Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

At left, and as already seen, these early made basses have their pickups secured in place by what Dan called a "pickup plate". A chrome plated brass plate that attaches to the acrylic body with screws that secure the bass pickup in place (along with the screws that connect the pickup to the control panels circuitry). All photos are courtesy of Mr. Jim Edwards.

At upper right, the plate as seen from the bottom side. Notice the foam and how at left it is compressed around the screw holes while the same piece of foam off to right is much taller or thicker. This portion of the foam resides between the pickup and the pickup cavity and as such, it isn't as compressed as the portion of the foam around the screw holes which may have compressed the foam. However it's equally possible - and actually more probable, that the foam had been shaved down more in and around the screw holes. Altogether, the foam helps to isolate the pickup plate from the pickup, while at the same time helping to secure the pickup in place.

At left, another angle of the pickup plate. Notice here and in the photo above an thin strip of foam can be found at the leading edge of the plate. This serves as a cushion between the plate and the top of the pickup.

Above right, an oversized pickup cavity can be seen along with the screw holes for the pickup plate on the body. One can actually see the outline of the plate itself on the body - as well as on the left edge of the pickup.

As seen above left, the pickup-plate secures to the acrylic body using two phillips type screws and overlaps the pickup just enough to help secure it in place (along with the pickups lugs hidden under the scratchplate).

At the upper right the plate can be seen from a side view. Notice the aforementioned piece of foam underneath that serves to cushion the body from the plate while at the same time putting sideways pressure on the pickup. Given the oversized routing of the pickup cavity this side pressure would no doubt help to assure that the pickups output lugs maintain a mechanical and electrical connection to the rest of the instrument.

It is unknown for sure if this foam was installed at the factory, but my guess would be otherwise as I really have not seen this foam on other early models sporting a pickup plate. As such, I cannot help but wonder if a past owner had some issues of one kind or another - and this foam was the 'fix'.

Seen upper left, the pickup on this instrument features an all metal base. Although this pickup is held in place using the aforementioned pickup plate - the pickup itself, nevertheless, has the screw hole on the base like the later pickups employ.

Yet as seen at upper right, when looking at the backside of the acrylic body, no such screw, or machining for such a screw exists, at least not at that point in time. But given the pickup does, in fact, have the screw hole may well give us a hint or rough estimate as to approximately when the pickup plate gave way to the machine screw as a way of securing the bass pickup to the body.

What I once thought was a lesser type of modification to the instrument has turned out to be false. This is the addition of tin foil that is usually glued to the backside of the scratchplate to help eliminate unwanted buzz and hum. Given the large amount of early basses seen and documented since, I, along with the webmaster at the Dan Armstrong Registry discovered together that these early basses had this tin foil type shielding done at the factory. What I don't know for certain is when it ceased. Perhaps in time we can narrow it down better.

All the above mentioned hardware belongs to this early Dan Armstrong bass seen at left which shows the pickup plate in place. Notice plain type screws securing the combination bridge and tailpiece and the lack of a pickup selector switch. Also notice how the thumb rest is not centered relative to the scratchplate but positioned further back, towards the pickup. These features are all consistent with such an early model. Non stocking parts on this bass is the washer placed underneath the output jack to sturdy things up just enough to keep the scratchplate from cracking and breaking anymore than it may be. More obvious is a very unusual looking custom made bridge.

At right, and like other very early models this bass lacks an inked-in type serial number on the side of the neck. Instead, the serial number of D150A is stamped only (no ink) into the end of the neck tongue. Also, and as seen in the enlarged view there is a second, and much larger letter 'A' stamped in as well. It is unknown why only some of these instruments have these additional and larger letters stamped into them - and equally unknown what they mean. Notice too, how the carriage bolts that secure the neck to the body have been cut to length as apparently they were manufactured to be longer in length.

At left, another early bass utilizing a pickup plate. Notice the straight headed screws that secure the tailpiece to the body. Also notice what by now looks like a rosewood thumb rest that - like the others of this era, is placed further back than later models. However, other rests seem to be made of ebony or other darker wood. This model has rosewood.

At upper right, and as mentioned further above, these early models all have tin foil shielding on the bottom side of the scratchplate. As mentioned above, one question is when did the foil shielding get discontinued? But another question is why was the foil shielding discontinued? As stated earlier, I never got around to asking Dan, but a good guess would probably be finances as they no doubt tried to keep costs down.