Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

In 1965, and with the music business literally booming all around him, Dan saw a niche, and decided to fill it. With his last $400.00 he opened his own luthier repair shop. Most articles online and in publications state that Dan's first shop was on 48^th Street (affectionately known as 'guitar row') in New York City. Photo courtesy of Google Earth.

However, according to Matt Umanov those statements are not quite factually correct; stating "Danny’s place really was not quite on 48^th St. While there were several stores on that block, W.48^th between 6^th and 7^th Avenues and a few others, around the corner, a block away, etc., were colloquially referred to, as a group, as “48^th Street” even though a few were not exactly on that block. Bear in mind that Dan’s first “workspace” here was not a “shop” at all. It was a small office space, maybe one small room, on an upper floor of a large building, with a desk and a few guitars scattered around in mid-project of hot-rodding; that was it."

Matt is correct, as Dan's first workspace was actually located at 7^th Ave. and W. 49^th Street (above Eddie Bell’s Music) and was named 'Dan Armstrong's Guitar Service' which quickly became known as the place to go for customized wiring of electric instruments. One of his first customers was John Sebastian (Loving Spoonful). In addition, he also did some minor custom hardware modifications/replacements, did setups and made improvements on instruments. Other notable clientele was Wes Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Bruce and many others.

According to Russell George, "Dan had positioned himself in an excellent spot. It was a little bit scary at times as I have been mugged a few times in that neighborhood, but the location was strategically excellent. There was so much session work going on at that time in the city and musicians who needed string changes or repairs would have to rush their instruments across the city. It was a disaster going in and out of cabs with guitar cases. Dan's shop was placed right in the middle of all this which greatly shortened the trip for everyone".

One customer of Dan's was Allan Tucker - who writes in to say "I met Dan Armstrong through Eddie Simon (Paul's little brother), who I knew at Queens College in NYC. I Met Eddie in 1967 or '68, while I was playing Paul's songs at a local fraternity house. I had just bought a Martin D12-35 from Sam Ash Music, but I also wanted a folk/classical guitar. I asked Eddie Simon for a recommendation, and he suggested I go see his friend Dan Armstrong at his little upstairs shop on W49^th St. in NYC. Dan showed me an Aria (Japan) guitar that I fell in love with."

He continues, stating "Having spent just one afternoon at Dan's shop, my memories of it are a bit fuzzy. Very small studio. I remember dark drapes. Lots of Danelectro stuff. In fact, at that time I thought he was the Dan of Danelectro. He made a few adjustments to the Aria, gave me a very fair price, and I walked out of the shop with the instrument."

Renown guitar designer/builder Rick Turner knew Dan in the early 60^s. When I interviewed him in 2018 he spoke of how accomplished Dan was as a musician and luthier.

According to Rick "In 1964 the Youngbloods had a music store which Dan worked at for awhile. Eventually Dan got his own place and sometimes I did work for him doing fret levels and such when work got too backed up. Everyone took their guitars to Dan's place and everyone stopped into his new store on LaGuardia Place. It was common to see some of the biggest names in the industry there as it became the center of the music scene back then."

Rick finished, stating "Dan had an inspirational and innovative spirit, always thinking outside the box. I don't think he realized it, but many of the big name companies in the music industry watched him closely."

Another person that would actually come to work for Dan part time was Steve Kubica, who had managed to hook the high 'E' string of his 1965 Telecaster into the lead pickup coil - effectively killing the pickup. Locally, every music store naturally just wanted to sell him a new pickup, but Steve wanted to use the original, and so he took his guitar in its soft case, and jumped on a train to New York. At the NY terminal he asked where in the city he could get his guitar worked on, and everyone directed him to 'Guitar Row' on 48^th St. After making several stops at various shops he finally found himself in Manny's Music. It was there that the salesman directed him to the only place they could think of to have his old pickup rewound - and that was at Dan Armstrong's Guitar Service.

