History Of Dean Guitars

Dean Guitars are a well-known company specialising in making electric guitars, primarily versions of Gibson's classic Modernistic series of guitars. Along with this Dean make high quality acoustic guitars and mandolins and banjos. The business was founded in 1977 by Dean Zelinsky, after whom the company is named. He wanted to make smarter guitars for rock and metal musicians than existed when the company started. When the company first started the primary models in the range were the V, a duplicate of Gibson's 1950s Flying V design, and the Z, a copy of the Gibson Explorer, the various other guitar from the Gibson Modernistic series that was actually made and sold (there was a third guitar in the series, the Moderne, which none were made, not even in prototype stage, until 1982). There is also a third guitar in Dean's range, the ML, that was a very well-executed blend of both aforementioned Dean guitars - it consisted of the bottom half a V and the top half a Z. Guitar Players and Guitar builders differed from Gibson's styles by having no scratchplate and Dean's trademark headstock, a larger-than-normal model with a V shape.

Early adopters of Dean guitars had been Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, who could often be seen onstage in the eighties with coordinating Dean bass and 6 string guitars. The 1980s saw several new versions added to the number to accompany the V, Z and ML versions. These included the Cadillac from 1980, a Gibson Les Paul bottom fifty percent and a Dean Z best half that increases results than may be expected, and the 1983 Bel Aire, a pointier and smaller-bodied edition of the Fender Stratocaster with one humbucker and two single coil pickups, which means it could be a prototype for the up-and-coming superstrat motion of the 1980s, which favoured pointy Strat-form guitars with a better choice of pickups and even more playing options than Fender's original design. Also presented in the 1980s was the Baby series, comprising downsized variations of the V, Z and ML models. These guitars acquired 3/4-sized bodies, but full-sized 22-fret necks.

The ordinary Dean models, particularly the ML, had large bodies which made it harder for younger players to use. Dean also have exclusively designed some guitars for shred guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, who for a while kept the record for fastest guitarist. He has also been voted the fastest guitarist in the world by Guitar World magazine. One such Dean custom made guitar was a "quad guitar", with four necks arranged in an X shape. Dean also produced a double guitar for Batio, which appears much like the top half of the quad guitar. By 2008 Batio has a new signature model, the MAB-1 Armorflame, a superstrat-formed guitar with a silver flame color scheme. Dean could very well be best known because of its work with the late Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. Abbott was an enormous fan of Dean's ML model, that was the only guitar he used when using Pantera and his last band, Damageplan. The best guitar players videos had a signature ML made, with a dark blue color job and lightning graphic. In 2003/4 Abbott caused Dean to make a new model predicated on the ML.

It was known as the Razorback and resembled an ML with a much pointier body. A Razorback V model was also designed, a V-formed guitar with these points on the body. Tragically, Abbott was shot dead in December 2004 while performing with his post-Pantera band Damageplan. He was killed by a mentally disturbed person in the audience, at age 38. The Razorback and Razorback V models were released in 2005 as a tribute to Abbott. Dean now has a large range, like the ever-present V, Z and ML models, the Razorbacks, which can be purchased in a wide variety of custom made finishes, the Cadillac, the Hardtail dual cutaway, the Les Paul-design Soltero, the SplitTail and the Vendetta. Dean also have a very wide variety of artist signature models, like the MAB-1, the CBV and MKH for Corey Beaulieu and Matt Heafy of Trivium, the Dave Mustaine VMNT signature series of Vs including a twin-neck V, the Michael Schenker series of Vs and the Leslie West Soltero.