Dean Guitars

This is a six string banjo which is tuned E A D G B E, like a standard guitar. It is designed for guitar players who like the sound of a banjo but don't want to go through learning how to play in the different tuning. This banjo has a mahogany neck with 25 inch scale, a mahogany body, an 11 inch head, 22 frets, and Grover tuners. UTILIZATION I wish I had good things to say about this "guitanjo", but I just don't. It was a nice idea on paper - after all, the guitar and banjo are two fretted, stringed instruments, right? How different can they be? Well, any guitarist who has tried to pick a banjo (or vice versa) has discovered right away that the answer is "extremely different". So getting the banjo sound into a guitar configuration is a good idea, but this Backwoods Banjo is just poorly made, all around. The neck had a huge bow in it, the fret edges were sharp, and the nut slots were improperly carved. All these problems mean that the guitar was just not fun to play or tune. SOUNDS It sounds fairly banjo-like. But the sound is of a cheap banjo. I am by no means a good banjo player, but I do teach in a store with one of the world's top banjo players, and I hear his instrument, and his many student's instruments, and I can tell a great difference in their tonal qualities. This Dean was on the low end of the ladder in sound quality, unfortunately. OVERALL OPINION Bottom line - this is just not a good instrument. If the craftsmanship had more attention to detail, and the woods were made of a higher quality, I'm sure the story I'd be telling right now would be different. But this is about as good as an abused pawn shop special that's been sitting in the shop for years - that is to say, bad! This instrument is so terrible that I am actually recommending anyone to check it out, just to have a gauge on the lower end of the scale.

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. The 79 ML model is based off of the specs of what the ML would have been in 1979. The guitar has a mahogany body and a flamed maple top. It has a mahogany neck with set neck construction. The neck is the Gibson scale lenght. It has a 22 fret rosewood fretboard with jumbo frets. This model was a stop tail and it had a tune-o-matic bridge and a string through stop tail piece similar to that of a 58 or 59 model flying v. It comes with two Dean pickups and each one has its own volume knob along with a master tone knob. There is a 3 way toggle switch to switch between the pickups with. On top of the radical headstock there are grover tuners. UTILIZATION 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 tune-o-matic bridge that came on my model meant the tuning help stability very well and gave nice sustain. 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. Overall the Korean build quality of these guitars is prety nice. SOUNDS With the maple top you get a bit of crispness to the sound. The ML has a lot of natural clarity to its tone. The stock pickups are okay. The tone is helped by the natural resonance of the guitar but the pickups could be better. The stock pickups have a decent amount of chunk. They are pretty hot. Dean knows who is going to play this guitar and how they are going to play it so they threw in some hot pickups from the factory. If you are looking to get the most out of this guitar I recommend swapping in a set of Seymour Duncan pickups. High quality aftermarket pickups will let you take advantage of all the resonance in the guitar. OVERALL OPINION Dean guitars are good overall but its not really a brand people fall into. If you are playing a Dean that means you wanted to play a dean and were looking to play a dean. Dean guitars are relics from the era of Arena Rock and such. When you play one of these people 100 rows out will be able to tell what you are playing. Dean guitars still has many endorsees today so they must be doing something right. If you are looking for a Dean guitar this is probably the first one that comes to mind.

2006 Made in China, Dean CFH Dime from Hell (USA called Dean from Hell like the original). mahogany body, mahogany set neck, Unique to Dean USA's V-C neck shape, 22 6110 frets, rosewood fretboard, 24.75" scale, dot inlays, cream neck bindings, B&B L500XL bridge pickup, Dean custom designed super distortion copy neck pickup, black licensed floyd rose with locking nut, chrome grover tuners. dimebag traction knobs, dimebag lightning graphic paint on front, solid blue paint on back and sides. UTILIZATION Very comfortable guitar. Very good balance, no neck or body dive. The neck shape fits my hand so perfectly, better than any other brand I've tried. The access to the 22nd fret isn't the best but it's still better than some guitars. The bridge isn't the best, unnamed licensed floyd rose but it works just fine... until the knife edges dull (few months). Once they dull it doesn't hold tuning very well. Other than that it's an amazing guitar. SOUNDS Read my review on the L500XL to understand how it sounded stock. I've since replaced the bridge with a L500L and L500R (I have reviews on those as well), but just recently went back to the XL after about 4 years. I've also replaced the licensed floyd rose with a german made original floyd rose and plays better than new. I can't make it go out of tune no matter what I do. I play from Pink Floyd all the way to Machine Head and this can cover it all. May not look the part for some of it but it sounds just great. OVERALL OPINION This has been my favorite guitar for going on 6 years now, no chance in hell I'd ever sell it. I've actually bought 2 more since then and got them repainted. One as the confederate flag and the other in the process as the coors light ML (both Dimebag guitars). There have been a lot of bad ones out there from Dean moving factories but they've leveled out now and are as good as ever. 1 of my 3 was pretty messed up but I've gotten it taken care of and is now as good as my other two. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these to anyone, but wouldn't hurt to play it first.

