A802D
I saw this guitar for sale at the Summer Philly guitar show on June 27, 2015. Dealer Matt Umanov kindly allowed me to snap a few pics with my cell phone, and also spent some time talking to me about the history of Dan Armstrong's and production of the initial prototypes (there were only two - one guitar and one bass, both shipped off to Ampeg to copy for production).
This particular guitar is in overall excellent condition and includes RT, CB and ST pickups. Switch had a nice crisp action and there were no visible cracks in the formica. The only damage I was able to pick up was a minor chip in the ivory nut, which shouldn't affect playability. The OEM case is long gone and the guitar has been bouncing around in a chipboard acoustic guitar case for at least the past few years judging by some scuff marks in the lucite. For $3,500 though this is a very nice example and A802D dates it to the desirable fat-neck era.
This particular guitar is in overall excellent condition and includes RT, CB and ST pickups. Switch had a nice crisp action and there were no visible cracks in the formica. The only damage I was able to pick up was a minor chip in the ivory nut, which shouldn't affect playability. The OEM case is long gone and the guitar has been bouncing around in a chipboard acoustic guitar case for at least the past few years judging by some scuff marks in the lucite. For $3,500 though this is a very nice example and A802D dates it to the desirable fat-neck era.
|
"I’ve had this guitar for probably thirty years or more and it’s finally time for it to find a new home. I’ve kept it all this time as one of the few tangible reminders of my very personal association with Dan Armstrong, back in the day. As many of you may know, I hand-built the original prototype guitar and bass for Danny at his request back in 1967-8 or so, from a set of rough paper drawings (which I still have), and a whole lot of talking between us, perhaps fueled, at the time, by some er, combustibles. Well, the 60s, you know. Danny had come up with the idea of a Plexiglass-bodied electric, and as he did with all of his brilliant ideas (there was an astounding number of them), immediately got others to do the working out of details for him. So….. it was up to me, as a 20-year-old, to come up with bevels on the body, a peghead design, neck shape and inlay, how to attach the neck, way more. I did quite a creditable job if I do say so myself, making both instruments in my own little repair/restoration shop, long before I ever had a store."
"They [then] went to Ampeg as instruments to copy in production; no one knows whatever happened to those two originals, probably cut and modified to death for experimentation. While this particular guitar is not one of those, it is an extremely early one, with the desirable fatter neck, and it still has all its original parts, including a real ivory nut and genuine German-made Schaller tuners (I was a high-quality-only kind of kid, still am). I also have with it two spare pickups, not original to this guitar but of the period, still quite rare and desirable to own. One of the photos below is of Danny and me holding the very first prototype guitar right after I finished it, in 1968 or so, but who could remember exact dates from back then? Like they say, if you can remember the 60s clearly, you weren’t there. $3995 w/ssc." |
Per Matt Umanov, guitar sold for right around the $3,995 asking price in October 2015.