Steve relates the rest of his story, stating " As I walked into the store and up to the counter a man was standing there and I asked if he could look at my guitar, to which he replied 'sure.... whatcha got?' As I began to pull the guitar out of the case a book I was reading about UFO's also came out and he looked at it, and asked 'you read this?' to which I replied 'ya'. I only had 2 pages to go, and he seemed very interested in it and asked where I got it. I told him that I bought it in a bookstore in Hartford - then asked him 'do you want it?' - to which he replied 'to keep?' - and I said 'yeah' and he thanked me for it, and told me that he was Dan Armstrong."

"From there I showed him the dead pickup and we talked about everything while Dan took the pickup out of the guitar and together we went into a back room where he had 2 winding machines, various wire and bobbins as well. I asked him about the winding machines, and I noticed they were made by a company called 'Meteor' and were actually made for sewing or maybe were sewing machines. Dan informed me that he bought them second hand from some electronics company. We talked everything from UFO^'s to Go-Carts for the next 4 to 5 minutes as Dan wound wires onto the bobbin and hooked up a meter to it afterwards."

Once Steve returned home, he plugged in his Telecaster, turned on his amp, and was literally blown away at how much better his newly rewound pickup sounded over the older one. Steve relates the experience, stating "It was just totally awesome, the pickup just sang like it never had before. It used to sound so thin, but now it was rich, and full. I was amazed at his ability and wanted to return to his shop, which I did a week later."

Steve continues, stating "A week later I went back and saw Dan, and I asked him if he had a chance to read the book on UFO's to which he replied he had started it. We more/less spent that time talking about UFO's as well as various other topics. I again went back a week after that and he was doing repair work and he asked if I would do a favor for him. I said 'sure' and he handed me an envelope with some parts in it, probably guitar parts, and asked me to take it to another repair shop which was located on 34^th St. and when I give the envelope to the guy there, to make sure to get an envelope from him in return, and bring it back to Dan. I grabbed the envelope, and to this day I do not even know why but I literally ran all the way there and back. From 48^th St. to 34^th St. it's 14 blocks one way meaning I ran some 28 blocks overall. He finishes with "when I got back to Dan's shop, Dan looked up and was surprised to see me back so fast. He asked me 'How did you do that so quick?' - and I told him I ran there and back."

Later I watched him repair instruments a bit and when it was time to go he asked me 'are you coming back next week?' - to which I replied 'ya' and Dan said 'come a little earlier and I'll have some work for you, and I'll pay you. The following week he showed me guitar repair as I watched him do fret work, and to this very day, I still burnish frets the way he showed me back then. Anyway, that is how I started working for Dan, although I only worked for him part time."

Although Steve would learn guitar repair from Dan, Ironically it was not always in Dan's shop where the teaching and the learning took place. According to Steve "In addition to his shop, Dan also did work in a loft further down on 48^th St. along with another repairman named Dave Worth, who knew Dan for quite some time. Together, they did customer repairs and/or returns for one of the stores that I think Dave had worked for. Dan did repairs as well, but he mostly did a lot of set-ups on guitars for the store. Dan's setup work was flawless and it was here that Dan showed me actual set-up and repair work for the most part."

Steve relates one story, adding "One time there was a Precision Bass in for repairs as the neck was both twisting and warping. I couldn't believe my own eyes, as Dan tore it apart, and within 45 minutes he had showed us how to remove the original frets, then he showed us how to block plain the neck as he did that next. "Once the neck was straight and level, Dan began re-fretting it while showing us how to do it as he went. After he had installed a few frets, he stopped, then turned toward me and said 'now..... you finish it'."

Steve continues adding "One thing that I know Dan wanted to do but never did was to learn how to build an acoustic guitar. He wanted to be able to do that, but just never followed through with it. He had read the book by Irving Sloane called Classical Guitar Construction which was published in 1962 or thereabouts."