The Dean Guitars EAB is an acoustic-electric bass guitar. It's definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, but for the price it's a great deal if you're looking to get started with an acoustic bass. If you're just looking to start playing bass in general, it's probably best to start with an electric bass, but if you've already been playing electric bass for a bit and are curious about cheap options for an acoustic bass, the EBA is good one. The guitar definitely isn't made in the USA, but I'm not sure where it's made exactly. The bass has a pick up of course, although I don't know much about it. UTILIZATION The feel of the Dean Guitars EAB is probably the best part about it. It's got a surprisingly fluid neck that is easy to navigate around. I'm primarily a guitarist, but do play a lot of bass as well and I find this really easy to play. It's easy to dial in your level with the controls on the top as well. SOUNDS The sound of the Dean Guitars EAB acoustically is really solid. It's got a deep and rich sound that works well for recording. However, the sound of it when plugged in just isn't in the same ballpark. It's a nice option to have, but I wouldn't plug it in too much if you're serious about getting a good sound. Obviously it's not incredibly loud when play strictly acoustic, but it's a trade off as it's definitely the best sound you can get with the EAB. OVERALL OPINION The Dean Guitars EAB is the perfect acoustic-electric bass to get started with. While it's not a professional's instrument, if you're looking for a cheap acoustic bass, this is good place to start. It's definitely only suitable for someone interested in getting their first acoustic bass, as beyond that it's not worthy. The bass player in my band has one of these and it's definitely fun to mess around with, but don't bank on using this plugged in too often.

Dean Magnetic Technologies or DMT is Dean guitars line of pickups. They are trying to become a pickup maker by selling individually the pickups from their signature guitars. I find this kind of strange because most of their big endorsees did not use dean pickups in their guitars. Dimebag Darrell used Bill Lawrence pickups and Seymour Duncans for most of his career. Dean is making a pickup based on these and calling them his Signature pickup. Wether he ever used one of these is questionable. These pickups come with zebra bobbins and a special engraved chassis that says Dime Time and has his signature. You gotta remember that this is a neck pickup. I guess they decided they cant really replicate the Bill Lawrence or Dimbucker tone without completely ripping it off. The output is 14k which is decently hot for a neck pickup. It has a bit of an active tone from it. It has a lot of high end. Dimebag had a super aggressive tone and only used solid state amps for much of his career. In my opnion his tone is not something you would want to replicate but there is something for everyone. The ceramic magnet on this gives you quite spikey highs and you should watch out what guitar you put this in. The upper mids are nice and defined and the sustain is great thanks to the output. It can be used in the bridge position if you want to know what it sounds like in the bridge just imagine it in the neck with even more highs and less bass. If you really want Dimbags tone it is not hard to get exactly what he had. He used a Seymour Duncan 59 in the neck. I dont really see the point of buying a Dimebag pickup designed after the fact to sound like him when you can just buy the same pickups he had.

The Dean Evo XM was my first electric guitar. In hindsight, I'm really glad that I started off with it, because it played well, and it introduced me to humbuckers. The other option I was looking at was a Squier Affinity Strat, and I've only played one that played at a passable level. It has a vol, and one tone control, with 2 humbucking pickups, a 3 way switch, and a tune-o-matic/stoptail bridge. The body is stained Basswood (looks like mahogany), and a maple neck with a rosewood board. The neck is meaty, but thinner than an LP neck. UTILIZATION This guitar sounded good to my beginner ears. It was all I needed to rock out Led Zeppelin, Pat Travers, and Mountain riffs. It's pretty light, and the neck joint is slim and tapered, so it helps fret access. I played this guitar through a Fender Frontman 15 G, and it makes every guitar sound ratty and thin, so that's not a useful way to rate the sound of this guitar. I remembered that there was little fret buzz, and it played pretty easy. SOUNDS I mentioned the Fender Frontman 15 G I played it through, and at the time, I was just happy to have distortion. The neck pickup sounded fat with the tone knob rolled off, great for playing the leads to Mississippi Queen (the first lead lines I learned). OVERALL OPINION I'm glad that I was introduced to humbucking and a decent playing guitar that early in my development. I definitely think that this guitar helped me improve as a player, and it played and sounded good enough that I enjoyed playing the guitar, and stuck with it. It's a great starter instrument, and I'd recommend it any day over a Squire Strat or First Act guitar, which both seem like the go-to guitars for beginners just starting out. I had noodled around with a cheapo $30 classical guitar before I bought the Dean, and I already loved playing the guitar. Once you plug in, the feeling is never the same again, and this guitar made me stick with it, and live out my rock n' roll fantasies, playing Snortin' Whiskey, Missisipi Queen, and Heartbreaker, standing on my coffee table. Although the guitar itself isn't great, my experience with it was.

