Now here's a bass you won't see every day! It's a very early build Ampeg Dan Armstrong ARMB-1 bass, serial number D757A, dating from 1969. It's a Gibson-style short scale, at 30.5 inches, making the bass perfect for those with smaller hands, or those who also play guitar. To the bottom right is a picture of Dan Armstrong.
THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY RARE 1974 DAN ARMSTRONG GUITAR, MODEL 341 LONDON, WITH SLIDING PICK UP. AROUND 300 of these were made, (including basses), and I believe this is number 54 judging by the serial number. As immortalised by David Bowie, picture 5.

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Born	Dan Kent Armstrong October 7, 1934
Died	June 8, 2004 (aged 69) Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality	American
Known for	Session musician, luthier

Dan Kent Armstrong (October 7, 1934 – June 8, 2004) was an American guitarist, luthier, and session musician.

Mar 25, 2010 As seen at left, later basses with a serial number of D2000A and above saw the addition of a 2-way selector switch that made the bass appear more like the guitar model, while allowing even greater flexibility and control over the sound eminating from the already versatile instrument.

Biography[edit]

Dan Armstrong Ampeg era 'see-through' guitar, in the Phoenix Musical Instrument Museum.

Armstrong was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started playing the guitar at age 11, and moved to New York in the early 1960s in order to work as a studio musician and guitar repairman. In 1965 he opened his own guitar repair shop, 'Dan Armstrong's Guitar Service', on West 48th Street.^[1] The building was razed in 1968 to make room for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and Armstrong relocated his shop, renamed 'Dan Armstrong Guitars', to 500 Laguardia Place in Greenwich Village.

In 1968 the Ampeg Company of Linden, New Jersey hired Armstrong as a consultant to improve their Grammer line of guitars. He designed a new line of guitars and basses that were constructed of clear Plexiglas. These guitars had interchangeable pickups designed by Bill Lawrence who shared the Greenwich Village shop with Armstrong, and eventually took it over when Armstrong moved to London. The guitars had long sustain caused by the solid Plexiglas body, though that material made for a heavy guitar—around 10 lbs. There was a reissue, made in Japan, in 1998, where the reissue was compared to the 1968 original, as being identical. A second reissue of the Dan Armstrong guitar was launched in 2006.^[2]

Armstrong moved to London in the early 1970s where he developed a new line of electric instruments, amplifiers and effects boxes. The Dan Armstrong London instruments were made of solid Honduran mahogany with sliding low impedance pickups, available as a six string guitar, and short-scale and long-scale basses. Armstrong also marketed a line of tube guitar and bass amplifiers and effects boxes, the Blue Clipper, Yellow Humper, Red Ranger, Purple Peaker, Green Ringer and Orange Squeezer.

In 1977 Armstrong and his wife, Vicki O'Casey, moved back to the United States. A licensing and manufacturing agreement was reached with Musitronics to re-release the effects boxes. Armstrong also developed a line of pickups for Schecter Guitar Research, a new amplifier for Fender. The couple returned to England, where they lived in Ashford, Kent, in the late 1990s, but again moved back to America after several years. After suffering from emphysema for many years, Armstrong died from a combination stroke and heart attack in Los Angeles on June 8, 2004.^[1]

Armstrong effects boxes continue to be made under license from his son, Kent Armstrong, who is also a maker of guitar pickups.

List of artists[edit]

Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones
John Kay of Steppenwolf
Cyril Jordan of Flamin' Groovies
Poison Ivy of The Cramps
Randy California of Spirit
Arthur Lee of Love (band)
Lou Reed of Velvet Underground, during solo period 1974-1976
Steve Miller of The Steve Miller Band
Greg Ginn of Black Flag (Played a Dan Armstrong almost exclusively during Black Flag)
Kyle Toucher of Dr. Know
Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters
Ant Forbes of Vex Red
Paul McCartney of The Beatles (owns the only left-handed Dan Armstrong guitar)
Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy
Randy Rhoads of Quiet Riot (owned by Kevin DuBrow)
Ronnie Wood of Faces and The Rolling Stones
Ronnie Lane of Faces
Rick Richards of The Georgia Satellites and Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds
Buzz Osborne of The Melvins
Joe Perry of Aerosmith (with an A bass string where the low E string goes with an Open A tuning for sliding which he uses for 'Draw the Line')
Nile Rodgers of Chic
Matthew Bellamy of Muse, only in the Supermassive Black Hole music video
Leslie West of Mountain
Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones
Scott Hill, Bob Balch and Brad Davis of Fu Manchu
George Kooymans of Golden Earring
Brent Hinds of Mastodon
Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes
Justin Hawkins of The Darkness
John Davis of Superdrag
Stephen Egerton (guitarist) of Descendents (band) & ALL (band)
Steve 'Stevenson' Borek and Mike Neider (guitarists) of Bl'ast (band)
Dr. Matt Destruction (Bassist) of The Hives, only in the video 'Go Right Ahead Live broadcast from RMV'^[3]
Charlie Block of Mariner (band)
Francis Monkman of Curved Air
Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke
Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age
Lars Frederiksen of Rancid
Tom Keifer of Cinderella
Justin Trosper of Unwound
Justin Pearson of The Locust
Mike Lewis of Lostprophets
Jack Bruce of Cream
Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath
Jesse F. Keeler of Death From Above 1979
Olly Smith of The Vigil
Dave Dalton of Screaming Bloody Marys
John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers in Dani California MV
Jack Sherman of Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Carly Simon[edit]

Carly Simon had a personal relationship with Armstrong until around 1971. He is the subject of the song 'Dan My Fling' from her 1971 debut album and has been reported by some to be the subject (or one of the subjects) of her 1972 song 'You're So Vain'.^[4] In 2010, in relation to a suggestion that David Geffen was the subject of 'You're So Vain',^[5] Simon stated that when she released the song she had not yet met Geffen.^[6]

Bibliography[edit]

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Tony Bacon, The Ultimate Guitar Book, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
Tony Bacon, Dave Burrluck, Paul Day, and Michael Wright, Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, Thunder Bay Press, 2006.
Gregg Hopkins and Bill Moore, Ampeg: The Story Behind the Sound, Milwaukee, Hal Leonard, 1999.

References[edit]

^ ^a^b'The Man and his Guitars'. Dan Armstrong. Archived from the original on 2014-02-12. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
^'Ampeg Dan Armstrong ADA6 | Guitar reviews'. MusicRadar. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
^Video on YouTube
^Sheila Weller. Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon & the Journey of a Generation, Simon & Schuster. 2008: ISBN978-0-7434-9

Dan Armstrong Bass Guitar Serial Numbers