As seen above left & right - the Dan1 model. A 30 watt RMS combo lead amp that contains a single 12" speaker. Although a combo type amp, at upper right, notice how the amplifier section is bolted down onto a wooden shelf which actually comprises the top portion of the speaker cabinet. In this way, with the speaker in its own dedicated cabinet the electronics are better protected as they are more isolated from the speaker. Likewise, a speaker residing in an all wooden cabinet always makes for better acoustical properties. Lastly, notice how the speaker cable leaves the amp and passes through this shelf.

At left - the Dan2 model. A 60 watt RMS combo lead amp that houses two 12" speakers. The cabinet also contains two carrying handles. Although this amp employs two 12" speakers instead of one like the Dan 1 model, it stands only 10" higher (33" vs. 23") than the Dan 1 which has a single 12" speaker. Although often called (and considered) the lead guitar amps, the Dan1 and the Dan2 models feature the same identical pre-amps as their 'piggy-back' counterparts and in the case of the Dan2 model, even the power amp stage is the same as the 60 watt piggyback head. In fact, the only difference between the Dan1 & the Dan2 amplifiers and the rest of the line is the fact that these two amps are combo type amps - built into a sealed cabinet with a removable back for reducing bass response.

At upper left, The Dan3, Dan4 & Dan5 are all control power amps - or piggyback type heads with the pre-amp stage being identical, not only to each other, but to the rest of line as well. The only thing that differentiated these heads is the power amp section. The Dan3 is a 60 watt RMS model employing one ECC83 driver tube and two EL34 output tubes. The Dan4 model is rated at 100 watts RMS and is fitted with one ECC83 and four EL34 tubes (though literature only shows two such tubes - most likely a misprint). Lastly, The Dan5 boasts an impressive 200 watts RMS power - probably for bass guitar, and sports one ECC83, one ECC82, and six EL34 vacuum tubes.

Upper right, is my representation of the Dan6, Dan7 and Dan8. These models were rated at 60 watts, 100 watts and 200 watts respectively, and are 'Slave Amps'. As such, they are identical to the piggyback, or control power amps but are fitted with a single input channel &/or jack, sensativity switch, and a single volume slider. The graphic EQ or tone shaping system is not incorporated into these units. Due to the lack of any photos, and based on factory literature descriptions, I took the liberty of offering what I feel the slave units may look like.

As seen above left - a front view of the Dan9 speaker cabinet. It is advertized as the ideal speaker system, with four 12" speakers fitted into a carefully planned and constructed enclosure that covers the full frequency range from the lowest bass notes to the highest lead notes. It sports recessed carrying handles, and four casters for easy transportration as well as recessed cups for stacking purposes. Literature mentions that the grille fabric covering the speakers has unusually good sounding transmission properties. At upper right, and with the back removed four 12" Goodman^® speakers can be seen. Wired in a series/ parallel circuit, the cabinet is rated at 16 ohms.

Above left, a closeup of the sticker that resides on the back of the speaker magnets as can be seen in the 4x12 cabinet shown above. Goodman^® speakers were used in this cabinet though some models employ Fane^® speakers like the one seen at the right. Both brands were used, however, some cabinets are loaded with Celestion^® brand speaker(s) but this was done as the result of the owner changing over to them.

The life of the Dan Armstrong amplifiers would be short lived however, due to a combination of disappointment, safety & finances. I had read posts on the Internet in regard to Dan's disapointment that Boosey & Hawkes strayed too far from his original design ideas when they took his designs and altered them as they engineered only 8 sliders for the Tone Shaping System when in fact Dan had designed it for 10 such sliders. Also, despite the fact that they used a vacuum tube to warm the sound up a bit, Dan did not like, nor did he design a transistor input stage. When I asked Dan about it, he confirmed these disappointments and more.

Safety too, was of major concern to Dan, and he said it was this, more than anything else, that caused him to sever his ties with the project. According to Dan there is a serious flaw in the construction design when disassembling the amp to work on it. Apparently the ground can be disconnected from the preamp, while the high voltage stays connected and this can be very dangerous. Apparently on a sales and promotion tour Dan said the demonstration amps 'blew up' one out of four times.

Finances were, of course, an equal determining factor. According to Craig Buzzart "The Dan Armstrong amps were killed, at least in California, by the electrical inspector for LA county. While the amps were UL approved, this was not enough for LA county where much of Dan's products sold. While Underwriters Labratories are accepted as safe everywhere else in the land, Dan needed LA approval to sell them as LA has their own code which was way above and beyond the ratings of Underwriters Labratories."

Craig continued, adding "Unfortunately by the time anyone knew any of this, many of Dan's amps had been sold in LA county and so there were penalties and fines to be paid which came to a fair sum of money. These fines, coupled with additional funds that would have to be paid out for any future amplifiers sales in this region, coupled with several issues Dan was already having with Boosey & Hawkes" (most likely the issues mentioned above) "all ruined the project, and Dan decided it was just easier to get out altogether."

Once Dan removed himself from the project Boosey & Hawkes had by then produced a fair number of these amps and were ready to ship them to dealers world-wide. Since they could no longer use Dans name on the amps, and, since they had orders for these amps, the Dan Armstrong nameplates were removed and the amps were updated with the name 'EQ'. It is unknown for sure how many of these 'EQ' amps are out there, as no one seems to have seen one, but according to Dan he was told that they were going to rename the amp. Dan never did find out if they fixed that safety flaw or whether they just shipped them as they were, and one cannot help but wonder if they ever really did change the name or whether it was just something told to Dan to pacify him.

So after almost two years, and with all ties with Boosey & Hawkes now severed, Dan would close the books on this chapter of his life. But even before the closing of the project he had already set his sights on a new, & more promising vision. A wooden bodied guitar that would feature a sliding pickup.