This guitar is the lightest weight solid body electric I have ever played, (since 1966). It is a nice matte natural finish on the body and the neck - the exception being the headstock which is glossy black with the Dean wings logo inlayed under the clear coat. I play blues/rock/country and everything else that has melody. Not a big hip/hop fan. I bought this at Guitar Center for $55.00 on New Years Eve 2008. They said it was breaking the .010 E string, but it hasn't done that as long as I have owned it. <a href="https://www.guitarcenter.com ">https://www.guitarcenter.com </a> It hangs well on your body, weighs almost nothing and is highly playable. I like the rich medium mahogany stain on the body and the satin finish on the the whole guitar. The sound through a 'dry' amp is very good considering it has the low ball pickups and other electrical components. I do most of my testing of guitars with a dry signal because if it doesn't sound good naturally it will be worse with distortion and effects added. The pickups provided a very good level of equality in signal strength for each string, unlike some that have a bias for one or more strings over the others. It doesn't feel like an inexpensive guitar and it plays a lot better than the price indicates. This thing even sounds good unplugged - due to the Paulowina body and maple neck it doesn't absorb the sound of the strings like heavier woods and the maple neck gives it that ability to sound clean and clear. This would be a good starting point as a test bed for experimentation without having to trash a vintage instrument. I wish they would have spent a little more money on the pots/switch/wiring and pickups. The stock setup is adequate for everyday use, but it would be better if they were higher quality. The body gives a good level of sustain, but I would have preferred the neck to be either a set neck type or a neck through design. The bridge and tuners could also be upgraded as they are of marginal quality, but sufficient for the job. The body and neck joint are well fitted with no gaps or looseness. Except for the lower quality hardware this is well built, but the guitar is very playable even with the inexpensive components. Action and setup are great, the bending of strings in the upper register is quite easy to do. It is a good practice guitar, and if need be could be pressed into service if your main guitar suffers some horrible event. Good for an entry-level guitar. It won't limit the younger players like others in this price range, sounds good and looks unusually well made for the money. I am glad I got mine for $55.00, but I would not have found $100.00 too much for this guitar. For what it is, (an inexpensive but capable instrument), I will give this a 5. I've played a lot more expensive guitars that were not as good as this one, and some that were actually worse. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I play rock from 80's-90's. Ted Nugent, Zakk Wylde's early Ozzy years, Queensryche, ZZ Top, Steve Lukather, Rush. Playing for about 10 years. Not in a band but probably should be. I heard about this new model, mid 2007 release date, from a friend of mine who is a big Dean player. It's a new model from them and their first les paul looking USA model they have offered from their USA Custom shop. I went to Dean's site to check it out and wow, I just could not believe my eyes with what I was looking at, especially the profile shots of that AAAAA Maple top. I called them up to see who in my region was an authorized Dean USA dealer and that was all it took. Purchased this guitar from the cats at Pantera, a Dean USA Authorized dealer who carries both their USA custom grade models as well as their imports. Pantera Guns and Guitars in Florida. Really cool cats. Got the guitar for about $3,000.00. Heck of a deal for this awesome guitar. Very, very happy with them and their product. Very, very well made single cut guitar. Les Paul like but with major differences in characteristics starting with the cut in the body that shows you a profile of the incredibly thick maple top. Neck is a Dean "V" neck that is easy to get use to and helps out in proper positioning of your fingering. Great guitar to learn on. New model from Dean for 2007. Made at the Dean USA custom shop. 22 Frets, Dean "V" neck, ebony fingerboard, Grover tuners, solid body single cut deasign with mohogany body and neck with a beautiful 3/4" maple top. reminds me of PRS 10 tops a decade ago. Awesome flame. Cherry sunburst. Made to look similar to a Les Paul but with it's unique body cut running down almost into the pickup area it's most certainly not a Les Paul. This is Dean all the way. The inlay in the fingerboard is abalone with sterling silver. Almost glows in the dark it's so well done. Pickups are a custom ordered Dimarzio made model specifically for the Soltero. Tone Pros bridge. What I don't like about this unit....well, it's not the unit that's the problem, at this point I don't have enough money to buy two of them, only for a color changeup. That's gonna change come Christmas time. I expect the other one I will be purchasing in December to be exactly as well made. The Dean Soltero was setup from the factory about as well as you would want it. Everybody like things a little different but from a professional setup standpoint it was about perfect. Pickups adjusted just right. Bookmatched top is unreal. No flaws in this guitar at all. This is a professionals guitar al the way. A work of art from visual to audible. unreal guitar. This guitar is as well made as any, or at any custom shop in the country. It is worthy of a "Private Stock" rating without that private stock pricing. All hardware is top notch. Finish is thick enough to stand up and thin enough to allow for total tonal flow as I like to say. Guitar can't be encased in glass, gotta breath a little to allow that tone to be heard. