Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

In December of 1970 Univox introduced their own copy of the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg guitar. Aptly named the Lucy UHS-1 model, it is very similar to many other badged copies. Seen above left and right, the Lucy has a 24.75" scale length and an overall length of 38.0". Photos are courtesy of George Jara.

At upper left and right, the Lucy features a faux-wood scratchplate that's larger than the original Dan Armstrong model. Notice how it wraps around both sides of the pickups.

Like the Dan Armstrong models, the Lucy employs a DanElectro style bridge\tailpiece with a rosewood saddle, a master volume and tone control, along with a 3-way toggle switch.

Relative to the Dan Armstrong model, the pickups are stationary, adjustable in height only, with two height adjustment screws on the low E string side (to prevent the pickups from rocking back and forth) while the high E string side utilizes only one height adjustment screw.

The pickups are single-coil and feature a full length pole piece like the Dan Armstrong pickups. But unlike Dan's models, these pickups employ metal covers, probably for shielding purposes. The volume and tone knobs have knurled sides for grip and feature wooden inserts on top.

At left, the output jack can be seen with a large washer behind it - the usual fix for anyone who stepped on their guitar cord that often resulted in breakage to the scratchplate in and around the output jack. If you look closely you can still see remnants of the breakage around the washer. Short of getting a replacement scratchplate, applying glue to the area until it hardens, followed by adding such a washer, seems to be the best repair.

At left, the single coil pickups employed by the Lucy. Seen here with the cover removed, it reveals magnets placed alongside the pickup coil in the way that Dan had done on his pickups, and which can be seen in the guitar pickup section. At right, The bottom plate of the pickup can be seen along with the wiring hookup.

At left, like most badged copies, the Lucy sports a 3-piece laminated neck separated by dark strips of wood, probably mahogany. Like the Dan Armstrong model, it's bolted to the acrylic body using four carriage bolts. At right, and seen a bit closer, the dark wood strips is better seen residing between the maple laminates.

At left and right the rosewood fingerboard of the Lucy. Notice how larger dot inlays are used, whereas the original Dan Armstrong models use much smaller markers. Also notice that one of the position markers is placed at the first fret, also unlike the Dan Armstrong models.

At left, the headstock of the Lucy is styled after the Gibson guitar line. This is fairly common among the badged copies during this time. So much so, that it would lead to litigation within a few years, and is also why Matt Umanov had warned Dan when it came to designing a headstock for the original Dan Armstrong · Ampeg models. Here the headstock features a thin faux-wood glossy veneer like every copy did back in the day. The Univox logo in a golden-yellow script is easily seen, as is a matching truss rod cover. The nut width is 1.75"

At right, the backside of the Lucy's headstock reveals the 3-pice laminated neck as well as the stock tuners. Nearly all of the Dan Armstrong guitar copies utilize these same tuners.

At left a nice photo of a clean un-altered Lucy model - seen here without the strings. Better seen in the enlarged view, notice the string indentions on the wooden saddlepiece.

At right, and with the scratchplate removed, the clean routing of the pickup cavity can be seen, as can the neck set. Notice that the neck is bolted to the body like the original Dan Armstrong · Ampeg model - unlike some badged copies that have necks attached to the body using screws. Notice too that the bottom portion of the truss rod can be seen on the tongue of the neck. Lastly notice the neck shim on the bottom of the tongue.

Seen upper left, another Lucy model in stock condition. Here one can better see the larger sizes of the dot position markers on the fingerboard. If you look closely however, you will see a large washer behind the jack, and in the enlarged view you can see a little bit of light poking through.

At upper right, and seen from the rear, the 3-piece maple neck can be viewed. Notice the lack of a shim under it. Also notice the chrome plated heads of the carriage bolts that attach the maple neck to the acrylic body. You have to look close, but from the volume pot straight over to the tailpiece you can just barely make out the grounding wire. The wire can also be seen in the enlarged view at left - between the scratchplate and the tailpiece.

As can be seen upper left and right, Lucy models manufactured at a different time (or different factory) apparently have a dedicated channel routed in the acrylic body for the grounding wire. The channel runs roughly from the volume pot in the control cavity to the back end of the tailpiece. This is a substantial difference when compared to the prior Lucy model shown above - which just has the wire running under the scratchplate and tailpiece.

At left, a Lucy model in its case with a black piece on its scratchplate. At right, a closer look at the scratchplate. The black plastic is shaped and placed atop the scratchplate apparently in an attempt to support all the components within the control cavity.

At left, a closer look at the plastic covering the scratchplate. Apparently massive breakage to the scratchplate occurred - notice a bit of the damage can be viewed to the upper right of the pickup selector switch. At right, the pickups, bridge and remainder of the faux-wood scratchplate appears to be in near mint condition.

At left and right, and seen from the backside, two black colored patches can be seen. At first I thought it was the black plastic that all the electronics are mounted on - showing through, meaning there would have been some holes in the original scratchplate. However, the one black spot is too close to the edge of the scratchplate to be the black plastic showing through as it's nowhere near any of the mounted components, so what these black spots are remains unknown.

At left and right, the front and back sides of the headstock shows its stock tuners. Notice the two mahogany strips separating the maple laminates of the back of the neck and headstock.

At left, a Univox Lucy guitar featuring a replacement scratchplate and control knobs. Likely the original scratchplate suffered the usual damage inflicted to these types of instruments, while the change and choice of control knobs remains unknown. At right, the Lucy's headstock sports its stock tuners and truss rod cover.

When Dan and I got around to discussing the copies of his creation Dan said "Univox made the closest copy with their Lucy model." I remember being somewhat stunned for a moment, for although I believe the Lucy to be a fairly well made copy I thought there were other models that would be a better candidate for the "closest copy." While disagreeing with Dan may seem sacrilegious, I've always felt that there were at least two copies that were much closer to Dan's original creation than the Lucy - and they are the Ventura V-3000 and the Electra 2246WC models.

Granted, the Lucy does feature a Dan-Electro style bridge/tailpiece combination with a wooden saddle - like the original Armstrong model, as well as a 24 fret rosewood fingerboard on a maple neck. Unfortunately, that is pretty much where the similarity ends when compared to the Dan Armstrong model.

Unlike the Lucy, the aforementioned Ventura and Electra models feature a scratchplate that very closely resembles the Dan Armstrong model, a 24 fret rosewood fingerboard with smaller dot position markers on a maple or birch neck, and a headstock shaped like the original Dan Armstrong model. Last, but certainly not least, these models also sport a sweeping 'scoop' channel in the acrylic body to accommodate hot-swap-able interchangeable pickups - making them an even closer copy to Dan's creation. So much so, in fact, that many often remove the factory pickups and replace them with original Dan Armstrong · Ampeg pickups - as they slide in and hook up with little to no fuss - attesting to just how close of a copy they truly are.

It's unfortunate that I never followed up more as to Dan's response, but in the end, it must be remembered that I asked him many years after the fact. As such, I tend to think his answer was likely based on the fact that the Univox Lucy was far from one of earliest copies produced. On the contrary, and as stated at the top of this page the Lucy model wasn't introduced until December of 1970 - approximately a half year or so before Dan would break his ties with Ampeg. My point being, that the Lucy model was one of the latter made Japanese copies - and as such, would very likely be the one Dan would remember when asked 30 some years later.