Dean Guitars Electric Guitars

Play guitar, usually electric. Had a decent Johnson Acoustic. Sold it. Been playing on/off for over 20 years. Play rock/country/jazz/blues/r-b. Also, some Bass guitar. Bought the Vendetta XM from Musicians Friend. Paid $99.99; came with free S/H. It's made from Paulowinia wood. Never heard of it. The veneer resembles, or is, mahogany/mahogany stained. 24 frets. Rosewood fretboard. Maple neck. One volume and one tone knob. 2 open coil humbuckers. Bridge with string thru body design. Plays/feels good. Comfortable and light weight. Sort of resembles/feels like the Schecter Omen6. But more less heavy. ;). The tuners, which are cheap. This is also a problem with the EVO XM, and other lower end Dean models. Too bad. Doesn't hold tune very well. Replace them. Not bad overall, save for a few things. Strap buttons might come out; did on mine. A few adjustments, and it'll be ok. Out of the box, action wasn't too bad. I tweaked the truss rod on mine a little. Better now. For $99.99, can't really complain. Make some upgrades, if you choose, and you'll like it. Otherwise, it's good. Recommended. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

i paid 225.00 for this pice of shit the only thing i liked about the guitar was the grover tuners and that was it first off the humbucker are shitty for clean tones it sounds like a god dam bass guitar and it sound like their is distortion running through it this guitar just completey sucks the guiatr is made out of very shitty wood like a soft pencil wood or like fucking strafoam or some shit dont buy this guitar buy a diffrent guitar just not this i had fine for anout 2 months and i sold it to a friend no he is getting screwed over This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The newer Dave Mustaine Angel of Deth guitar is one of his new signature model. It has a crazy angel paintjob that looks like something out of Assassins Creed or Constantine. The specs on this guitar are pretty similar to his ESP signature V before this and the old Jackson King V before that. It has a mahogany body with a neck through mahogany neck. The neck has an ebony fretboard with 24 jumbo frets and the strange sharkfin and dot inlays. Up top on the headstock there are Grover tuners and the bridge is Tonepros locking unit. The guitar comes stock with straplocks which are cool. The pickups in this guitar are Daves signature Seymour Duncan pickups. They are Seymour Duncan Livewire Dave Mustaine pickups. The controls are two volumes with a master tone and a 3 way toggle switch. UTILIZATION These King V style V guitars are huge. You dont really realize how big and broad they are. The neck shape is pretty cool. It has a very soft V profile to the neck that comes from the Dean DNA. Factory straplocks are cool. Thats an even rarer thing than locking tuners and locking bridges nowadays. With the factory straplocks this guitar is really gig ready out of the box. The Tonepros locking bridge is one of the best tune-o-matics on the market. It is locked in place so it isnt held on by string tension so when you take the strings off it stays on and it also gives you less wiggle and more sustain. The only problem with these bridges is that you need an allen wrench to unlock them. Epiphone has a clip and spring system so you do not need any tools to unlock their bridges but it is not that big of a problem since you use the same tools for the rest of the guitar. SOUNDS The Dave Mustaine livewire pickups were some of the first active pickups Seymour Duncan made. They are super hot. To me they are hotter than EMG's or Blackouts. These pickups retain the basic feel and quality of the JB/Jazz setup and adds a clarity and high gain composure to the sound. The bridge pickup is like a JB with more bite. It cuts even better than the passive JB does. The pickups are super clear and everything you play will come out, the good and the bad. The neck pickup is like a Jazz with a similar treatment. The Jazz was already a clear sounding pickup and now it has even more clarity. You can get a lot of different lead tones from the neck position by using the tone and volume control. If you are a big fan of the classic JB/Jazz setup but the passive set isnt quite cutting it for the type of music you are playing. OVERALL OPINION The paintjob on this guitar is pretty much what makes it special. Dave is a super Christian guy so recently he has begun putting Christian and Angel stuff on his guitars. Some people may like that but I think only the hardcore Mustaine fans will want a guitar like this over a plain black or white model. Other than that this is a good solid guitar. It has the unique active Dave Mustaine pickups which are like no other active pickups on the market. This guitar also has straplocks from the factory which makes it ready to gig right out of the box.

