Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

At left and right, Mike Neider of BL'AST! also accesses a Dan Armstrong · Ampeg guitar. At left, and seen from left to right, Clifford Dinsmore, Mike Neider, Dave Cooper, and William 'Kip' Duvall. At right, roughly the same line-up, with Neider and Dinsmore in different places. Notice too, that Duvall is also playing a Dan Armstrong · Ampeg guitar.

At left, Neider is using a replacement type pickup. However, if you look closely you will see that Duvall has a similar pickup. Prior to BL'ast, Duvall was the former guitarist of the band Neon Christ, joining BL'ast for only a brief time. He is now the lead vocalist of the band Alice in Chains.

At left, Steve Steverson, Dave Cooper, Mike Neider, and Cliff Dinsmore. Stevenson appears to be an SSD fan. He was also the one who applied the apostrophe and exclamation mark in their name when he designed their first stickers. At right, Neider with what appears to be an unusual strumming style, jams with his Armstrong 'plexi' guitar.

At left, Neider wearing a Black Flag T-shirt with the name in reverse, the four flags are seen at the lower left of the name. Notice the clear replacement scratchplate as well as Tele style knobs. Later, and at right, like Steve Stevenson, Neider is obviously an SSD fan as his Armstrong sports an SSD label over the tongue of the neck.

In the enlarged view both photos reveal that the instrument has been modified, not only with a different type of humbucking pickup, but with the addition of a Gibson 'harmonica' style tunable bridge. Best seen on the right, it's apparent that the tailpiece has not been altered at all as all four anchor screws can be seen and that the bridge is placed in front of it. Later, I got my suspicions confirmed when I visited the Dan Armstrong registry and gazed upon this very instrument, which can be viewed here.

At left, and at first, I was very surprised that the instrument could be intonated as most mods like this require the first half of the tailpiece to be removed so that the bridge saddlepieces can be positioned approximately where the original rosewood saddle would lie. However one can clearly see that the original tailpiece is intact, and thus the saddle pieces of this tunable bridge are way forward of where the original rosewood bridge would lie.

At right, it was only when I looked at this photo of the backside of the guitar did I realized the original tailpiece itself had been relocated. It was placed further back, with a new, and additional string well routed into the acrylic body - also further back. I've always thought that the bridge/tailpiece on Neider's guitar looked as though it was placed further back, and often times thought an entirely different tailpiece was used. So it was not only interesting, but educational as well, to see exactly what had transpired on this instrument. Photos are courtesy of the Dan Armstrong Resistry.

At that site Neider speaks of the instrument stating "I used this guitar in every BL'AST! record and gig in the 80^'s & 90^'s. Only had the one, but over the years I changed pickups, pick guards, nuts, bridges, tuners, fret jobs, cranked the neck, stickers, chunks taken out, etc. It's been sold, bought back, it is a tank tried and true! I beat the hell out of it but I felt loyal and loved it. We've been through a lot, couldn't find any other guitar that could act and feel the way this guitar did." - Mike Neider, BL'AST! February, 2017.

Above left and right, Neider playing his Dan Armstrong, this time it has the original scratchplate, but with a different type of tunable bridge/tailpiece like he spoke of. In larger view, notice this model also sports black Strat style volume and tone knobs.

Above left and right, Neider and Dinsmore in 1987 at the Anti Club in Hollywood CA. Neiders Armstrong guitar features a clear scratchplate and metal, Telecaster style knobs.

BL’AST! was formed in 1982, and released three full length records, 'The Power of Expression' in 1985, 'It’s In My Blood' in 87, and 'Take The Manic Ride' in 89 - all on SST label (an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by Black Flag's Greg Ginn. The company was actually formed back in 1966 by Ginn at the early age of 12. Known as Solid State Tuners, it was, at the time, a small business through which he apparently sold electronics equipment).

In 2013 BL’AST guitarist, Mike Neider (above left holding his Dan Armstrong plexi) contacted Southern Lord records with news that he had acquired some mysterious old BL’AST! master tapes in an abandoned storage locker. Neider sent the tapes to Southern Lord’s Greg Anderson, who is fanatical about BL’AST!, and who wasted no time in sending the tape to a studio to be baked.

