Ampeg Dan Armstrong Guitar

I love the way it looks, down to the odd shape of the cheesy walnut grain pickguard and headstock laminate. Japanese reissue, going by the serial number made in `99. Plexiglas body, to increase sustain (doesn't work: telecasters sustain better; I don't know why). 24 frets, double cutaway. The other guy is right, the lower bout is cut way too close so above about the 17th fret is inaccessible. Thinnish frets; I got this to learn to play on and they were too small for me. Grainy rosewood fingerboard, I like the feel but not good for those who like smooth, dense ebony. Slimy polyeurothane finish on the neck. Short radius on the fretboard. The other guy is right about the incredible flimsiness of the neck; you can lose or gain half a semitone in pitch just by rotating the guitar a bit, the neck is so weak. A bolt-on neck. Tiny aluminum dots; once again, they look cool so small but their size impairs usefulness. Incredibly shitty tuners, with 16:1 ratio. It stays in tune for about five minutes. Single pickup, but interchangeable: a nice feature; the guitar comes with one not good one and one incredibly bad one, I ordered a JB humbucker from Kent Armstrong which is an excellent pickup; but he'll build a pickup for this of nearly any style. Double strap buttons so you can stand the guitar on them. Dreadful untuneable bridge: intonates perfectly for light strings, but forget about anything else. The action went off after about three months, although it was easy for me to reset the truss rod to get the action back. The body is incredibly heavy; combined with the tiny head (for better intonation) it's very imbalanced. Also the sharp edges mean it cuts into whatever body parts it contacts. Two dials, volume and tone. 3-way switch, one setting to bypass the tone control for cutting treble; one for a standard tone control; one for a sort of ``underwater'', sharply high-cut tone, which yields a rich, deep ``american woman'' kind of fuzz with heavy distortion.

I got this to learn to play on. After about six months I got good enough that playability started to matter. One day I was demoing an amp on a Les Paul and the next day I traded in the DA for the LP. The biggest problems with the DA: * lack of stability * garbage tuners * too heavy * bad balance * stock pickups suck * bad sustain * inaccessible upper frets. Better tuners would make a huge difference, though.

All in all, great to look at, hard to play; a concept that needed to be tried out; a brilliant failure.

Greg Ginn of Black Flag used this as a major cutting tool with JB humbuckers. The RT pickup is so thin and whiny sounding; the MD is cheesy and terrible. My JB humbucker was excellent; I may install one of these in my Les Paul Studio one of these days, I like it better than whatever pickups the LP came with -- amazing clean tone, biting overdrive. As I said the underwater switch on the DA is an excellent feature; you can get a real 1969 psychedelic lead tone out of it. Points off though because I had to drop a hundred bucks on the JB so the sound didn't suck.

Beautifully manufactured. Excellent action at first. Perfectly cut nut. Flawless, and I spent a lot of time ogling it. Better made than my LP, which I would *not* say is flawless.

Seems pretty dependable to me, though upon recollection the jack socket never worked properly -- kicked in and out until I got rid of it, and taking it in to the dealer was only a temp fix.

Kent Armstrong was cool to deal with about the pickups. Warranty is like 5 years. No interaction with Ampeg.

To fix the Dan Armstrong:
* real tuners
* tuneable bridge
-- these could be done easily, without any fundamental alterations in the design concept.

* make it a single cutaway
-- this would stabilize the neck to some degree; maybe a fatter/thicker neck would help a bit, as it is the neck is very thin and flat. It would still look cool; I don't like the double cutaway look anyway

* enlarge the lower cutaway

* make the interchangeable pickups smaller and have two of them (I don't know if this is possible; the switch is an interesting substitute for neck/bridge switching, though)

* enlarge the head

Still, though, I don't know what would need to be done to get adequate sustain out of it. Perhaps the shite wood bridge robs it of sustain? And it would still be hella heavy. Could chambering help? When will the DA Mk II be manufactured?

