Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

Toward the end days of production colored models began to make their way into players hands. According to Craig Buzzart who was the west coast distributor of these instruments "Near the end, in the last quarter the instruments came in random colors. A dealer didn't know what color he was going to get next."

As seen at left, an excellent white 341 model sporting the later body style. Notice how the neck maintains it's original color. Also notice how the word 'London' is missing from under the Dan Armstrong name. This omission, like the color finishes were seen towards the end days of production.

"While I don't mean to speak ill of the deceased - Dan was somewhat disruptive in a production type environment. He was always the ideas guy, a brilliant designer, but his mind was always on to something new - not on what we were doing at the time" said Tony Pitt - who continued, saying "I remember one time even before we started to produce the cases for these instruments Dan stopped everything as he decided he wanted a little practice amp in the case. Many times it was Dan's son Kent & I that kept things going as Kent had eventually moved to head of quality control." Photo courtesy of Chad Coulter.

Kent Armstrong mentioned "Dan had some fablous ideas but was just too impatient. We would have loved to incorporate his ideas into future models or something but he he would make us stop production in the middle of things which just got too costly after awhile. Investors were looking for a return on their investment and I knew it wouldn't be long before they pulled out."

As seen at left, another colored model 341 guitar. This black model, like all the colored models features the newer body style, as colors got introduced only near the very end of production. Notice here too, the lack of the word 'London' on the headstock.

Tony added "It was unbelievably stressful, and it seemed we were forever rushing, and while we were working hard and worried about one part of production, Dan would come up with something new and totally different than what we were working on. I remember as we were making the instruments he was busy working on a bunch of effects devices that he just designed. The effects sounded really good, but it's an example of how his mind was always somewhere else. It's like he just couldn't stay focused on any one thing for too long. Don't get me wrong - he was a great ideas man, but he often left the details to others."

With more changes coming, the stops in production and, coupled with the aforementioned changeover costs already incurred as a result of the body style change - forced extra time and labor onto Ian Halsey, who in turn had to raise his prices - which made an already expensive guitar even more costly. Photo courtesy of Aaron Bright.

According to Craig Buzzart the west coast distributor of Dan's products (Frank Garlock was the east coast distributor) these instruments were selling in the $425.00 range which was almost surely going to increase.

Dan had a different view altogether. He was of the opinion that Ian was just getting greedy, and he was not going to idly stand by for it. "He left for Germany and when he returned he stated that he was going to relocate in Germany and shift all operations there" stated Tony Pitt, who added "almost immediately after that announcement the word 'London' was removed, and discontinued on the headstock, as we were still producing guitars but really didn't know if they were going to be made in the London area or not."

Tony decided that he was not interested in relocating to Germany and he let Dan know that he would not be joining him there. Tony goes on to say "What really brought things to a close was our chief investor, Island Records decided to pull out when they heard of the plans to relocate."

At left & right, another black model with the latter day body style. Notice that this one is a two pickup model.

Seen above, the two low impedence Dan Armstrong pickups can be better seen. At right, notice how two slot headed machine screws have replaced the original allen type grub screws.

A closer look at the front and back. At right, and in the enlarged view the reflection of the guitar case can be seen.

At left, the neck features 23 frets, while at right the neckset can be seen.

At left, a single screw secures down the truss rod cover. At right, and like several of the acrylic Dan Armstrong models, Schaller tuners adorn the headstock.

The teardrop truss rod cover helps accentuate the polished aluminum nut. On the right, the guitar rests in its case.

As seen upper left & right. A transparent green finish that still allows one to see the wood grain underneath on this 341 guitar. The owner says he bought this directly from Ian Halsey some while after they were no longer manufactured. Apparently Ian had a building where he kept these guitars, and in addition to this green model he also had a red colored 341 guitar that one could see the wood grain behind as well. Ian had many parts for these instruments, though not enough to begin making instruments with. Of special interest was a London 341 model guitar like the one seen here, only made of clear acrylic. Apparently a prototype was made as Dan messed around with acrylic again and made one much like the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg guitar. But being a London guitar it was just too thin, and the idea was scrapped altogether. Today it remains as an unusable prototype. At upper left, notice the lack of the word London on the headstock - another sign that these colored models were made toward the very last days.

Kent remembers the end stating "The last day at the factory making the Dan Armstrong 'London' guitars would have been Christmas of 1975. Everyone took off for the Christmas Holiday and basically nobody came back." His stamper, untouched since that time still reads the production number of the last instrument he stamped. Overall, some 330 instruments were made during those years. According to Craig Buzzart "later on Randy Curlee tried to make these instruments in the US but the quality just was not there."

On January 1, 2016 an online auction ended. Up for sale was an entire lot of uncompleted Dan Armstrong London guitar & bass components, consisting of 35 necks (5 Bass) - 85 Bodies (Guitar and Bass) - 6 assembled guitars (1 Bass) - many scratch plates and sliding pickup mechanisms - 1 full bass Pickup assembly - 6 Bass Pickups - 9 guitar pickups - 10 original transformers and 12 assorted nuts.

At upper left & right, some of the bodies in this collection. Notice the difference in the routings in the body. I can only guess that perhaps one is to be a bass instrument, and the other a guitar. But what grabbed my attention even more so is the difference in the actual body shapes, or styles. The body on the left is quite different than the 341 model on the right and I can only speculate that Dan was once again, about to change the body style when the business venture came to an end.

At upper left, a 341 body in white (a color which was becoming more common toward the end days) and that didn't quite 'get out the door' (so to speak) is among this collection, while at upper right, several guitar necks sit as though still awaiting their body counterparts, even after fourty years.

Above left and right, and displayed on a table, both guitar & bass pickups that were produced for these instruments can be seen. These parts, like the instruments they belong to, set a new style & direction that other companies would eventually come to emulate. It's yet another example of the innovative style & vision that encompassed Dan Armstrong.