Needless to say, after 25 years or more of gathering dust, the quality had deteriorated. Even when the tapes had been baked, nobody could have anticipated what would follow. With the tapes baked and audio digitized, Southern Lord then enlisted long time BL’AST! fiend, Dave Grohl about mixing this recording. His response was an enthusiastic “F... YEAH!, LETS DO THIS!”

Whilst inside Grohl’s famous 606 Studios and with the Neve console (as featured in the recent Grohl produced documentary ‘Sound City’) a remarkable discovery was made – a completely unheard, unreleased BL’AST! recording session from the mid-80s. The lineup of the band at the time of the recording included second guitarist William Duvall. Unfortunately his tenure with BL’AST! was short-lived and no recordings from that lineup were ever released.

According to Grohl, in a video he had to do what he could to remove some of the heavily laden added effects such as reverb/echo and the like - which, according to Grohl was "normal for that time". He then added that by removing such effects, or at least limiting them, he made it sound, as much as possible, to "sound like you were standing directly in front of BL'AST! as they performed live back then".

At right, the new album called Blood - was released on September 3, 2013. With Grohl's help, this is not only an incredible release, but also serves as a historical artifact, and fans of BL’AST are sure to be not only pleased, but very impressed, being this is the only recording of BL’AST in which William Duvall is on guitar.

In 2014, original members Clifford Dinsmore and Mike Neider recruited Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Mondo Generator) and Joey Castillo (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal) - to record new material and start touring again but they had to fulfill touring obligations when it came to the time of recording. Dinsmore and Neider temporarily teamed up with founding Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski and again with percussionist Dave Grohl. As seen at left, in August of 2015 Bl'ast! unleashed their new two-track EP called 'For Those Who've Graced the Fire!' - the band's first new music in over 20 years. For the EP, Dinsmore and Neider (no doubt with Grohl's assistance) mixed and recorded the EP at his Studio 606. Oliveri and Castillo would later return to go on tour as BL'AST! complete with the material on this EP.

At left, Bl’ast! members Joey Castillo, Nick Oliveri, Mike Neider, and Clifford Dinsmore in the studio with Alain Johannes on the left. Notice the Snark tuner on the end of Neiders plexi, as well as Oliveri with his Armstrong bass. At right, an earlier photo showing Neider playing his plexi with a clear scratchplate.

At left, Neider playing his Armstrong with the stock scratchplate. Notice, especially in the enlarged view, that Dinsmore has a T-shirt where the word 'Sabbath' can be seen. It's often mentioned, by many, that Bl’ast! has a little touch of Black Sabbath's flavor to them, so this is no surprise to many. At right, Neider is more in the background playing his plexi, while at right, and somewhat more confusing is the existance of a cinder block behind Dinsmore's left foot.

At left and right, Neider playing his Dan Armstrong in concert.

At left and right, Neider and Bl’ast! at the Observatory in Santa Ana on December 28^th 2013.

At left and right, Neider has the original scratchplate on his Dan Armstrong at this concert.

Bl’ast! in the early years doing a video for their song 'Surf and Destroy' with professional skateboarder Rob Roskopp.

Being an older image it's not surprising that Neider is playing the Dan Armstrong with the clear scratchplate in these photos. With the posters dating to 1985, it seems logical to conclude that this was one of his earlier mods, and that the change back to the original scratchplace and black Strat type knobs came somewhat later in his career.

Above left and right, fast forward 20 years or more and it appears that Mike had what looks like a Schaller roller type bridge installed. Notice the additional guitar pick slid in underneath the pickguard.

At and right, Neider takes a lead solo. Notice what appears to be a Hot Rails pickup installed on his guitar.

At left BL'AST on stage with Neider at left and Nick Oliver on the opposite side of the stage playing a Dan Armstrong bass. A later photo - seen at right reveals the same pickup and bridge was still in use, at least for awhile.