US made guitar, 24 fret maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, plexiglas body, made circa 1970. Grover tuners, two removable pickups, worthless bridge, stock hardshell case.

My DA came with two removable pickups. These were labeled "ST" and "RT". One was a humbucker, the other single coil. I traded off with a Les Paul through a Marshall half stack and the DA consistently had roughly half the cutting power. As soon as I started a solo, it was like somebody threw a blanket over my speaker cab. I think the plexiglas body proved itself to be detrimental to tonal quality and projection.

I owned a Dan Armstrong for about seven years. I bought it used back in the 1970s pretty cheaply (by today's standards) for one reason... it was clear plexiglas. I was doing a lot of work with plex at the time in my shop at home and at work, so I basically knew what the material was capable of from an engineering aspect. I saw this particular axe as parts for a very cool Frankenstein. Even so, it was obvious right away that it had serious design flaws.
It had a maple neck that was bolted to the plex body in a cutout, a la Fender... this proved to be a big design mistake. The plex was only about a half inch thick where the neck bolted on, so it flexed easily, and any movement of the neck would change the pitch of the strings! This was the single biggest problem with the axe and it was unresolvable. I'm very surprised that none of the other reviews have mentioned it so far!
The bridge was a disaster. That whole tailpiece design was utter crap, and I was lucky to find a high-quality chrome bridge/tailpiece that had ideal string spacing to put on the guitar. I think it was a Schecter. I drilled and tapped the plexiglas body and installed the thing with allen head machine screws. The height was roughly a quarter inch taller than the original bridge, so I made a wedge-shaped shim to go in the body cavity, creating a slight tilt-back for the neck, this worked out great and actually improved the playability of the guitar. On the original setup, the strings rode so close over the guitar body that my pick was constantly "clicking" on the pickguard and the top of the pickup.
Having actually made the guitar tuneable now, I set about turning it into a cool thing to look at. First, that ridiculous phony woodgrain junk had to go. I took off the machine heads, and cut a thin piece of polished brass to fit on top of the headstock. I put a bit of contact cement on it and stuck it over the top of the woodgrain laminate, and re-installed the chrome tuners. I made a truss rod cover for it as well and screwed it on. It looked amazing.
Next was the pickguard. I replaced the stock pickguard with a clear plexiglas one, natch! And in doing so, I exposed all the electronics for God and everybody to see, so I dolled them up, painting all the wiring and the pots in various flourescent paint colors. The raw area of the neck where it bolted to the body was now exposed as well, so I fit various printed images inside under the clear pickguard to hide it. One was a young woman's face looking straight at the camera, she looked great peering out from under the strings!
I played the guitar for a year or so with this configuration, but it became clear that another problem would need to be addressed. I have enormous hands, and I found myself banging my knuckles on that way-too-long lower cutaway. Having seen one DA with its lower horn rudely chopped off, I knew it was another design flaw that other guitarists had encountered. I was determined to do something aesthetically pleasing in the process of "fixing" mine. Basically, a DA body looks like a Gibson Melody Maker with overgrown horns. So, I traced the body of a MM onto a sheet of posterboard, and transferred the shorter horn design onto the plex. I wrapped the horns tightly with masking tape and drew the design out, marking them both all the way around, and cut off about 3 inches of each horn very carefully with a coping saw. It took about two hours to get rid of the saw marks, first with a bastard file, and then some fine steel wool, and then some buffing with a wheel, and that did it. It looked great, nobody would ever guess that it had been cut. I re-installed the strap button and the transformation was complete.
That guitar was the only one I ever modified. I still play Les Pauls, they play effortlessly and have incredible tone and projection and they don't buzz through my amp at all like Fenders, etc. I've never had to change anything on a LP to improve it, so why bother? The DA was so

I never had any reliability issues with my DA. I always figured that in time the plex would become brittle and the neck joint would probably crack. I'll bet there are some broken ones out there!

