond line. I would think that Fender will stand behind these. And, since they are Guild copies for the most part, replacement parts should be available if needed. We'll see. No rating here due to the uncertainty.

I have been playing longer than I care to admit. Besides these two DeArmonds, I also have a Standard Strat. I'd like to add a PRS and a Texas Special Strat to the arsenal - but my wife says I need to buy a bigger house first so I have adequate room to store them!!! So for now, these three will have to do (oh darn!). For the money, you really can't beat these guitars. If you want an SG-style guitar without the SG-style price this is definitely the way to go. I tried the Gibson SG Gothic as well as the EPI copies and felt that this puppy was able to meet or beat them all in every way. It even has the cord patch on the side of the guitar rather than the front as the SG does - I like this location MUCH better! And since they are no longer available they may become a bit of a collector's item - who knows. Regardless of it's future value, it's a great guitar to play that is easy on the bank account - a very nice combination!