Hi everyone!
I've played guitar for almost 2 years, and I have Ibanez Gio; It's from Ibanez Jumpstart series, just a simple, beginner's guitar Anyway, I wanted to get myself a new one. I wouldn't rush with it though, time is on my side. I've seen one Dean guitar and fell in love with immediately.



Since I don't have much exp with guitar manufacturers, especially not with Dean, I wanted to hear second opinion before I've decided. So.. Does anyone have a Dean, and what are the impressions? Thanks.

Hey buddy! There is a topic on "opinions" here so check it out http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=12019

Loads of opinions here - some are supported with facts, some are not but see it for yourself

I have a good friend who has a dean and he loves it.. he has the hardtail usa in green... i dont have the money for one right now, but one day

http://www.deanguitars.com/home.php

.. thanks for the advice. I'm new here, and I'm still trying to.. accustom. tnanks again

Hey man, I have a TEVO that is very similar to the model pictured there. It sounds very good for the price, and with a pickup change it now sounds great.

i have a dean from hell and it kicks ass, its def my best guitar out of all them..and with the v neck n flat body totally comfortable to play for long time, my les paul hurts my arm for keeping it arched for long times..

Pavel you sure about your RC7 is MIJ? I finally got to see the back of a VMNT (Mustaine sig) and it is MIK. I figure'd it would be MIJ.

The VMNT is made in korea!? That makes me sick. dean has no shame.

What floors me is that his ESP LTD model was MIK and Neck Thru with practically the same specs as the VMNT and I got mine for $700 new off the shelf (once it was discontinued), and that wasn't the top shelf model. The VMNT is the top shelf model and is MIK w/ set neck and $999.

there goes any chance of me buying one. for that kind of money it should be american made. dean sucks even harder in my eyes now.

Hey m8! Well, that's the info i got from Rusty Part of guitar is made in J-Custom Shop, and part is made in USA.

Im sure it is a fine fine guitar man

Whats so bad with korea? There's some decent guitars being made there these days.

I believe most of the Ibby S Series is made there as well as the aforementioned ESP's.

I agree Owen, just because a guitar is not made in the US it does not mean its not of high quality

its a $1000 guitar, and deans advertising says its an "american series". dean charges more for less, it may be a decent guitar, but it wont be anything more. for that kind of money, i could get a nice american or japanese guitar.

http://www.deanguitars.com/dave_mustaine.php

What VMNT are we specifically talking about here, as far as I can see theres no claims about the VMNT1 stating that it is american or the X for that matter.

You say that as if japanese or americans were really preferable these days, if Ibanez see's fit to make their high end S series in Korea and charge the same amount/more cash for a Korean guitar then in general there is GOOD quality control out there.

I feel that downing Korean manufacturers based on past assumptions is a bit rediculous.

I can see why you hate Dean though, and I agree that in some respects they have milked a few cashcows in the past few years - Dimebag models are a great example of this, but they're in no way more or less corporate than any other major guitar brand, they're all out to make money at minimum expense.

I think Korea can make good guitars and bad just like any country. I've played some amazing US guitars and some awful ones, some amazing Korean and some awful and some amazing japanese and some awful. I'm not a fan of Dean but they wouldn't use a low quality company to make it and I know they'll have tough quality control.

i have several guitar mags which state " dave mustaine signature series vmnt1, now a dean american series!"
also, it comes down to the individual factories used to make these guitars. ibanez seems focused on quality, dean seems focused on beating a dead cash cow and their image. yeah, ill get my wings. to fly far away from these guitars.

My problem with it is that I would debate that my LTD DV8R is higher quality than the VMNT. It has comparable hardware (same pickups) and was priced at the same pricing point (just under 1k) for a long time. The DV8R is neck thru, while the VMNT1 is set neck. Both have SD DM sig Live Wires, I believe that the VMNT1 has minirotomatics to the DV8R's Sperzel. Personally, I prefer Sperzel but that's completely preference I suppose. The inlays on the VMNT1 are dot w/ saw tooth, DV8R are dots w/ 8 ball on the first fret. Rosewood fingerboard on DV8R, or ebony on the VMNT1. I guess that's really a preference deal, but we'll give that to Dean since ebony is more expensive, I believe. They both have strap locks. What is kind of misleading and probably has Guitarman and myself feeling betrayed is that when you buy a Dean, an American company, with a guitar that costs $1000, you would assume immediately that it would probably be American made, if you buy a $1k fender, I'm pretty sure it's American made. If you buy an ESP, you know it's japanese, if you buy an LTD, it's Korean. I'm not really that upset about the guitar being Korean, just that it's the "flagship" of the series and it's Korean lowers the perceived quality of the instrument, which means it's not going to appreciate. I don't know about you, but despite Korean guitar quality, including my S and my DV8R, but were I to sell both right now, they probably wouldn't recover 90% of their initial price, but most US made guitars do.

Look at the "top flight" guitars in both categories. The ESP sold for about $3000, the deans are selling for $4000 BUT there are only 150 of them and each one is signed by DM himself and come with a "Deth Certificate" numbered and signed by DM himself. The 4k Dean is US made, the 3k ESP is MIJ.

All of that said, I'm in love with my DV8R. It's quality is higher than my MIJ RG550 20th. It plays better, sounds better, and just has a better feel to it over all. You hold it and it feels like a quality instrument, where as with the Ibanez you hold it and it doesn't have that same quality "feel" to it. one other issue is that the neck joint and heel of the guitar, on the ESP it was more tapered and "elegant" looking, it's a little fatter on the dean with a bit more of a heel but I suspect that's completely aesthetic and doesn't affect playability.

Wanna guess what my next guitar is going to be? More than likely a VMNT1. I think I'm going to collect DM sig gutiars, not so much because I like him, or megadeth, but they fit me best of any type of guitar I've played.

korean, mexico, american guitars = electronics made in taiwan haha