Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

Pages from the April and May 1993 issues of Vintage Guitar Magazine where Dan Armstrong is interviewed by Mr. Dave Hussong, an old acquaintance of Dan's, from back in the days when Dan had his guitar shop in New York.

Of special interest to me is the photo on page #1 where Mr. Hussong is standing in Dan's shop in 1969 playing an electric guitar. Other notable objects in the photo are an old Vox amp, as well as a 1969 Dan Armstrong · Ampeg bass in the window.

A 1997 Greco brochure showing (among other models) their (then) - newest copies of the Dan Armstrong guitar & bass. Known as the AP-1000 model for guitar and APB-1000 model for the bass, these instruments were part of the 'Spirits of the Live' line.

In the same brochure, another photo of their (then) newest bass guitar offerings can be seen sporting a Dan Armstrong style headstock.

Pages from the 1998 Ampeg catalogue as it celebrated its 50^th year and re-issued most, if not all of their past products over the years including the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg acrylic guitars and basses.

A 1998 Ampeg brochure for the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg acrylic guitars and basses. Oddly enough the front cover is labelled 'Ampeg Dan Armstrong - original 1969 design' (but shows a photo of the newer re-issue guitar). Upon opening the front cover - and on the second page it is labelled 'Ampeg Dan Armstrong - 1998 Design' (but still showing the same re-issue guitar).

Turning the second page (upward and outward in direction) you arrive at the mid section of the brochure where it shows a full body image of the re-issue guitar as well as a full body, though somewhat smaller, image of the bass model. The back cover shows both the guitar and bass model on the same scale size and reveals that these instruments are also available in a tinted smoke version. Courtesy of, and a special thanks to Bill Richardson for fetching me a copy of this brochure for my own collection.

A 1998 Ampeg dealers price list showing the dealer cost as well as the manufacturers suggested retail price for the Dan Armstrong instruments as well as cases. In addition, the various features of these instruments are also listed. Courtesy of Bill Richardson.

A 1999 article in Bass Player magazine covering the reissue Dan Armstrong · Ampeg bass which includes a drawing of the overall measurements of the instrument as well as other technical interests. Courtesy of Bill Richardson.

An article from the April 1999 issue of Guitar Player Magazine reviewing and comparing a 99 reissue Dan Armstrong · Ampeg guitar to a DiPinto Mach IV guitar. Photos courtesy of Cynthia Armstrong's loving niece.

An article and review of a prototype black Dan Armstrong · Ampeg guitar written by Mr. Michael Püttmann. This is the original article that was published in German. Thank you for the acknowledgments Michael. Photo of Michael Püttmann.

The same article as above but thanks to Google's Translator app it has been converted to English. Even then I had to do my best to rearrange and reassemble sentences as just using copy/paste from the Translator app, good as it is, left the article with many broken sentences that just did not flow correctly for US readers. Courtesy of Michael Püttmann.

A guitar review from the April, 2000 issue of Guitar One magazine covering Ampeg's (then) new, all wood guitar that took the body shape, and neck from the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg acrylic guitar, cut a few frets out and installed a neck pickup.

A guitar review covering the original Dan Armstrong · Ampeg bass in the April 2005 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine.

Ironically, the bass shown in the article has had the tip of the headstock truncated, most likely to fit on the page. In addition, replacement tuners have been installed. Courtesy of Bill Richardson.

Equally ironic, and only one year after the above article was published - Ampeg, under new management, introduced a second lot of Dan Armstrong · Ampeg reissue guitars.

These models, mentioned in the reissue section of this site, were slightly different than the first lot of reissues, and the bass models took a little longer to get to market. Courtesy of Bill Richardson.

It's hard to know when this brochure was published but a good guess would be around the years 1998-2002 being it displays an Ampeg AMB1 bass guitar as well as the reissue ADA4 Dan Armstrong · Ampeg bass featuring interchangeable pickups.

Ampeg's literature showing their offerings of instruments from around the 1998-2002 era. It shows the AMG1 and AMB1 guitar and basses lines, but also shows an ADAB1 (clear) and ADAB2 (smoke) bass alongside them. The amplifier line is present only as a backdrop apparently - as many like the SVT and others are missing and there is no mention of them at all.

An Ampeg advertizement for what they call their Dan Armstrong Reissue AMB1 basses.

Along with the 2006 Dan Armstrong · Ampeg reissue guitar brochure - an owners manual was also included. This manual is also available in Adobe's PDF file format - for anyone wishing to view this information online. This manual, like many before it, describes the different pickups that shipped with the guitar, the effects of the tone control, as well as the various tones which can be achieved using the 3-way switch. It also covers setting the intonation and other bridge adjustments.

Not long after the 2006 Dan Armstrong · Ampeg re-issue acrylic guitar was produced, Kent Armstrong, along with Chuck Wojack, founder of Grafton Electronics, re-introduced Dan's effects units from back in the day. Here are a few pages of their literature.

An article about the Dan Armstrong London guitars by Chris Kies in the January 2013 issue of Premier Guitar magazine, and thank you Chris for the acknowledgment.

An article about the Univox Lucy guitar from the May 2017 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine that gives the 'low-down' on this copy instrument as well as a good historical documentary on the Ampeg Company.