Above left, Irving Sloane. In the enlarged view he is photographed with his wife Zelda, and Jimmy D'Aquisto. At right, the aforementioned book by Sloane - Classical Guitar Construction.

Steve then added, "In fact, Dan once told me that when he first came to New York he had called Mr. Sloane, though he never told me why or what they had discussed. But maybe that is why he would occasionally stop by at Dan's shop. He was what some might call a very renaissance type man, as a car would drop him off at the shop and he would walk in and look around at everything. Then, after a brief visit around the shop he would walk back outside, and within a minute or two the same car that dropped him off would stop and pick him up."

"My take was that Dan very much respected him, for Dan had learned everything by doing, rather than by apprenticing, and he would normally be chatting & kidding with his customers. He even had nicknames for some of them. But that side of Dan's personality would totally disappear whenever Irving Sloane walked into the shop. Not only would Dan follow him around, but he always addressed him as 'Mr. Sloane'."

"I remember one time when he passed by the counter and I was putting strings on a classical guitar when all of a sudden he said 'you look like you are doing a good job there, but in order to make any money you are going to have to be able to do it faster'." Steve finished, stating somewhat wryly "That was the first and only time that Irving Sloane had ever spoken to me."

But anywhere Dan's skills may have fell short in the acoustic world, was more than made up for in the electric world as Steve Kubica goes on to tell "Dan loved double cutaway Les Paul Specials & Juniors. I remember one day in Dan's shop we were jamming on guitars. I had a single cutaway 1955 Les Paul Special while Dan played on a 1960 Junior, a double cutaway model. I said as I played 'see how much more richer sounding this pickup is over the one in your Junior?' and Dan played the Junior a bit more and said 'you're right'. With that he proceeded toward the counter with the Junior and within 5 minutes or so had it tore apart with the pickup out of the guitar and went to the back room."

Steve continues "He came back about 4 to 5 minutes later, put the pickup back into the guitar and put it all back together and tuned it back up. As he plugged into the amp he said 'let's try it now' and he started to play. Ten minutes ago the Special I was playing was better sounding, but now the Junior could wipe the floor with that Special. It totally blew it away with more fullness, richness, harmonics & tone. When it came to pickups, Dan just had an innate ability to wind them giving them just enough wraps for the magnet strength without going over with too many wraps or under with too few. It didn't matter what type it was, every pickup Dan ever worked on always sounded better than before."

In addition to having his service center Dan continued his session work playing on alot of different artists' records. For instance if you've ever heard the 1968 hit tune by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. called Yummy Yummy Yummy then you've heard Dan Armstrong, for that is him playing the bass guitar on the record. It was just one of many songs he played on during his time as a session artist.

In addition, Dan, along with guitarist Charlie Brown played with Van Morrison in his touring band in 1967. Later that year, or in early 1968 Dan and Charlie would form a band called 'The Players' - adding to the cracks that had already began to form in Dan and Cynthia's marriage.

Professional cracks were beginning to form as well, for in early 1968 Dan was informed that he had to move his business as the building it was located in was soon going to be demolished to make room for an expansion to the Rockefeller Center. Dan soon found a new place, and relocated to 500 LaGuardia Place in Greenwich Village.

According to Jimmy Ryan, "The store was located directly across the street from the NYU dorms on LaGuardia Place. We had an active basement, accessible from the sidewalk, with two iron hatch-style doors that opened to a concrete stairway. We rarely used that entrance, as absent-minded passers-by tended to walk into it or trip over the doors and hurt themselves. Instead, we used the inside staircase which was a more civilized entrance. Since the basement was a pretty big space, we rented most of it to Rick Stanley, a talented luthier who did our repairs and brought traffic into the store. The remainder was utilized for store supplies and guitar cases."

Upstairs, Dan did some remodeling. Jimmy went on to say "The whole place was done in plaster which Dan had removed as he liked the look of the original brick that was behind the plaster. Peg-board was installed behind the counters which, along with hooks - allowed instruments to be hung up for display."