Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

Greco also made a matching bass at this time. Called the APB-1000 they were dressed out to look exactly like their guitar brethren. Seen above left, though nearly worn off, remnants the 'Spirits Of The Live' logo can be seen on the scratchplate. At right, and seen from the backside, the grounding wire is even more obvious on the bass instrument.

Above left, and oddly enough, a bit unlike the guitar models, these basses are equipped with a black colored nut. It is unknown whether it's a black tusq nut or not, but it would seem likely. Also notice that the tuners feature the 'split' or 'slotted' style posts. At right, the laminated maple-walnut-maple neck measures in at 42mm in width at the nut.

As seen above left & right, moving up to the 12^th fret the neck widens to 50mm and by the 24^th fret it widens even further to 60mm. As one owner stated "The neck has a modern flat oval grip. With the flat board radius and vintage sized frets this is one of the most comfortable, fast and fluent bass neck combinations you can achieve."

The owner went on to state "An absolutely massive output from the bridge humbucker, reading at 15.19k ohm. The natural warmth and growl you can achieve with this bass is ridiculously good. Run it through an all valve bass head and it’s on another level to any other passive bass". While I'm not sure if I would call it a 'bridge' humbucker, I would love to hear this bass through a decent amplifier. Notice too, the above model clearly retains it's 'Spirits Of The Live' logo.

These instruments feature a 30^1/3” scale, and their their fingerboards have a modern 12" radius.

As seen above left & right, this bass has a small piece of the scratchplate broken off near the end of the logo. What is most interesting to me is the fact that, so far, virtually every APB-1000 bass I've encountered features two holes in the acrylic body, just above the pickup and roughly halfway back of it. Originally I thought a past owner drilled and tapped two holes for a thumb rest, though it did seem quite a ways back. My next move was to check out Greco's advertizing literature on the APB-1000 which is shown in the brochures section of this site. But a bigger, more closeup view of the APB-1000 can be seen here.

Although shown in a larger view, it's set against a black backdrop making it difficult, if not impossible to see a rest or anything else. Ironically, the same two holes in the body can be seen. If this were a used instrument that would be understandable, but it's important to remember that this is factory literature which is showing holes in an acrylic body that doesn't seem to secure anything in place, begging the question "Why the holes?" It seems logical to deduce that the holes are pre-drilled and tapped at the factory and likely a thumbrest with mounting screws accompany the bass.

As seen at left, an APB-1000 bass with a thumb rest attached. It is unknown whether this was original to the instrument or not, but it appears that unmatched screws anchor the rest to the acrylic body.

At right, more interesting is the angle of the thumbrest relative to the pickguard as it appears to be tipped a bit which seems odd as the factory literature shows the factory holes equally spaced from the pickguard. Perhaps it's the angle of the instrument but the ground strap is quite noticeable.

As seen at left, another APB-1000 bass. Notice the squared shaped bat handle switch - quite unlike those on the Dan Armstrong bass models. Now, on the right, notice the pickup selector switch on this model. Though shaped more like those on the original Dan Armstrong model - its black color tells us it's a replacement.

As seen at left, a Greco APB-1000 bass with only one string and a labelled gig bag ending in the word 'Radical'. Notice too, how the front half of the scratchplate has been broken away while a small piece of it still resides under one of the scratchplate mounting screws. Ironically, it's not the usual break that's normally seen on these instruments, where such breakage occurs in and around the output jack of the instrument. Coupled with three missing strings I would say 'Radical' is a bit of an understatement. At right, a look at the electronics underneath the scratchplate of the APB-1000.

As seen at left, and just like the AP1000 model seen in the guitar section, this bass features a glossy black scratchplate. Normally this would arouse suspicion, but again, like the guitar model, the 'Spirits Of The Live' logo is etched into the plate in white lettering.

As seen at left, the headstock of this Greco APB-1000 bass, like its guitar counterpart is ironically seen, not with a matching black veneer but rather the faux-wood veneer of their regular models.

This would seem to suggest, despite a different pickguard, that a stock neck was attached to these instruments.

As seen at left and right, another Greco APB-1000 - this one with all faux-wood trimmings. Notice how the white 'Spirits Of The Live' letters on the pickguard are almost all but gone. Beyond this, the instrument looks virtually new.

At upper left and right, notice how transparent the control cavities are.

When it came to these 'Spirits of the Live' series instruments I really didn't have any information about them at all, but I was fortunate enough to get acquainted with Frank Meyers who I mentioned at the beginning of this section. Frank has visited the Orient, and as a result, has made many friends with the staffs of past & present guitar factories there. As a result of these friendships he has acquired a multitude of contacts there.

When I asked him about these instruments, Frank was kind enough to check with them, and shortly afterwards replied back saying "I heard back from the Fujigen folks about those Spirits of the Live guitars. They were made at the Fujigen Oomachi factory during the 1990^'s". According to trademarkia.com Greco was imported by Goya Music Corp., NY until the 3^rd of November 1992.