Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

Fast forward to 1998 and things had changed - for what was old was new again, and I learned that Ampeg was going to reissue the Dan Armstrong clear acrylic instruments like the models produced in the late 1960^'s to early 1970^'s. With the excitement of the news my many questions - left unanswered so many years ago came rushing back to me. I had decided that it was finally time to try and get some answers. By this date, and this point in time, I had an amazing tool at my disposal - the Internet. I was now able to do some searching, and my first successful contact was WD Music Products Inc. who in turn gave me the contact information of Dan's son Kent Armstrong who was living in England at the time.

I made several calls to Kent, who was very gracious as he answered my questions about the reissue instruments. After having many of them answered I then turned my questions to the original Dan Armstrong acrylic instruments. After a question or two Kent finally said "why not just ask Dan?" and at that point I found myself speechless. It was 1998 and some 30 years had gone by since Dan had made these instruments. I had no idea what his age was back then, or now, but I had naturally assumed that he had passed away many years ago.

Once I collected my composure again I remember asking Kent "you mean he's still alive?" I couldn't believe I had just said that - it seemed so crass. I guess I was still in a slight state of shock. But Kent apparently didn't mind - as he said "oh yeah, he's living right here in England." From there, he gave me Dan's contact information. Months went by and every time I thought about contacting Dan a big yellow streak went up my back. To put it bluntly, I was afraid - afraid of the unknown, I guess. Finally one spring day in 1999 I figured the worst he could do is hang up on me, or just tell me to get lost. While I was extremely nervous, I finally made the call to Dan Armstrong - at his home in England.

As the phone rang I almost hoped that nobody was home, but soon someone had picked up the phone and the next thing I heard was....... "hello?" I was tempted to hang up then and there - but I had too many questions and had come too far to back down now. I said "Is this Dan Armstrong?" to which he replied "yes it is" and I said "the Dan Armstrong who designed the clear guitars and basses?" he said "speaking." I then introduced myself and asked if I had caught him at a bad time. He said it was actually a good time and so I asked him if he would mind answering some (yeah right...... some.... heh) questions about his Dan Armstrong · Ampeg instruments and he said "fire away."

After tons of questions I think even Dan was impressed as he finally broke away from it all and asked "how have you managed to notice and remember such small details?" It was almost as though he himself could barely remember them all. However, I must say - once a question was asked he always had an answer. He kept asking me questions too - and I kept answering him "yes sir" to which he finally said - "awwww... just call me Dan."

The funniest moment between us came next. I told him that it was awfully hard for me not to call him sir - as it's not everyday that I call up Dan Armstrong for a chat. I went on, adding "I've had a clear guitar since I was a teenager and only dreamed of talking to you about it - so to me this is like talking to the burning bush." and Dan immediately shot back with "Well I hope I'm not THAT old." and I immediately began to laugh - to the point of a roar, and he was laughing along with me. It was at that point, I think, that our relationship changed. It had moved into the next stage, and we stayed in contact - either by phone or email - virtually until his passing.

Since I had originally contacted Dan about the clear acrylic Dan Armstrong · Ampeg instruments it should come as no surprise that this site has most of its emphasis focused on these guitars. However, after listening to how Dan spoke with equal enthusiasm and pride about his other products (many of which I hadn't even heard of when we first spoke) - I decided to take notes about everything. Less than a year later I decided to call him again for yet another interview. When all was said and done, I realized that I had accumulated a great deal of information and it wasn't long before I decided that it would be good to share all that I had learned with everyone. After contacting Dan, and getting his permission (and more importantly his blessing) I began to design a web site about him and his products. Thus, danarmstrong.org was born.

The site laid in limbo for the first few months with hardly any hits until one day a guy selling a Dan Armstrong clear guitar on Ebay made reference to it and provided a link in his auction to the page on pickups. Not long afterwards my server was so busy I often feared it might crash. Shortly afterwards, the site rose to the top of the search engine listings and have pretty much remained there. So thank you for making this one of your stops for anything Dan Armstrong related, and for your many gracious letters of support, for it helped keep me going all these years.

It has often been said that the whole world's a critic however, and as can be expected, not all email's were as supportive. Of those that weren't, most were critical - not of the content, but of my HTML programming abilities (or lack thereof). One person just didn't like the layout, as it was too hard to find what they were looking for. Yet Dan said that one thing he liked was how the site read more like a book instead of the usual dry web site information. On the phone he asked me "how did you learn to write like that"? I told him that "I really didn't learn, I just started typing at my keyboard". But in order to try to please everyone I've taken middle ground here, and have chosen to index the material into sections from a menu, and once in a given section, I then proceed to tell Dan's story in the manner that he liked.

One fellow didn't like the animations as I think he was on a dial-up connection. I had tried to keep all animations and graphics as small in size as effectively possible in order to keep download times at a minimum. In fact, I had actually entertained the thought of pulling any and all animations. But then one day Dan emailed me, stating that he was again looking over the site and that he "loved the animations". Needless to say, it was at that moment that I decided the animations were not going anywhere. I apologize to those who have slow Internet connections, or slow computers, or both, but Dan said he loved the animations on the site - and that's good enough for me. They're here to stay, period.

Another didn't like the way the pages worked. He was by far the most facetious and apparently it was a bit too much of a chore to use the mouse wheel to roll back up the page after reading it so that he could click to continue to the next page. Maybe he didn't have a mouse with a wheel - I don't know - but his request was fair enough and I have since put my page links at the bottom of all the pages, as well as a link to take you back to the menu at any time.

Some just didn't like the overall look, and stated my programming skills are sadly lacking and that's OK - I will be the first to admit that I could use more training, but I had chosen to better use my time researching Dan, his life, and his products as I feel the content of a site is more important than the looks - especially given an informational type site such as this. Also, this site isn't about me - it's about Dan Armstrong.

However, without a doubt the single most commonly asked question that I get from others it that they are surprised that I am not charging a fee for entering the site. A few have suggested that I am "gullible", or as one guy put it "naive". My answer is always the same. Since day one this site has been a labor of love - and you can rest assured that as long as I am still vertical - and not pushing up daises - that this site will always be free. The interviews that were granted to me were free - so how could I, in good conscious, turn around and charge others for it? Last, but certainly not least, Dan was my friend - and there are some things you just don't do.