Dean Guitars Razorback Stealth

Dimebag was a big Floyd Rose guy so he rarely used hardtail guitars. This is one of th efew hardtail Dimebag signature guitars. Dean today is pretty much the Dimebag tribute company. I think they have more Dimebag related guitars than anything else now. It is pretty strange. This guitar naturally appealed to me more than the other models because it was a hardtail. Other than the string through hardtail bridge it is a pretty typical Dean Razorback Dimebag model. The guitar is made from mahogany with a mahogany top and mahogany set neck. The neck has a rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets. The tuners up top are Grovers. It has the Razorback shape which is like a more metaled up ML. The pickups are what I call the 2nd generation of Dimebag pickups. First he used a Bill Lawrence 500XL in the bridge with a Seymour Duncan 59 in the neck. This guitar has the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker in the bridge with is a 500XL copy along with a Duncan 59 in the neck. Current Dimebag Dean guitars come with Dean brand copies of both of these pickups.

UTILIZATION

Being a hardtail I believe this guitar is more user friendly than the Floyd Rose models. With the hardtail you get better tuning stability and you can change tunings whenever you want. The extreme shape balances well. The old ML had good balance and this is just a modern version of that. The guitar is pretty big. I would recommend getting a case with it. If you stand these guitars up by their edges they dent to get a lot of dings and dents. Upper fret access is okay. The bottom cutaway does not leave much space for your hand to get around.

SOUNDS

These pickups are still usable compaared to the Dean brand pickups they put in the current models. There is a reason why Dimebag personally never played these pickups or the Dean pickups. He only played 500XL's and 59's live in all his guitars. Just his signature model knowing its very hard to put two different brands of pickups in a production guitar came with Seymour Duncans on both ends. These pickups do get you close to the Dean sound. The Dimebucker is a real screamer. It has a real cutting high end sound to it. It sounds like an active without the extra sizzle on top. Harmonics just pop out of the pickup like nothing. The 59 in the neck is a classic neck pickup used by just about everyone. It is super smooth and very PAF like. You can really get smooth bluesy leads out of this pickup and it provides a very good clean sound.

OVERALL OPINION

Lots of people are using Razorbacks now not just for the Dimebag connection but because they look the part. To many people they look like how a metal guitar should look. If you are a Dimebag fan the pickups should stick around. They are the 2nd best way to get the Dimebag sound. If you are just getting it for the metal looks you may want to change out the pickups. If you are a Dimebag fan and are looking for a cool looking Dimebag guitar but cant stand trems here is the model they made for you.