Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

Another fretless bass with an ebony fingerboard and matching faux-wood trimmings. As seen at left, the pickup on this bass is encased in a black resin that matches the other trimmings on the instrument. As seen at right, the brown wood-like material that makes up the backside of the scratchplate appears to be identical to all the other scratchplates that were produced in the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg line.

At left, a closer look at this scratchplate reveals the dreaded breakage in and around the output jack. Oddly, at right, no such breakage can be seen, suggesting that the breakage must be limited to the surface veneer only. Notice the capacitors in and around the pickup selector switch. Earlier basses have one of these capacitors within the pickup.

At left, the faux-ebony veneer not only matches the scratchplate and fingerboard, it really dresses out the headstock nicely. I've always liked the direct, straight alignment of the strings leaving the nut and going to the tuners on these headstocks, but someone went critical mass and added way more wraps around the tuning post of the low 'E' string than needed - which tends to defeat the purpose. At right, although Schaller tuners were beginning to be seen on these later made instruments, many were still being equipped with Grover tuners like this one.

Above left, when I first saw this bass online I saw the serial number shown above - D588A which I knew was highly, if not totally impossible. I figured that one digit was covered up in the photo. So I asked for a photo of the full serial number which, not only can be seen at right, but just plain seems right..... D2588A making it right where it should be.

Notice the running, or 'bleeding' of the ink on the digits and letters that make up the serial number. Also notice the sporadic fashion of the elevation between the letters and digits. Combined, it would seem to suggest that, even at this late point in time the serial numbers were apparently stamped in... one letter, and digit... at a time. One would think that an in-line stamper would have been used for these necks but apparently this was not the case.

The matching Dan Armstrong · Ampeg bass is yet another testament to what Matt Umanov referred to as Dan's 'pioneering vision'. In addition to its cool looks, the clear acrylic body is capable of a tremendous amount of sustain, especially when bolted to a quarter-sawn rock hard maple neck with a quarter-sawn Brazilian rosewood fingerboard which....in turn, allows for incredibly low action without fret buzz. Coupled with a pickup and wiring scheme that offer a myriad of sounds, it's one of the most versatile instruments I have ever known.