Dean Guitar History
I started carrying Dean Guitars back in 1978 around when Dean Zelinsky first started producing them. Dean was only 17 years old. It was remarkable how good those guitars sounded. As far as I know I was one of his very first dealers. I know I am the oldest one. Most of my customers know that I like to help small companies get off the ground and that I am not in favor of korporation made krappolla guitars.
When I first started selling Dean Guitars I met with great resistance from the typical guitar player. I could never understand how a group of supposedly enlightened musical individuals, could reject a quality item, just because the headstock didn't look like the typical korporate made snot guitar that they got for their 15th birthday. But I believed in the product and that helped me sell a lot of them anyway. I would literally have to force them into the hands of people. Once the players got them into their hands and the felt that original V shaped neck and checked out the balance, weight, tone and feel it was an easy sell.
Today, 30 years later, many of these same people are still my customers and many of them are still swearing by Dean Guitars.
Dean came up with all kinds of great colors, Blueburst, Silverburst, & many other super cool innovative ideas. Ordering guitars from Dean was always fun. It was even more fun when they came in.
Ordering guitars from the likes of Gibson was always a drag and usually very disappointing when they came in.
At that time if you wanted to be different, (I always do) there were very few well made non korporate boutique guitar companies. Dean, BC Rich, Alembic, Hamer, SD Curlee, and maybe a couple of others that I can't think of now.
Today BC Rich has been bought by Davitt & Hanser, Hamer is owned by Kaman Corporation (Ovation), SD Curlee has gone under. The only two left standing are Alembic and Dean.
Stay tuned for more details on the History of Dean Guitars.
In the Late 80's and early 90's Oscar Medeiros owned the Dean name & trademarks. He built some of the first neck through models and initially instituted the American Custom Shop. I purchased and sold a large number of these models from him. The basic quality was quite good. I dealt with that reincarnation of the Dean company for several years and sold a tremendous amount of product.
When Armadillo Enterprises purchased the Dean company in the late 90's the owner wisely sought out Dean Zelinsky and brought him back into the picture. Currently Dean is running the production for all the USA made guitars available. He is making the complete original line of products and a model called the Hardtail.
The company is also bringing in from Japan & Korea some of the best looking import guitars I have seen. Many of my long time readers can attest to my dislike of most imported guitars. Dean however is selling them at such incredibly cheap prices that I have to give them a high mark. ML, V's Z's as low as $199.00 now that's what I call a good deal. When I bash imported Asian guitars like ESP for example it's because they are selling pretty much the same stuff for 5 to 6 times as much money.
Dean Guitars has acoustic guitars with full electronics, custom inlays and beautiful finishes for dirt cheap. Their Bass line has taken "Best in Class" year after year by most of the magazines who have rated them.
Example of an Original 1981 Dean Vee
I have been selling Dean Guitars for close to 30 years, I believe them to be an excellent product and I believe the people at Dean are interested in the well being of their customers, before and after the actual sale. The people at Dean are organizing a museum in Florida to celebrate the original Dean Guitars.
