Dean Guitars Blaze ML

Dean guitars was started in the mid 70s buy a guy named Dean Zelinsky. They are known for their radical shapes. Dean had the idea that the more spread out the wood on your guitar is the better it would sound. They are also known for their V profile necks. The V profile necks fit the radical motif of having radical shapes on their guitars. One of their most recognizable models is the Dean ML. It looks like a cross between an explorer and a flying v and thats what it is pretty much. A luthier named Buddy Blaze was known for his modified Deans. Dimebag Darrel played one of his deans for a long time. The Buddy Blaze ML is a replica of a typical period modified dean. The mods were a more pronouced V profile on the neck. Hot Rodded pickups were added along with a tremolo system and a flashy paint job. On this guitar there is no neck pickup but a middle pickup and a bridge pickup. The guitar has a mahogany body. It has a mahogany neck with set neck construction. The neck is the Gibson scale lenght. It has a 24 fret rosewood fretboard with jumbo frets. It has a 3 way toggle and a volume knob.

UTILIZATION

The body is slimmer than that of a normal ML so the guitar is lighter. The guitar is very well balanced like an explorer. You can easily play the guitar sitting down or standing up in a normal position or classical. The guitar feels nice and solid and has a lot of mass to it obviously. The V profile neck has an interesting feel. Some people like it and some people dont. I am not a huge fan. I prefer a C or D shape neck. The neck is set it so you will be reaching around the body to get to the highest frets but it isnt as bad as a Les Paul. The frets on this guitar are a vintage size that they say Dimebag preferred. If you are use to modern metal guitar frets you will not like these. Once setup the Floyd Rose style locking tremolo system will stay in tune. With the V shaped headstock you must be careful because you may swing and hit something and break it off. The guitar is also too big for normal cases. Many ML guitars you have seen played live by professionals will have large chunks missing out of the end of the horns. You wouldnt want to mess up a guitar with a paint job like this.

SOUNDS

In Buddy Blaze style Dean threw in some special pickups. The pickups in this guitar are from Deans DMT division. This stands for Dean Magnetic Technologies. In the bridge position is a Blaze Bucker, codesigned with Buddy Blaze. It has an Alnico 8 magnet with a hot output of 15.7k. The middle pickup is an old-style humbucker called the Nostalgia that has a low output of 8.1k. I am not a huge fan of such big differences in output on pickups on the same guitar. With only a single volume knob you cant really equalize the pickup volume either. I had to lower the bridge pickup and raise the middle pickup to try and even out the volume of the two. The bridge pickup is super hot and nice and clear. The middle pickup is pretty much unusable with high gain. It is not meant to be used for leads or anything. I think they intended for you to run both pickups at the same time most of the time and the middle pickup would add more low end beef to the sound. On its own it is pretty useless.

OVERALL OPINION

This guitar is for old school Dean fans from the 80s. There is not much use for a guitar like this today. Old school Dean and Dimebag fans will love this guitar. Back in the day Dimebag played many unusual Deans like this and now you can get one of those guitars new. If you just love the 80s and love Dean guitars this guitar puts your two loves together. If you want an 80s style Dean this is whats out in the market right now.