Eddie Diehl
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New York's legendary jazz guitarist Eddie Diehl was already a house-hold name long before Dan came to the city. Doing
session work and playing live in the area it wasn't long before Dan heard him. It was at a jam session
where Dan met and became aware of Eddie's skills as a luthier and asked Eddie to work for him. Eddie felt he could
work by day and play at night, so he agreed and worked as Dan's chief repairman. After Dan closed up shop in 1971
Eddie went to work at various other shops, including the Folklore Center in New York City. Today he does repairs,
teaches improvisation, lectures on the Beat era and plays Jazz in various venues on the East Coast. He is much sought
after for his fret work by professional guitarists, and occassionally does fret work for Carl Thompson when Carl gets
behind in things. In 2006 along with legendary jazz pianist Hank Jones, drummer Mickey Roker & bassist John Webber -
Eddie released the CD/Album Well, Here it is... which has been described as
"A totally satisfying, urbane, smoothly swinging conversation among four polished jazz veterans." Currently
Eddie lives in Poughkeepsie, New York.
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Kent Armstrong was a young man in his teenage years when Dan opened up his shop in 1965. A few years later he was
working in Dan's shop after school and he would eventually come to apprentice under Bill Lawrence. In 1971 Dan, along
with sons Kent and Eric, moved to England where Dan began to design new musical products while Kent and Eric attended
college. By 1972 though, Kent had become involved with his father as together they began to manufacture the Dan
Armstrong London series instruments. Once college ended Kent eventually went on to being head of quality control at
the facility. When the London series guitars project came to an end Kent put his vast accumulation of pickup knowledge
to use and started a courier service riding motorcycles going in and out of London several times daily offering
local music shops a 24 hour turn around time on pickup repairs. He eventually went on to design and market his own
line of pickups under the name Rainbow Pickups. Today, Kent Armstrong offers a full line of instrument pickups
where along with his son Aaron, has also produced pickups for all of the reissue Dan Armstrong · Ampeg
guitars and basses as well as Ampeg's new AMG100 series instruments.
Kurt Munkacsi
Kurt Munkacsi worked in Dans shop for a little over a year when Dan closed everything up and moved to England. He then
went to work for Carl Thompson at the Guitar Lab where he worked for another year. While working there he was also attending the Institute
for Audio Engineering. After graduating he left the Guitar Lab where his assistant there, Steve Blucher, took over.
Shortly afterwards he began to work with Philip Glass working in a studio called Butterfly Recording which was a mobil
recording studio where one of the main clients was John Lennon. Away from the studio he was the Sound Designer for live
performances and by the mid 1970's his role had changed as he became Philip's Producer. Today, Kurt continues his
role as Producer for Philip Glass.
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Matt Umanov helped Dan design the prototype acrylic instruments for Ampeg back in 1968. Ironically, it was while
building the prototypes that his sublet ran out and he temporarily moved in and worked alongside Eddie Diehl and
Carl Thompson in Dan's shop doing the more difficult instrument repairs that came in. After completing the acrylic
prototypes for Dan, Matt once again found a place of his own to set up shop. Today he owns and runs Umanov Guitars
in New York City. As one who loves the sound of wooden instruments, it is equally ironic that he is shown at upper
left, in the past with Dan, developing what many called the futuristic clear guitar - while at upper right, and in
the present, he is seen with yet another acrylic guitar - this one from the past - a rare 1936-40 clear acrylic
Gibson L-5®.
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