NGD - Dan Armstrong Ampeg!

[yourguitarhero]

So, I have a Gibson Flying V and it looks cool as hell. It’s my stage guitar, The problem is that it is a good guitar, but not as good as my other two – I have a Tokai Les Paul copy made in Japan and USA made Dean Z that dates back from 83 or something and they both play and sound better than my Gibson. So I’d been thinking of replacing it, but I needed to find something not too expensive but that played/sounded nice and looked good too.

I get an email every so often from a local shop about their special deals and they had Dan Armstrong guitars reduced down from £1300 to £500. Check it out:

I tried it out, liked it a lot so bought it. Now I have to sell my Gibson to fund it but I should get close to what I paid for the Ampeg.

Review.... the guitar is heavy as hell, but I like heavy guitars. The neck is OK, very FAT - not amazing though, my Love Rock has a nicer neck.
The pickup is kind of like a P90, they are removable with a thumbscrew - connect to the guitar with banana plugs. Supposedly there are other kinds you can get. Amazing idea - you don't even need to take the strings off - you can change pickups in 30 seconds flat.
It's a well made guitar - made out in Japan and I think it looks bad-ass.

 

[bravedude2]

 

[CaseyCor]

Very cool!

 

[Anonymous]

Friggin' awesome! I've always wanted one of these since I saw Keith Richards playing one at Altamont. How's it dound?

Steve

 

[yourguitarhero]

Quite nice sound - P90 sort of sound and lots of sustain.
I got it a good price, but that involved only getting the single coil pickup, there is also a humbucker. I'm making some enquiries about that.
It is brighter than my Les Paul.

 

[CaseyCor]

What's it weigh?

 

[yourguitarhero]

9 lbs

 

[rupe]

I've had both the originals and an Ampeg reissue...both good guitars but the reissue was a bit better IMO. Congrats on a way cool guitar

 

[glassjaw7]

Cool axe!

 

[Gainzilla]

Friggin' awesome! I've always wanted one of these since I saw Keith Richards playing one at Altamont. How's it dound?

Steve

LMAO!!! It was Joe Perry for me... Very cool Bro, rock the ass out of it!!!

Kage

 

[Anonymous]

Friggin' awesome! I've always wanted one of these since I saw Keith Richards playing one at Altamont. How's it dound?

Steve

LMAO!!! It was Joe Perry for me... Very cool Bro, rock the ass out of it!!!

Kage

Ahem... perhaps I should re-phrase that. I was not at Altamont in '69 for the Stones - I just saw pictures and eventually the movie...

Steve

 

[Tvd]

Shweet grab!

My buddy has one of these loaded with the humbucker, paid a great deal more haha, but makes it sing! I picked it up a few times, necks is a little fat for me but coming from an lpc I thought it was light

When I first heard it I was shocked, wasn't expecting the tone that came out of it! Me and my buddy play a lot of lamb of god, mastodon, queens etc and it keeps up. The first time I actually saw one of these was in a queens video, howerdel had one, dunno if he tracked with it..

 

[Gainzilla]

Friggin' awesome! I've always wanted one of these since I saw Keith Richards playing one at Altamont. How's it dound?

Steve

LMAO!!! It was Joe Perry for me... Very cool Bro, rock the ass out of it!!!

Kage

Ahem... perhaps I should re-phrase that. I was not at Altamont in '69 for the Stones - I just saw pictures and eventually the movie...

Steve

I know what you meant bro and I wasnt inferring that you were there LOL!!! Touchy about age are we?!?!?! I just thought that it was cool that we had similar responses with different people..

Kage

 

[D-Rock]

I almost pulled the trigger on one of those a few months back for $550 used. The seller had the P-90 and the humbucker.
Regret not getting it.

 

[Anonymous]

I know what you meant bro and I wasnt inferring that you were there LOL!!! Touchy about age are we?!?!?!

Hey, I woulda been proud to have been there except for the whole Hells Angels murder deal... just didn't want anyone to think I was inferring I was there...

I just thought that it was cool that we had similar responses with different people..

No doubt! But, of course, you know why Joe got one... Keef fanboy that he is...

Steve

 

[Gainzilla]

I know what you meant bro and I wasnt inferring that you were there LOL!!! Touchy about age are we?!?!?!

Hey, I woulda been proud to have been there except for the whole Hells Angels murder deal... just didn't want anyone to think I was inferring I was there...

I just thought that it was cool that we had similar responses with different people..

No doubt! But, of course, you know why Joe got one... Keef fanboy that he is...

Steve

I always thought that Joe was more of a yardbirds era Beck/PAge Fanboy but I always thought that Aerosmith was a harder rocking better sounding version of the stones on steroids.. Nonetheless, the guitar is cool as hell!!! correct me if Im wrong but doest Joe mostly use it for slide?

Kage

 

[Mailman1971]

I remember being stationed in Japan in the 90's and always frequenting the local music shops and seeing these guitars hanging on the wall. Think the guy from Georgia Sattelites played on as well.

 

[Anonymous]

I always thought that Joe was more of a yardbirds era Beck/PAge Fanboy but I always thought that Aerosmith was a harder rocking better sounding version of the stones on steroids..

Perry and Tyler are like an ( albeit cheesier) American Keith/Mick to me. Joe may have been more yardbirds/beck/page for all I know, but the parallels to the Stones are obvious. To me, Aerosmith is like a hard rock version of the Stones, only with FAR less songwriting talent and not nearly as much variety in the music. Aerosmith doesn't have anything in it's arsenal to compete with the stuff the Stones released from '68-'72... genius stuff...

Nonetheless, the guitar is cool as hell!!! correct me if Im wrong but doest Joe mostly use it for slide?

He's got that guitar in an open tuning, so he uses it on the Aerosmith songs that are in open tunings - many of those songs have slide on them. A lot of open tunings like Open G are great for slide. I've been experimenting with open tunings and slide with the dobro I bought and it's a blast. So far, I like Open G for slide and I love the sound of open E as well for other bluesy stuff... There is just something about open tunings that opens up a whole new world. I used to try an play Stones tunes and I'm playing the right chords, but it never sounded right. Now I understand - many Stones songs are in open tunings (most in open G, but I found open E as well)...

Steve

 

[yourguitarhero]

Action is high on the original ones so good for slide. Re-issues have a better bridge - the original had a piece of rosewood you can angle at each end - like an acoustic.
These have a compensated bridge that can be intonated properly. My tuner is accurate to 0.1 of a Hz and the guitar is intonated spot on from the factory. You can't adjust string height though at least without shaving or shimming the wooden bridge.

I tell you something else, the action on the controls knobs has the perfect weight and the knurled metal feels great - nice control knobs on any guitar or amp I've used.

One issue I can see with the pickups is that you cannot adjust their height, but I suppose since the bridge can't be raised or lowered and the pickups are custom designed for the guitar it shouldn't be too big an issue.

 

[yourguitarhero]

Well, had it down at band practice tonight and it sounded great. The pickup is very balanced (great top end) and good output - a liitle more than the PAF in my Les Paul.
No real hum off it either.

I was worried about only one pickup as we play lots of styles in the same song, overdriving cleans, metal rhythms and big solos but the guitar always sounded right.

I've also come around to the neck on it more, slightly sharper fretboard edge to my Dean and Tokai that was making me think "cheap", but I dunno - it's actually really nice. Just different I guess?

Anyway, the guitar gets a big :thu: from me - a worthy successor to my V.
I don;t think it is worth £1300, but then I do't even think a used Les Paul should be that price :cop:
At £500 it's a worthy buy.