Forget everything you’ve heard about the Lucite Ampeg Dan Armstrong like ‘Oh it’s heavy’, or ‘It’s not as warm sounding as a wooden guitar’ Bollocks to all that. The reason why these don’t come up for sale all that often, is not just because they are rare as hell, but also, because, they sound incredible..
Let’s do a quick rundown of some cats who have felt right at home wielding a DA. Obviously, Keith Richards..but also Johnny Thunders, Greg Ginn, Rick Richards, Poison Ivy, Cyril Jordan…and the list goes on.
The one we have here has one of the interchangeable pickups, namely the Rock Treble. It is possible to still buy reissue pickups for these guitars..hell, why not collect the whole set…there’s 6 all up.
OK, couple of things of note. There’s a washer added to the output jack, barely noticeable. The pickguard is ever so slightly haggard..and the case is not the original. This, being the ’69 model, has the dinky bridge, that aficionados will tell you sounds and plays better than the more straight-up one that came later.
One more piece of meaningless but cool trivia, the bodies for these guitars were carved from a solid block of Lucite, or Perspex if you prefer..which to my mind, makes this even cooler.
Anyways, as I’m sure you can tell by now, I’m kinda in love with this guitar..and I reckon if you play it, you will be too…it’s pretty damn special..
Made in the USA in 1969.