When it became obvious that the DA was never going to have the projection I needed to play live, I wrote to a well-respected Bay Area guitar tech, Dan Torres in San Jose. Dan told me he was aware of the thin sound the Armstrong pickups had, and if I so desired, he could wind me a Gibson style high-output humbucker pickup and seal it in a plastic mold that would install right into the DA's pickup slot. I didn't ever get around to doing that, but I was very impressed that he could do it!

I still see the Dan Armstrong plexiglas guitar as a curiosity, not so much a player's guitar. As cool looking as I thought it was, I never warmed up to it and the guys in my band actually hated the flat sound it had! Judging by what the other reviewers are paying for it in recent years, it seems the public at large has never warmed up to it, either. A guitar as rare as this that hasn't been made for thirty years selling for under $1000?? Hey, that's downright embarrassing!

Still have the reg tag 1970, $387.00 at $54.00/week 48 hrs a week a LOT of money. BUT Randy California had one. Sooth action all frets completely accessable. Ran it through multiple Fender Bassmans wired together. Turn them all to 10. Don't remember which two pickups I got. Great case. Sustain for miles with the Danelectro.

Suited me to a "T". I learned Rany's sustain trick, ripped off hids licks and did Stones stuff to keep the crowd at bay.

The guitar was HEAVY.

Looked OK to me.

Lasted until I traded it for a pre 1965 SG and an Acoustic150 amp with 4-1`2" speakers and cash.

Never saw them.

I wish I still had it. The highest fret reach of any guitar I've played.

I picked up my 1969 D.A. in late 2002. All orig. parts, except for the pickguard which is sorta "mirrored" or chrome or whatever. Didn't like it at first, but now I actually prefer it to the standard, formica woodgrain. Came with the Rock Treble pickup, which is as trashy and cool-sounding as everyone says it is. It IS also, noisy as hell. Bought one of the "Modern Drive" pickups from St. Louis Music which they were selling for the reissues from a few years back. So-so sounding, I hardly ever use it. Also got one of the humbuckers that Kent (Dan's son; they're estranged, not on good terms -- dunno why) is making. It's quieter than the RT, but also not nec. as punchy. I REALLY want to get my hands on one of the original, 12-pole pickups that were made available toward the end of the original Ampeg run in 1970-71. If anyone has any leads, e-mail me please! Everybody knows the deal -- nice two-octave neck, lots room to maneuver, slide-in pickups, nice sustain, blah blah blah. Being one of the earlier models, mine has the thicker of the two necks found on the original-run D.A. guitars. No problem for me since I'm used to Les Pauls. The bridge is/was a problem, but more on that later.

Not usually described as a good "lead" guitar, but I have no idea why. I can solo just as easily on this as on a Les. I play through a JCM2000 DSL and a 4x12 cab -- sounds great. Except, like I said, noisy. Through a SmartGate and with the humbucker in, not any deal at all though. The electronics provide for minimal sonic options, but you can compensate with pedals and other gear. Great for slide, too. Some intonation issues, but I'll get to that later like I said...

Well -- in that when I got the thing it was over 30 years old and probably hadn't been re-set-up or attended to in quite a while, it was/is in pretty sweet shape. body is in perfect shape, all original shiite. Dan A., himself, will tell you that since the frets were "machine-pulled" and, thusly, very strong that you don't need to ever have them filed down/levelled. Well... after 30 years of wear, I think they did -- so I had James Mauradian (this absolutely kickass luthier/repairman in Cambridge, MA) totally set-up the guitar, which he did flawlessly. Problems: 1) the trussrod stops at the neck (doesn't go into the body) and is, thusly, more finicky than I'd like. Took a while to find a way to prevent any buzzing, but it seems good now. 2) the Original bridge is just silly. Again, Dan A. will tell you that it's fine to just have a little stick of wood as a bridge and point to classical guitars as an example of how the design is a good one. Dan's super-clever and I love the innovative moves he made on this guitar, but as with the fret-wires, I disagree on this point. Many people completely re-do that bridge with adjustable saddles etc., but I wanted to preserve the orig. design as much as possible, so I had Jim M. modify and permanently set a compensated (but immovable) bridge. Working great now, intonation problems greatly reduced.

