Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

Another item that often comes up is about the screw that secures the pickup to the acrylic body. If you are seeking an original part, then your best bet is to keep watching the online auctions for one. Until one can be located the best alternative is to buy, or make one yourself. Fortunately, nothing has changed over the years and a 6-32 machine screw is all that is required. As can be seen at left, (seen better in enlarged view) on the table top from left to right lie the original pickup screw, a 6-32 flat head slotted machine screw, and a 6-32 thumb screw.

Also, as seen above, one of the 6-32 flat head slotted machine screws is turned into a very early 1969 prototype pickup (notice the label on the pickup) while a 6-32 thumb screw can be turned into a newer Kent Armstrong pickup - attesting to the fact that the 6-32 thread works on both the older pickups and the new. The threaded portion of the screw needs to be 3/8's of an inch long to secure the pickup to the body properly. The slotted screws I had were two inches long so I just used a bolt cutter to trim it to size.

If you desire a pickup screw more like the original that came with a Dan Armstrong · Ampeg instrument, look no further than the Armstrong Pickups site as these are made of brass, just like originals back in 1969. Notice that there is a short and a long version of the screw.

This site features the entire line of Armstrong pickups and much more, including interesting photos and a video of Kent and son Aaron Armstrong while giving a great history of Dan & Kent Armstrong pickups.

For reissue Dan Armstrong instruments that feature a little different type of pickup screw, you can try Amazon which has a stainless washer-faced 6/32 knurled thumb screw that looks a great deal like those seen on the Dan Armstrong reissue guitars, and would likely be the easiest to use when it comes to changing out pickups. As per my disclaimer I will mention that this product, like anything ever manufactured has the usual California Proposition 65 Warning which may concern some.

The thread length under the head is 1/2" long. At right is an original Ampeg pickup screw from my 1969 Armstrong guitar. As seen here, the threaded portion (under the head) measures in a little over 5/16" long which means that these replacement screws are a bit longer than the factory original, or at least the 1969 original. Prompting a test.

An interesting discovery. At left, a Kent Armstrong RT pickup. Notice how far the screw turns into the bottom of the pole piece. When I slid this Kent Armstrong pickup into my 1969 Dan Armstrong guitar and used this thumbscrew, I was able to turn the screw all the way in, nice and snug with no spacers or anything. However, on the right, the very same screw can be seen turned in as far as it will go - but this time it's turned into an original Dan Armstrong ST pickup from back in the day. Notice the difference - as it only turns into the pickup a fraction of the way - so, in order to use this pickup screw with older, original pickups - the screw would have to be shortened by using a threaded bolt cutter.

As seen at left, I took the screw I had been using and turned it into my threaded bolt cutter (which can also strip, and crimp various wire sizes) and, using a tape measure, I turned the screw into the 6/32 threaded hole. At right, you can see the threaded portion of the screw as it makes its way through the jaws of the cutter.

As seen at left, knowing that a couple of threads are in the jaws of the cutter itself, I left around 3/16^s inch or so out of the cutter. At right, I cut the threads a bit shorter than expected - but that turned out to be a good thing, as seen in the photos below.

At left, the pickup screw tightens into newer and older pickups nice and snug. Here it is turned into my aforementioned 1969 Dan Armstrong ST humbucker. At right, and planing down the body, the screw can barely be seen, meaning it's nearly flush with the backside of the acrylic body.

At left, I laid a metal straightedge across the body and over the head of the pickup screw in order to see how much, if any, that the screw head protrudes from the back of the acrylic body. As seen here, you can make out just a sliver of black to the right of the screw so I decided to measure this gap.

At right, and seen more easily in the enlarged view, a feeler gauge shows that the head of the pickup screw (when tightened securely into my pickups) protrudes .016" or about a 64^th of an inch from the body - much less than the carriage bolts that attach the neck to the acrylic body. Speaking for myself, this is negligible, but if it's an issue, one can always mil, or grind down the head to size - or, trim a few more threads off the screw.