Osaka, Japan March 22, 1977
Photographer unknown
As mentioned here, the Dan Armstrong was a weird beast and one has to wonder how Gene ended up with one. Sure, it was a single pickup short-scale bass which fits with what Gene seemed to favor at the time, but at roughly 9.5 lbs it was fairly heavy. It was more than 2 lbs heavier than the Grabber which Gene has complained was too heavy. In 1977 KISS were making money hand over fist and Gene could have any bass he wanted and for some reason he ended up with a clear lucite bass? I'm not entirely sure when the bass first shows up. As seen below it's on Gene's side for the first show of the CanAm Tour but there is a tantalizing soundcheck photo from Osaka, Japan in March that possibly shows this bass. (The color of the body doesn't match anything else I've ever seen from this time and to my eyes it looks as if the bass in that Osaka photo has two strap buttons which was standard on the Dan Armstrong.)
Looking a little closer at that Kitchener, Ontario photo we can see that there had been a few changes made to the bass. As mentioned in the section on Spector no 1 KISS started using the Vega Diversity System wireless transmitters for this tour and I think that's what's been added below the bridge. You can even see the Duracell battery used to power the transmitter. Check this photo of an opened Vega transmitter showing the empty battery compartment. Imagine a Duracell battery there and the circuitry covered by tinfoil. Compared to a regular Dan Armstrong there is also a different, mirror-like pickguard, and what appears to be a cable run alongside the upper part of the body which was probably the transmitter "antenna" cable. (I don't know about you but I'd be hard pressed to say that the Dan Armstrong Gene had was a good-looking bass.)
Those two weeks in mid-July were pretty much it for the Dan Armstrong. As far as I can tell it was never used on stage and it seems to disappear not long after the custom LoBue makes its exit. It's impossible to tell for sure which bass is on Gene's side in London, Ontario but at least the headstock doesn't look like the Gibson Thunderbird that succeeded the Dan Armstrong. There's a possibility it stayed with the band—we've seen several basses pop up here and there far after they seemed to have been discarded—but there is no photo evidence of it after July 18 that I'm aware of.
