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In September of 1967 Unimusic Inc. purchased the Ampeg Company in Linden, New Jersey as well as the Grammer Guitar Company, a Nashville
based acoustic guitar company named after the famous country-western singer Billy Grammer who was an inductee into the Grand Ole Opry in
1959. Unfortunately, the Grammer guitars were rushed to market with many quality problems that greatly hurt the sales of this guitar.
Ampeg came up to see Dan in 1968 as they wanted his advice as a consultant to improve the Grammer line of guitars. Dan told them that
they couldn't compete with the Yamaha guitars as they made good instruments for the money. When faced with this dilema, they
further asked his input, and it was then that Dan asked "why are you interested in acoustic guitars instead of electric? You're in
the amp business, so why not make an electric guitar to compliment your amplifiers?"
It wasn't long before Dan Armstrong and Ampeg had reached a royalty agreement for a new line of electric guitars & basses that Dan would
design and build. It wasn't an easy task by any means. Dan wanted something new, artistic, and high quality, while Ampeg wanted
it to be affordable, and it had to be to market within the time frame specified within the contract.
Dan took the next month off to work out the details of a totally new design of instrument. He knew he wanted it to be "totally
electric - an un-banjo so as not to ever resemble any guitar or banjo of the past". Being totally electric, Dan knew this new guitar
had to be classy, feel good, have tremendous sustain, and yet be able to get a wide variety of sounds. By the time he returned to New
York, he had come up with the ideas for his new line of guitars and basses.
His new guitars were going to be made of clear plexiglas with a maple neck. Being so unique, musicians immediately tagged it the "see
through" guitar. The phrase stuck and became so well known that Ampeg eventually patented the phrase "see-through".
But these "See Through" guitars went far beyond their dramatic appearance. They were innovative in almost every respect. Being an expert
guitar luthier, Dan had a vast knowledge of guitar mechanics and engineering and maintains "I put every idea I'd ever had about
guitars into that one guitar".
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