Dan Armstrong.
Dan Kent Armstrong, born in Pittsburgh, PA. on October 7th 1934, began playing guitar at the age of eleven. Years later, he moved to New York and became involved doing studio recordings as a session guitarist. His work was quickly in demand, and soon he was working with big name bands, making one record a week. Before long, Dan took his music on the road. Often he would rent or borrow equipment from a music shop called Caroll's. The owner, Caroll Bratman, soon noticed that his rental instruments were coming back in better shape than when they left, and he eventually asked Dan to repair guitars for him. Dan agreed and was taken to a warehouse chock full of instruments - Gibsons, Fenders, Guilds, and many others. Dan recalls, "I have never seen so many instruments in one building before."
In 1965, Dan Armstrong opened his own luthier/repair shop on 48th Street in Manhattan - across from Manny's Music. One of Dan Armstrong's Guitar Service's first customers was John Sebastian from Loving Spoonful. Dan's business grew and in 1968 he was asked to work with Ampeg on the Grammer line of acoustic guitars. It was then that Dan asked, "Why are you interested in acoustic guitars instead of electric? You're in the amp business, so why not make an electric guitar to compliment your amplifiers?" And the clear Plexiglas "see-through" guitar was born. Dan's guitars were innovative in almost every respect. Being an expert guitar luthier, Dan had a vast knowledge of guitar mechanics and engineering and maintains, "I put every idea I'd ever had about guitars into that one guitar". As Dan continued to work on guitars and pickups, he also worked more extensively on amps and electronics.
After moving to England in the 1970s, Dan designed a series of special effects devices that plugged into the guitar directly, and then a cable was attached to the amplifier. These devices were small, color-coded boxes of circuitry. The modules were called Red Ranger (EQ), Blue Clipper (distortion), Purple Peaker (EQ), Green Ringer (ring modulator), Yellow Humper (EQ) and the widely acclaimed compression unit, Orange Squeezer. While designed by Dan, these units were manufactured and marketed in the U.S. by Musitronics Corporation. Later, manufacturing was outsourced overseas and the quality on the devices diminished. Dan soon abandoned distribution of his critically acclaimed effects devices. The name Dan Armstrong will forever be synonymous with the electric guitar, and musicians will forevermore be speaking his name and remembering him for his unique and innovative style and contributions to the music industry. After a prolonged illness, Dan Armstrong died in England on June 8, 2004.
Now, for the first time in two decades, Dan Armstrong's original designs are once again in handmade production in the United States. Grafton Electronics has taken over the detailed, hand assembly of these innovative and uniquely designed effects devices. Now, musicians around the world can jam using some of the finest designed and produced boxes ever known.
Please visit www.danarmstrong.org for a detailed history of Dan and his work.