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got this bass at massimino music for about $150.00. It has an awesome sound, a lot better than me or any of my friends expected. The long scale is nice and the neck remains in perfect condition. The thing I like least about it is the output jack, because I'm not sure if its me, but it has tended to let the wires get disconected and I would have to get them re-soldered, but other than that I love it. The construction on this bass is very nice and there has been nothing wrong with the body, except for some minor dents and scratches. This is an awesome bass if you are starting out, or even as a second bass. It is deffinatley worth your money to buy this bass This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought it on ebay, direct from a retailer, for $239.99, with free shipping. The look. I have been wanting a Flying V for a long time. I had looked at Deans, but at first I wasn't fond of that reverse flying v headstock. It started growing on me, though. Then I saw that Michael Schenker, one of my heroes, is now playing Dean guitars, and in fact they have designed the Michael Schenker signature model. That was it. I had to have one. Mine is black, with black/white zebra humbuckers, no pickguard, very nice abalone-like dot inlays, and the original v plate instead of a stop tailpiece. The strings feed in from the back of the guitar. The look is very, very nice. I could stare at it for hours. The pickups are muddy and unfocused. This guitar is made in China, and for the price, the cheap pickups are understandable. If you usually play through an effects pedal, this won't matter to you. Once I played it through my Zoom 707, it came to life. It sounded great. But if you like to just go through the amp, you probably will want better pickups. I'm planning to put some Seymour Duncans in mine. The pickups are the ONLY flaw. I was surprised with the quality of the neck. I have played other inexpensive Vs, and they are always unplayable beyond the 12th fret. Not this guitar. The fretwork is acceptable all the way to the 22nd fret. I had to raise the action just a bit, to get rid of a little buzzing, but it's still reeasonably low. The neck is unpainted, it just has a light coat of something, probably lacquer, but I like that. The Grover tuners are quite nice. The abalone-like inlays sparkle beautifully when you turn it in the light. The black finish looks very classy. And it is light in weight. Overall, this guitar is excellent. Dean could sell it for $350 or more if they wanted to. It is to their credit that they do not. It has a beautiful look, a good neck, decent fretwork, good tuners. The only obvious flaw is the pickups. However, the guitar is so playable that changing the pickups would be worth the while. The Dean VX is truly a good deal. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I purchase this bass at mother's music in edmonton. For around $425.00. I tried the basses they had. I was wanting a 5 string but the for string had better attack than the Five. The sound from it was more powerful, since it had actice puckups. The neck is comfortable and has good sound out of it as well. I have a digitech effect pedal and it plays well with it, so much so that I have to watch the noise since I live in a basement. I wich I could turn up my peavy amp to see what this baby can do under liver circumstances. The bass is well balanced and and light but I never complain about wieght you get used to it. I Play song from system of a down, Rage against the machine, audio slave, and other heavy metal bands and it hold it's own rather well. I don't like having too many controls on my bass It has four I prefer three at most less a hassle. The other thing I can say I don't like about it, is that I prefer I bass with allot more attack when I play it. I slap and pop it pretty hard. But if that is the case I should go for a five string, but I'm not really complaining about it. The quality is good the body is made of Basswood which gives a warm tone. and makes it light. I prefere wenge and maple body to give it more of an attack. But the electronics are rather good and the and so is the wood too. all in all, it is a good bass. I don't think I would buy anything else if I was starting out. I figure I will go after a higher quality one when I get better though. But this is a good bass that can hold it's own rather well. Beleive me I tried every kind of bass from an Ibenaz to yamaha this one works well for a starter to intermediate. I can't say the complains I made is the fault of the manufacturer it is only my personal preferance but there are others that will think I rather nuts to be takling this bass down. Others will be saying it sucks. But I said my two cents This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

i paid about 300 dollars for this slightly used instrument. it is hands down the sexiest guitar ive ever seen. period. the v head, the gold hardware and the body are all just beautiful. it sounds rediculously good with fast action and lots of high end the guitar chips easily. besides this small cosmetic problem it is very well made, doesnt kill you with weight and stays in tune forever personally, i would rather noone own this guitar but me because it is so unique and beautiful and i am a very greedy person. However, i highly suggest this guitar. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com