A fascinating revelation emerged from an unexpected email, penned by John Constantelos, son of Steve Constantelos, Ampeg’s esteemed design engineer. My inquiry into his father’s Ampeg tenure yielded more than anticipated, including a captivating anecdote about the twilight days of Dan Armstrong Guitar production. John recounted how, upon ceasing operations, Ampeg divested its remaining Dan Armstrong guitar and bass components to a New Jersey dealer. Intriguingly, this dealer connection led to the Constantelos family acquiring parts, and more significantly, knowledge of a unique instrument: a solid-bodied Dan Armstrong guitar crafted from burgundy wood.
According to John, this wooden variant mirrored the iconic clear acrylic design. “Not sure if it was original or a prototype, but I do remember it very well,” he wrote. “I played on that thing quite a bit. It looked exactly like the clear design but in wood.” This singular guitar, unlike any other known Dan Armstrong model, remained within the family for years, eventually gifted to a cousin. Adding to the intrigue, John mentioned possessing sets of pickups intended for these guitars, though regrettably, these are now lost.
Further conversation with Steve Constantelos himself corroborated this account. Speaking with a distinct Greek inflection, Steve echoed his son’s recollection of a burgundy wooden Dan Armstrong guitar, visually indistinguishable from its acrylic counterparts. While the specific wood type remained uncertain, he affirmed its adherence to the acrylic model’s aesthetics and features, crucially including the signature slide-in pickup system. As Steve reminisced about Ampeg’s history, including supplying equipment to Woodstock, my focus remained fixated on this mysterious wooden guitar. The notion of a wooden Dan Armstrong, so similar yet fundamentally different from the celebrated acrylic models, was instantly captivating.
Seeking clarity, I followed up with John, specifically questioning the pickup design of this wooden anomaly. “Your father also mentioned this guitar,” I wrote, “which is very interesting to me as after leaving Ampeg, Dan moved to England and ironically enough, soon began making the Dan Armstrong ‘London’ type guitars which are almost exactly as you and your father have described. Since this guitar was made of wood do you remember if it uses the same slide in pickups as the acrylic guitars or does it have a pickup that slides back and forth on the body? The London guitars utilize the latter – pickups that slide back and forth on the body. I am curious if you remember much about the pickup, or pickups on this guitar.” My aim was to confirm the presence of the slide-in pickup, a defining characteristic of the original acrylic Dan Armstrong guitars, and to differentiate it from the later London models, which employed pickups that moved along the body.
John’s swift and decisive reply provided the verification: “our burgundy one had the same shape as the clear guitars, and it used the same slide-in type pickups that the clear guitars use. I remember quite well because I would switch these around between the guitars.” He further elaborated on his experience, “I would experiment with the sound difference each pickup had between the guitars. I remember the slide in design on the burgundy guitar because the finish down at the bottom of the slide would wear badly if the pickup was not slid down correctly. It was almost like a fitment issue needed to be worked out.” This firsthand account solidified the wooden guitar’s design congruence with the original acrylic Dan Armstrong, particularly its crucial slide-in pickup mechanism.
Intriguingly, decades later, the 2008 NAMM show witnessed Ampeg’s unveiling of the AMG100 electric guitar line – wooden-bodied instruments echoing the original Dan Armstrong design. These AMG100 models, while modern iterations, bear a resemblance to the wooden guitar John Constantelos played years prior. While details on the AMG100 can be found elsewhere on this site, the visual similarity hints at the potential design direction Dan Armstrong might have explored.
What was Dan Armstrong’s intention with this wooden prototype? While definitive answers remain elusive, it strongly suggests a potential pivot in design thinking. This unique guitar could represent an early exploration of concepts that later materialized in the Dan Armstrong ‘London’ guitars. Coupled with Steve Kubica’s recollections of colored acrylic samples and sightings of colored Dan Armstrong guitars in New York music stores, the wooden prototype adds another layer to the enduring rumors surrounding non-clear Dan Armstrong instruments. It is regrettable that these colored acrylic models, and this wooden prototype, have largely vanished from public view.
The burgundy wooden Dan Armstrong guitar remains an obscure piece of guitar history, likely witnessed by a select few beyond Dan Armstrong, Ampeg personnel, and the Constantelos family. However, it is more than just a rumor; it is a verified account, independently confirmed by both father and son. Its existence must be acknowledged, even as it remains shrouded in mystery. The subsequent AMG100 line, appearing so many years later, serves as an uncanny echo of this early wooden design, underscoring Dan Armstrong’s visionary approach to guitar innovation, a testament to how remarkably ahead of his time he truly was.
