Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

As seen above left & right - the Dan 1 model. A 30 watt RMS combo lead amp that contains a single 12" speaker. Although a combo type amp it's essentially an amp head resting and bolted down onto a wooden shelf which comprises the top portion of this combo. In this way, with the speaker in its own dedicated cabinet - the electronics are somewhat better protected compared to other combo type amps as the amp section is a little more isolated from the speaker portion. Likewise, a speaker residing in an all wooden cabinet always makes for better acoustical properties. Also, unlike most combo type amps, the Dan 1 model features a closed back - something seldom seen on combo amps.

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. If anyone out there has one I would love to hear from you and get some photos of it.

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 transportation 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, another Dan9 speaker cabinet. Viewed with the back removed it appears to have seen some water damage in its day. It also reveals four 12" Goodman speakers wired in a series/ parallel circuit giving the cabinet a rateing of 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.

At upper left, a Dan Armstrong full sized stack with two Dan9 Speaker cabinets. At upper right, a Dan Armstrong half stack featuring a single Dan9 speaker cabinet.

At upper left, with an Orange cabinet and carpet surrounds - a Dan Armstrong cabinet that houses an 18" speaker. At first I thought somewhat built a cabinet and put a Dan Armstrong plaque on the grille as the carrying handles don't match Dan's other cabinets, but I can't be certain. Also, Dan's other cabinets lack the white strip, or piping around the grille cloth.

At left, the striping across the top looks correct when compared to photos of other Dan Armstrong cabinets while at right and right, a look at the back of the cabinet reveals the output jack in the correct place.

At left and with the back removed the Goodman 18" speaker is seen. The cabinet construction and round white speaker cable coupled with a Goodman brand speaker are all consistant with Dan's cabinets. However an 18" speaker cabinet is not listed in any of the Dan Armstrong amplifier literature, so a 'one-off' like this would at first seem unlikely. However, it would not be out of character at all for Dan who had done things like this all his life - so it's really hard to say for certain.

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.

Dan had apparently said pretty much the same to a man online named Ed - who in turn posted Dan's reply to him - as he had apparently asked Dan for the schematics of his Dan Armstrong amplifier. This is what he had posted:

"Below is a letter I recieved from Dan while looking for info on the Dan 100 amplifier. Interesting response from a real Gentleman. Sadly, he passed away shortly after my correspondence with him."

"Hi Ed..... I'm very glad you like my stuff,. stand by for the 21st century Orange Squeezer...coming soon! I Can't help on the paper work, but I'm sure that Laney can get you something."

"I felt that the execution of my concept was much too far from the point in too many ways...eight sliders instead of ten.....transistor input and just a lot of little things. There is a serious flaw in the construction design however, which caused me to sever my relationship with Laney, Boozey and Hawkes, and that amp, and it is this...... when disassembling the amp to work on it, the ground can be disconnected from the preamp, while the high voltage stays connected. This can be very dangerous...a hazard to the repairman.

On a sales and promotion tour I did, the demonstration amps 'blew up' one out of four times. I was unhappy, believe me. Before the amp actually appeared, just on the advertisments and the concept, a helluva lot of amps were ordered by dealers world-wide. How many actually were sold with my name on them, I really can't say, but the name was changed to 'EQ' and most were sold that way. I don't know if they corrected the fault or not. This 'wildcat designer' bit I do is not without some ups and downs. Please do keep in contact!"

Finances were, of course, an equally 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."

As stated above by Dan himself in his coorespondence - by the time Dan had removed himself from the project, Boosey & Hawkes had 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 replaced with the name 'EQ'. It is unknown for sure how many of these 'EQ' amps are out there, as they seem to be quite rare today. I had never seen one of these 'EQ' amps myself, and quite frankly, I never thought I would. But in May of 2012, Andrew Warren wrote in and informed me that he had located one of these 'rare birds' which can be seen below. Photos courtesy of Andrew Warren.

As seen above left, an EQ amp that is identical to the 60 watt RMS Dan2 amp - save for the nemaplate - can be seen above with the only exceptions being the speakers (the aluminum voice-coil dome covers are different) - and, of course the actual name plate itself which actually resides in the same place but reveals the letters EQ, followed by the words 'graphic equalizer' in smaller letters, all of which can be seen better in enlarged view off to the right. Dan never did find out if they fixed that safety flaw or whether they just shipped them as they were. But we now know that they did indeed rename what was once a Dan Armstrong designed amplifier.

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