A1235D

Back on the market in October 2018 with an asking price of $4K. This guitar was produced during a brief period of time when Ampeg was using 'split shaft' tuners, which to us is a very cool feature, but perhaps made the tuners more vulnerable to damage. Other than that the guitar seems to be in decent shape. Of note, the red felt washers under the strap buttons are unusual - never seen these before.

"Ampeg Dan Armstrong lucite guitar sn# A1235D. Only flaw is that e tuning peg is broken on top but works perfectly though. Lucite is clean and clear. 9 out of 10. neck is straight. Electronics work great. I’ve owned this guitar for 15 years. Come with gig bag and a Dan Armstrong bass hard case from the 60’s. That’s how I received it when I bought it. Very clean rare guitar. Comes with a rock treble pick up and country bass pick up and an extra double humbucker from a newer model that someone gave me but doesn’t fit."

This Dan Armstrong came on the market in July 2012 with an original asking price of $2,500 and finally sold for $1,800 in a subsequent auction. Seller did a great job of providing a detailed description of the instrument, so read on...

"For your consideration is an extremely clean example of a Dan Armstrong Lucite guitar manufactured in late 1969 or early 1970. This is an early example of one of the 3000 of these guitars that were produced between 1969 and 1971. The serial number (pictured) on the neck dates early 1970 and marks it as being around the 1100th one produced for retail. This is a rare gem and a fantastic example of this model. Please check out all of the pictures, I tried to include pictures of every corner of this beauty. I would rate this one a 9 on a ten scale, it is perhaps the cleanest one of these I have ever seen. This model has the original Schaller tuners that are stamped 'made in west Germany' on the back, the gears work perfectly and the tuning shafts are still firm. These Schaller's showed up on very early 1970 models and were more commonly seen on the 1969 model. The original wiring, capacitors, pots and all electronics are the way they were the day that they left the factory with the original 'blue' still over the solder joints. One pot is dated the 20th week of 69 and the other is dated the 41st week of 1969. The electronics work perfectly without any scratchiness and it really has a great tone. The pickguard is also in great shape with one minute crack (1/4 inch maybe) near the output jack, but it is barely visible. The pickguard is straight and shows no real signs of pick marks or wear - same story with the original pickguard screws.It has the original RT ("Rock Treble") sliding pickup which works perfectly. The orginal red felt pads are still on the strap buttons (hard to see) and are in fantastic shape. All of the screws are original, pickguard, truss rod cover, ... everything.The neck is in great shape. There is almost no fret wear on the guitar except some extremely minor scuffs around the 3rd and 5th fret - but they are very very minimal. The frets still have a nice shine to them and look practically new. The brazillian rosewood board has been well taken care of and must have been oiled regularly over the years, it is nice and flat with no pressure cavities or damage from drying out - it looks really slick. The neck is perfectly straight, the maple has some nice flames on the back of the headstock and the lower frets. There is one small scratch on the gloss near where the neck joins the body (pictured) but seriously - it is a clean and great playing neck with a nice patina. The body is also in great condition. There are no major scratches at all. There are some surface scuffs or swirls that may have been left over from the factory, you really have to move it around in bright light to be able to see them, but I've seen quite a few of these over the years and have never seen one with a lucite body that was this clean. There is one minor scratch less than an inch long and not very deep on the upper side of the guitar (pictured).The guitar has an issue with the tuning peg on the high e string, the top part of the peg has been broken off (pictured). The tuner and gears work great but it is really tough to get a string on the remaining bit of the peg. The peg might be easily replacable without changing the original tuner but I just left it the way it is - this tuner has been on it for over forty years and I didn't want to risk damaging it because a small part of the peg was broken. The tuner is mechanically fine with nice gears and turns perfectly like all of the others. The RT pickup has a small chip on one of the corners. This is on the side where it plugs in and is not visible when it is connected. I have seen this on a number of these pickups and they sometimes came out of the factory with that side looking pretty much the same way. The pickup also has the normal small diagonal cracks coming away from the magnet (pictured). I think this is pretty normal and expected on these pickups because of the odd plastic that they were made out of."

"I think that is everything... This is a nice playing, really really clean, collector worthy example of an early model of a rare guitar. I hate to let this one go, but I have a feeling it will find a nice home"