Very solid, very well-designed and -built, overall. Clearly has lasted a long time already. I've used it at every gig since buying it and it's been great.

Not made any more. Dan, Kent, and Ampeg have all been helpful in their own way, but it's not really what you could call customer support.

It's a hella cool guitar. Really quirky and finicky at first (and even after), but worth it. Wish it was easier to find a hardshell that fit the thing perfectly and wish I could find that 12-pole humbucker. But, all in all, I really dig it. Distinctive, funky instrument.

This is an original 1971 Dan Armstrong guitar, the typical completely see through (not smoke or the highly sought after solid black lucite model) style. American made (as opposed to the Korean reissue). 24 frets, double cutaways that enable full access on BOTH SIDES to the 24th fret. The neck is also thin all the way up the neck, there is barely any heel. I have yet to find another guitar with a similar neck - it's amazing. The neck is thin and wide, and this is a smaller headstock model (apparently there were models made with larger headstocks). Now I get into what is not original on this guitar. Firstly, the cheapo wooden pickguard (I do like the inversion of the wood and plastic on the originals though - plastic body, wooden pickguard - very clever) was replaced because it cracked in two places - a large crack across the area above the pickup, and the input jack was cracked all around (a common problem with these). It was replaced with an aluminum custom-cut pickguard. Looks pretty nice, and is obviously solid. The tuners are Schaller. The awful original wooden bridge was replaced with a Schecter bridge (installed slightly crooked). It has an EMG 81 pickup installed, although the original electronics (including one of the original swappable pickups) came with it. Had Dunlop straplocks put in (except for on the lower of the two bottom strap buttons). Also came with the original form fitting case, although due to the thin body of the guitar, one has to put something under the guitar when it's resting in th ecase, otherwise here is undue stress put on the neck. All in all, not a very feature filled guitar, but I tend to love simplicity.

I play rock, and this suits my style. It's not a particularly heavy guitar, but it's very defined and cutting sounding. It is great for both rhythm and lead work, although it surprisingly doesn't have nearly as good of sustain as my other guitars, which is funny because I had always heard about the legendary sustain of the lucite body. Oh well. It's great for palm muted stuff - it doesn't get muddy at all. It can be noisy, but I've had worse. It has a pretty bright sound - not particularly rich or full, but like I said, it cuts through and grabs ya. I play it through an Ampeg VL-501 with EL34s and 12AX7s, through a 4x12 Celestion 80 Avatar cab. Sounds great. However, like with the features, it's pretty much a one trick pony - one pickup, not much control tone-wise. But, that's perfect for me because I'd rather spend more time playing and less time fiddling with knobs. My biggest gripes are that the sustain is relatively weak, and it doesn't sound as thick as I'd expect. Although, it does have a great defined, crunchy, cutting sound that I have grown to love!

When I first played this, it just felt perfect. As I played it more and more, I started to nitpick little things - namely, the A string is rather fickle with tuning, and it's set lower than the rest - an adjustment I can make on my own of course, when I decide to work on the intonation. Some of the frets are worn down, but that's to be expected out of a 32 year old guitar! It seems free of inherent flaws, except for the obvious design flaws (that were fixed by way of modifications anyway). The lucite body has some scratches and a gouge or two, but again... it's to be expected after 32 years!

Much of the reason why I bought one of these is because they seem very durable. It's a heavy slab of lucite, it seems pretty reliable structurally. The original bridge and pickguard obviously were cheap garbage, but after being replaced by superior product, this thing is a tank. I could definitely depend on it, and I would use a backup in case I broke a string. And even then, I'd like to get another one of these for the backup. It gets a 9 because they could have been designed better.. I realize there is an aesthetic principle behind the wooden pickguard, but it was just a practical mistake.