This guitar has two volume knobs and one tone knob. It has a maple neck, basswood body, and rosewood fretboard. It has two Zebra Humbuckers in it, and a Tune-O-Matic bridge. It has a 3 position pick up selector. The selections are Bridge, Both, and Neck. It also uses Grover tuners, which keeps the guitar in tune fairly well. UTILIZATION It is super easy to access the top notes. The neck is fast, smooth, and easy to use. The guitar, being made of basswood, is extremely lightweight, and prone to neck dives (at least the one I had was). The shape is a bit ridiculous for my tastes. The headstock is waaay too big, and seems like it would be very easy to break. SOUNDS This guitar has a decent sound. Not the best in the world, but not the worst. The pickups are not all that great. The cleans are lackluster and the distortion is harsh and trebley. It would benefit greatly from a pickup swap, but it's not worth it. This is not that great of a guitar. Everything seems to be lackluster and sterile. Nothing seems to have a good sound coming from this guitar. It's decent, but not anything truly great. Nothing sets this guitar apart from the others except the paint-job and Dime's name. OVERALL OPINION This is truly a beginner guitar. It seems to be of a low-quality and seems to use cheap parts. The Tuners are ok, but the stock tuners on my Jackson JS-1 Dinky are far better. The switch is decent as well. The body is very light, so that's a plus coming from someone with a bad back, but it's not enough to make up for the lackluster and sterile sound that comes from this guitar stock. This is a beginner's guitar and that's about it.

My guitar of choice is typically a strat style guitar. I do like other styles of guitars for their tones and I was needing Les Paul style guitar for getting a tone only those style guitars get. Anyway after looking around and asking some friends for advice I was lead to check out the Dean Soltero. This Soltero line was the Korean mad line. Since this would be a secondary guitar I didn't want to drop a big chunk of change and chose the “Scary Cherry” color. It's your typical Les Paul configuration with two humbuckers with two tone knobs and two volumes with a three way switch. The frets were finished off very well with none of them having any over hang. The string alignment was very good and to my surprise the maple top wasn’t a veneer thin layer over cheaper wood it was a solid cap and it was actually decently striped for an import. UTILIZATION I loved the feel of the neck and it played like a good Les Paul. SOUNDS After changing out the pick ups, pots, jack and doing a set up this thing was a very nice sounding guitar. I play mainly rock and like more classic sounding amps. This guitar sounds good through all the amps I've tried it with. It even sounds good with my main tone generator right which is an AxeFX. OVERALL OPINION The only negatives I could say is I wasn’t into the pick-ups but given the price of the guitar it was no biggie to spend more to put in the pickups of my choice and I replaced the mini pots for full size 500k pots. I now own three of these and have gotten away from playing strats so that should. let you know how much I dig these guitars

(Originally written by philippedeluxe/translated from Audiofanzine FR) UTILIZATION Super pleasant neck with a virtually flat radius, which is typical for Flying and Explorer models, etc. Ultra easy upper frets access (normal for a Flying). The guitar is light and well-balanced. The original pickups have a very good output level, they immediately give you the typical big hard rock sound of the 70's we like... Then you can start using the knobs to do as you please. SOUNDS This guitar is made for hard rock and heavy metal. It's not really the music style I usually play but I've been taken aback by the quality of this guitar. I own three Gibson Les Pauls, three Telecasters (among them one 68), one Strat reissue 57, several Gretsch models and lots of vintage guitars (Danelectro, Kay, Silvertone, Magnatone, etc.). Good and sometimes expensive instruments... But I am impressed by the quality and ease of use of this guitar. But you must play it with a fat distortion (forget about the clean sound). I play Marshall amps and the sound range is incredible between the sharp bridge pickup and the fat and muddy neck pickup. The guitar sounds great for solos (good sound definition, better than for rhythm parts where it sometimes tends to sound inaccurate). The pickups remind me the DiMarzio we used to use to enhance the sound of Eagle or Hondo Japanese copies. OVERALL OPINION I bought it secondhand on ebay one year ago. My main motivation was to have a typical, inexpensive and nice-looking hard rock guitar. I didn't try it out before buying it (nor any other guitar in this category). Exceptional value for money. It's quite simple: it's on the same level as my Les Paul guitars when it comes to the pleasure of playing it.

