Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

Seen above left and right - in addition to the sweeping scoop in the bass body, Kent Armstrong designed and built the pickups for these new basses. To begin with, he went back through the original pickup design for the bass pickup back in the day, and made an exact model like the one that was employed back then.

The only differences was that he used a better, stronger type of brown resin to encase the pickups in. Unlike the resin of yesteryear, this new material, short of an earthquake or worse, won't crack or chip and flake away like the originals. In addition, and like the guitar pickups, female banana jacks were designed into these pickups as they, like their guitar brethren, are interchangeable - thus they slid in and out of a channel on the bass body.

Like the bass pickup of yesteryear both of these pickups are actually two pickups in one. The first pickup is stacked one on top the other, (which can be viewed in the 'Acrylic Bass Pickup' section of this site). The two pickups that were included with newer basses were labeled DB for 'Deep Bass' - seen at left, and the BB for 'Bright Bass' which is seen at right.

The DB pickup is a faithful recreation of Dan's original pickup used on the original 69-71 bass guitars while the BB pickup is reported to have a more modern tone that ranges from a very deep, low bottom end that's reminiscent of a Gibson EB-O bass to the familiar sound of a Rickenbacker 4001 bass with plenty of high end left over.

Over time, and as seen above, the usual brown resin that had encased the pickups (while somewhat matching the faux-wood scratchplate on the instruments) had been replaced by a black resin as the stock color on these new pickups. Brown was, and still is available however.

In both of these pickups each half of the pickup is split with a capacitor, and like the Dan Armstrong bass models before them, employ an electrical circuit that uses tonal variance caps which allow a blend between of coils (or halves) of the stack. Moving the tone pot counterclockwise engages only the bass coil, giving the bass a thick low end thump while turning it clockwise brings the high-end coil into the circuit. At the center point on the tone knob -both coils are equally activated, making for a good top/bottom full range sound. As the tone control gets turned up more, the low end begins fade, while the high end gets more prevalent. Turning the control all the way up results in the most clarity and brightness.

Seen above, and as mentioned earlier, the pickups on the guitar models were also made by Kent Armstrong, along with his son Aaron Armstrong who also wound many of them in England. The two pickups included with these guitars are the RT or Rock Treble, and the MD or Modern Drive pickup.

Seen above left, the Rock Treble is a single coil pickup that is identical to the original Bill Lawrence RT design and measures in here at 2.27K while at upper right, and seen from the backside of the pickup, a sticker showing the 2.27K reading (rounded up to 2.3K) along with another sticker label - this one with Kent's name on it, and the letters RT which serve to help identify the type of pickup that it is.

As seen upper left, the other pickup included with the guitar is the Modern Drive or MD pickup which is a completely new type of pickup that was not made before. The MD pickup features a more modern higher gain. Whereas "the RT pickup has 6,000 turns of 39 gauge wire and utilizes a ceramic magnet, the MD has 8,000 turns of 43 gauge wire and also uses a ceramic magnet" said Kent Armstrong in my conversation with him. Photos above are courtesy of Andy Stecovich.

Apart from the (then) newly designed MD pickup, Kent Armstrong improved all of the pickups (including the bass pickups) by internally shielding not only the individual coils, but even the magnets (neither was shielded in the original design).

Also, like the bass pickups mentioned above, an improved epoxy is now used that will not flake or peel. The original resin on the original pickups have began to break down with age. The epoxy used on these new pickups is much harder, feeling almost more like a plastic. Like the bass pickups, black has replace brown as the stock color. Although only two pickups came with the reissue Dan Armstrong instruments, Kent can manufacture any original type pickup desired, as well as do a custom order pickup making whatever the client wants. Kent went on to say "compared to other units there's so much room with these pickups I can fit virtually anything in there."

At upper left, another improvement. The formica type scratchplate is a bit thicker than the original, mostly due to the metal shielding that's applied to the back making it somewhat less susceptible to breakage. Also, and as seen just to the right of the tailpiece, highlighted in yellow - the reissue scratchplates (and bodies) accommodate an eighth screw to help secure the scratchplate to the body more securely.

At upper right, a view of the metal shielding on the back side of a 1999 bass guitar. The aluminum sheet spans the entire scratchplate which helps reduce hum and noise, especially over the control cavity.

As seen upper left, the maple necks attach to the acrylic body as per the originals - with nicely dressed ½" bolts, nuts and washers. Unfortunately, the neck and fingerboard are no longer made of quarter-sawn wood. The neck is now made of 3 piece laminated maple. Though no longer quarter-sawn - laminated maple does help resist warping and twisting of the neck however. The fingerboard, like so many guitars these days does not feature Brazilian rosewood but rather Indian. The necks feature a slimmer profile - somewhat like the 1971 Dan Armstrong instruments though literature of the time stated that the thickness is the same at the 24^th fret as the first fret which would seem to make it a bit bigger, and a bit more like the 1969 profile - only thinner - for my 1971 model neck does not maintain near the same thickness throughout.

As seen upper right, the serial numbers are different, as are their location on the neck. No longer stamped into the tongue of the maple neck, the numbers are located on the very back of the neck in the area just above where the neck disappears into the acrylic body. These numbers are inked in with a longer numbering convention which gives the year, month and production number of the particular instrument. The first two numbers indicate the year, the next two the month in that year, and the following indicate the actual production number. In this particular case, the 98 tells us that this Dan Armstrong is a 1998 model. The next two numbers - 05 tells us that it was made in the month of May, and the following numbers indicated that it is the 34^th that was produced. Lastly, Made In Japan is seen inked in over the serial number.

At upper left, the 1998 headstock features Schaller type looking tuners to make them look like the original 1969 models. The screws used to secure down the truss rod cover have smaller heads on them than the original models, but are still the usual Phillip type heads. At upper right, and seen from the back side, the 3 piece laminated neck and headstock is easily visible.

With original Dan Armstrong instrument prices skyrocketing, these reissues were a welcome sight and a viable alternative to anyone wishing to own one and not be afraid to take it out for booking engagements as the originals are priced for what they've become - collectors items.