I want to see what Ampeg has to say about these but their website only deals with their bass gear. I encounter the same problem with my Ampeg head. I suppose I could call, but I am not that overly concerned.

I have been playing for eight years, I own a DeArmond JetStar and Montaya SG as far as electrics go. This is far and away my main guitar - I rarely even touch those other ones anymore. If I somehow lost possession of it, well, I don't want to think about that. I imagine I'd try to find another one and modify it the same way. What I love about it is how it feels - that neck just blows me away. I love its crisp, cutting sound. And of course, you have to love the frickin' clear body. It's a visually pleasing guitar, from the totally symmetrical cutaway lucite body to the aluminum pickguard and so on. What I hate is, if anything, its lack of full sustain. It's just puzzling. But, that contributes to its well defined sound, I'm sure. I give it a 9 overall because though I do love its sound, it's not 100% perfect... but this guitar is a workhorse indeed and the sound is mostly pretty great. Also, the 9 is for the original hardware (in particular the bridge and pickguard) which were less than savory. I never played one with the original hardware, but I've heard bad things about them, and I don't see why they would have been replaced otherwise. At any rate, this is still my main guitar and I imagine it will stay that way!

My original, near mint Ampeg Dan Armstrong See Through plexiglass guitar is from 1970. I bought mine from Gruhn Guitars in Nashville in 1991, after desiring this model since seeing Keith Richards play one in the Stones film "Gimme Shelter" in the '70's. It is a true American classic guitar design, very modern yet functional. The see through body yields amazing sustain, and even though it only has one pickup at any given time, the removable, interchangeable pickup design offers a lot of sonic possibilities. Ampeg originally offered 6 different pickups for this guitar (Rock Treble, Rock Bass, Country Treble, Country Bass, Jazz Treble, Jazz Bass) and later a humbucking double coil pickup. This was extremely innovative, and why this feature hasn't been used by more guitars since is a real mystery! The control layout is really straight forward, yet practical: one tone, one volume and a 3 way toggle switch. The neck has a rosewood fingerboard, with all 24 frets clear of the body, allowing for easy upper register access. The bridge is similar to those found on Danelectro guitars: a wooden bridge piece atop a chrome bass, which anchors the ball ends of the strings. The action is awesome, low and fast!

My style is Rolling Stones/Black Crowes-type Roots Rock, so this is THE guitar for me! It is an EXTREMELY muscular sounding, throaty guitar, with a lot of bite and midrange honk. There are other sounds which can be gotten, and of course, switching out the pickups furthers that. But mine only has the Rock Treble, and that is all I need. The output is unreal, it is really powerful. The RT pickup is what Keith Richards' Dan Armstrong was equipped with at Altamont, and his sound on "Sympathy For The Devil" in "Gimme Shelter" typifies the Dan Armstrong sound. It's a true Rock 'n Roll guitar!

My guitar needed a bit of set up when I got it, but nothing major. It perhaps had not been played in a long while and was out of adjustment. I had the nut replaced and the bridge adjusted professionally, but that's about it. I mean, it was a 21 year old axe when I got it! Apart from that, the design of the guitar is fabulous--Dan Armstrong hit a home run here!

This guitar is a tank. It is so solid, I think it will last for decades more, and right now it is 32 years old! The materials and craftsmanship are top notch. It always stays in tune, I rarely break strings and it is a workhorse. If only all guitars were this durable!

N/A, but since Ampeg is currently making a reissue, it's good to know there is some support available, should I ever encounter a problem in the future.

