Dan Armstrong

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Dan Armstrong
Born Dan Kent Armstrong
(1934-10-07)October 7, 1934
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died June 8, 2004(2004-06-08) (aged 69)
Los Angeles, California
Nationality American
Known for Session musician, luthier

Dan Armstrong was a guitarist, luthier, and session musician.

Biography

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

Dan Kent Armstrong was born on October 7, 1934 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 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. 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, short scale and long scale guitars. Armstrong also marketed a line of tube guitar and bass amplifiers, the first amps available with graphic equalization[citation needed] 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 pick-ups.

List of notable artists who have used Armstrong guitars

Carly Simon

Carly Simon had a love affair with Armstrong until around 1971. He is the subject of the song "Dan My Fling" from her 1971 debut album, and is thought by some to be the subject of her 1972 song You're So Vain,[6]

Bibliography

  • 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

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dan Armstrong - The Man and His Guitars
  2. ↑ Musicradar ADA6(reissue)
  3. ↑ The Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer compressor – Did Mark Knopfler really use it?. Germany: Mark Knopfler Guitar. 2008-10-09. Retrieved 2010-02-03. 
  4. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NQx2R4jO7I&hd=1
  5. ↑ http://alexanderhemming.com/music_videos.php?axn=play&id=11
  6. ↑ Sheila Weller. Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon & the Journey of a Generation, Simon & Schuster. 2008: ISBN 978-0-7434-9147-1

External links

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