(Originally written by syel1984/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Watch out for this guitar!! This week I test the USA Rebel model... I was so excited... Made in the USA 22 frets. Original Floyd Rose tremolo SH13 (bridge) and '59 (neck) Seymour Duncan pickups Classic settings for Razorback and almost all ML Dean models: 2 volume, 1 tone, 3-way toggle switch... Mahogany set neck with V profile Ebony fingerboard Mahogany body Floyd Rose locking nut... Everything you need and at the highest quality... - 10: It's a top-range product, I don't see anything else you could wish for... UTILIZATION Unplugged, the guitar shows that its craftsmanship is exceptional. It is perfectly balanced and very comfortable... you immediately feel at home, the wood sings and vibrates, the Floyd Rose tremolo is a bit rudimentary, it's a Floyd... Those of you who have never played such a guitar will need several minutes to find the right position to play it, its body shape can feel strange in the beginning... But the overall balance is perfect and you'll easily find its natural position... It's hardly possible to play sitting but honestly I can't imagine playing such a beast sitting down... It's quite big but not that heavy. In other words it won't break your back nor your knees like a Gibson Explorer or a dual-neck SG would... The way it feels in your hands is fantastic even for someone like me who doesn't like ebony. The neck shaping is really excellent with the famous Dean V profile. It's somewhere between Gibson and ESP but closer to ESP. A bit narrower especially near the head. I've been a Dean user for a while but I hadn't tried a USA-made neck before. I had never played anything like it before even though I have played the likes of Fender, Gibson, ESP, Schecter and Ibanez. A brief word for Luc who contacted me regarding a comparison to a Jackson. It's not comparable! It would be like comparing an aircraft carrier to a fishing boat... I don't want to talk down on Jackson, on the contrary I love their KV1 and KE2, but generally speaking they are a bit limited. With this one you can play rhythm guitar and fast chords without a sweat thanks to the top of the neck, while the other side of the neck provides a wider flat surface for high-speed sweeping solos. You can move swiftly across the neck with the best hand position thanks to the V profile... - 10: Once again, this guitar will leave you more than satisfied. Perhaps you could wish the toggle switch would be placed somewhere else (like on an Explorer), but that's a matter of taste. I personally love it and I hate it on a Les Paul... SOUNDS The sound is nasty and huge... I know the SH13 pretty well and I didn't expect that. It goes to show that a good pickup isn't everything. Usually too extreme, the Dimebucker is the perfect complement for the lutherie. The pickup suits the lutherie perfectly so that sharp rhythm parts remain rhythm parts and solo parts take off without getting lost among the overtones... That is what I call a balanced guitar... But don't misunderstand me, the SH13 is still brutal (I don't know any passive humbucker that is more aggressive) but unlike Dean import models, the sound is always full and large without becoming harsh... The overall concept is coherent but not necessarily exclusive. The 59 pickup produces clean tones which would make a Strat envious. There is no real secret: good wood = good tone!! I know, I know. Some of you will say it's just metal and distortion blah blah blah... It's not completely false but that's only due to the SH13 not the lutherie. You could get every sound you'd like out of this wood but the SH13/59 configuration is the most extreme. Another pickup combination would certainly fit your needs if you're looking for a rounder sound (Dragon II or HFS for example). The pickup choice is a matter of taste so I don't like to consider pickups when writing a guitar review. Actually almost everyone will fit their favorite pickups in the guitar, not because the original pickups sound bad but because they probably want something different... The only thing worth mentioning is: - 10: This lutherie can really enhance a pickup, which is something extremely rare. The optional DiMarzio pickups combinations are a good alternative to the SH13 monster... Personally I would go for a SH2 Jazz instead of the 59. But when it comes to wood, my answer is 10. It's tight and balanced. It sings and it screams. It does exactly what you want, if you know how to ask it from her... OVERALL OPINION - 10: The perfect grade for a perfect guitar. But then again, everything is subjective. And for the price, you could get a custom shop guitar from RAN, Jackson, Charvel or even Dean!! And I'm not a big fan of the Texas flag but well... The design and the features are almost the same for all US-made Razorbacks, except for the Flame Top model so you can consider this a general review of the whole range. It's always the same problem with high-quality products from the USA, they are very expensive. A good custom shop guitar from RAN would probably be cheaper (with a nice neck and so on)... But if you have the money for this monster you won't be disappointed by its quality! And it is the least you can expect for the price... ... it would be a pity to give it a 9!!

(Originally written by bassiste1984/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Made in Korea. 24 frets, 2 humbuckers (EMG-H4A on the bridge and EMG-H4 on the neck). Floyd Rose tremolo. Volume and tone controls plus 3-way toggle switch. Fast and comfortable neck-through body. I give it an 8 because of the passive EMG pickups... UTILIZATION Pleasant neck-through body. Easy access to upper frets. Well-shaped, ergonomic and light guitar. Well-balanced. Typical metal tone, accurate and tight distortion sound. Poor clean sound. I give it a 9 because of the clean sound. SOUNDS I play mainly heavy metal and this guitar was crafted for this purpose. And it looks awesome. I play with a Randall RH 100 G2 head and an ENGL 2x12" speaker cabinet. The sound is very accurate. Versatile guitar for rock and metal. Rather heavy sound. OVERALL OPINION I've been playing this guitar for a couple of few weeks. I bought it in the USA, on Ebay. I love the neck, the pickups (although they are passive) and the heavy and accurate sound (it was a nice surprise). Excellent value for money for a guitar with this quality. I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again. EDIT 11/4/08: I upgraded to an EMG 81 / 85 kit. Watch out for the power! This guitar always surprises me. With a bit more experience now I can only confirm that this guitar rocks!