I have been playing for nearly 30 years, nearly 20 of those professionally. I have several other guitars: 2 Telecasters, a Stratocaster, a 335 and 2 Ovation acoustics. I love them all, especially the Fenders, but the Dan Armstrong is my favorite and my main guitar. If something ever happenned to it, I'd probably need therapy! Seriously, I'd have to locate either another original or a re-issue quickly. For me, it is the ultimate Rock 'n Roll axe! It looks way cool, sounds awesome and is rugged beyond belief. What more could one ask for in an electric guitar?!

this one's from the 70's, i guess. i payed ~1100$ w/case.
it's been hangigng quite a while in the store i bought it, because the lower cutaway has been broken or cut off - for better playability of the last frets.
beside this, it was totally original, but with only one pickup (fat single-coil!). i heard another one with a humbucker as well, but that one couldn't run any competition on this axe.
don't forget: this guitar is a see-through model!
and this guitar has only 1 pickup.
You can get a glimpse of it at
http://www.designwerk.de/franjo

it's a rock&roll monster: it's unbelieveably fat and midrangey, yet never boomy. nevertheless, if You're used to soup up the bass on Your marshall - those days are over, honey!
the 3 way toggle switch has this special mid position: if You trun down the volume, bass and low mids draw back. so there's a sound similar to shabby semi-acoustics from the 60's. i use this option for sounds like the solo guitar on the stones' "time is on my side" or some "not so motown clean" stax funk stuff.

the 3rd position of the switch tries to duplicate the sound of a neck pickup, simply by cutting the treble off. it is a matter of taste and You have to play soulful to achieve that effect. nevertheless, this tone can get very useful if You try to create a sound like with a wahwah totally drawn back.

this guitar is very special, because the body is made of plexiglas and is so heavy that it doesn't vibrate very much with the strings. i think that the tone is created by the neck. it's a very midrangey tone, hard and loud.

the problem with the armstrongs was and is the tuning/intonation set up. to compensate that and the effects of the moving piece of wood used as the bridge, i got that "bridge" fixed with imbus nuts and got me a fret put into the wood as a clean fix for the string. having done so, the sound got even harder! the pitch problems became less, remarkably.

it's alyway something special with the armstrongs, being quite sensitive to tuning problems because of the clear midrange orientation of the overall sound. fresh and worked out strings recommended!

this guitar is ~20 or even 30 years old. it took the test of time already.
i always am cautious to have her standing safe on stage to avoid her breaking in 50000 pieces of fiberglass.
i wouldn't use it without a back-up due to matter of taste.

well, as this a true oldie: i dunno. but at 2000s frankfurt music fair, the ampeg crew was very kind and cooperative, i guess, they are a nice bunch of guys and willing to help if possible!

i play 23 years now. i own a ton of other beat up gear.
if it was stolen, i'd try and get that w$?"/ and make him gimme back that monster guitar.
the sound is a killer, under any circumstances. if you don't like it, you're probably
A) in a lame top40 band,
B) in the backstreet boys or
C) into polka!

Mine is a 1969 see-through (the famous "Keith Richard" plexiglass). It has 24 fret rosewood fingerboard on a beautiful flame maple neck. Pickup slides in and out without removing strings. There are three strap buttons: two on the bottom, so that you can vecide on the way the guitar balances from the strap, AND it cannot fall over when you lean it against amp, wall, or other object.
Tone and volume controls work very well and give good range of sounds from a single pickup guitar.

Sound of these is unique! It's not a "virtuoso" sound, but very individual and useful. I played one for many many years and always was able to get the sounds I wanted (back then). A great guitar for tight rhythm work, and also for biting slide and leads.

Action setup? Ha! This guitar has a fixed bridge, almost like a classical guitar. Since the neck was of such superior quality, the actio was great, without possibiity of adjusting it.

Played one from 1977 through 1988, it never ever let me down on any occasion. And I was gigging all the time. We treated the guitars with respect (good cases etc) but we were young and when we played them, we PLAYED them!

Ampeg was extremely helpful in determining year of manufacture, and in tracking down a company who still had the original parts.....

Glad they made a re-issue!