Dean Guitars EVO XM Bass

I bought this bass last year (2009). A short scale, LP resembling body, 24 fret, solid (bass)wood body, Bolt on Maple Neck, Rosewood Fretboard, 30" Scale Short Scale, 2 Dual passive Humbuckers, 2 volume, 1 tone knobs, black Hardware, Color satin natural. Nothing else included in the price (except a cheap cable. Nice flat and thin neck. Nicely balanced. Nothing to write home about but nothing is missing either.

My relatively small fingers never felt comfortable in 34s and being driven from a (painful) frozen shoulder, I went out to find an economical bass that wouldn't sound like a toy. Not much to choose locally but I tried anything in my path, from 34s with small fast necks to 30s. And then I came by this baby I was not even aware it existed. Nice looking body (except the front upper curve), comfortable neck, balanced body and the sound ....wait a minute.. Are you sure that this is a 190euro bass ? Ten minutes playing and I was going home with it. Nice sustain, growl or baby soft according to desire and dead quiet. Something was missing though. Throwed a set of GHS flats and taraaa. Heaven. Straight to my TKO75 in rehearsals, through the card at home, through anything in gigs. This baby sings. I love the questions like "whow man, is this a custom ?".
I dont tap, barely slap but the blues-rock I play, does it more than right. Don't believe the hype about short scales. If they are properly made, can sound as good (and even better) as their big bros. Those humbies don't muck about. Their presence is acknowldged by everybody upon user's request. Not muddy or anything. This bass goes beyond the usual excuse price vs quality ratio. This is a GOOD BASS by all standards.
I was so convinced by this bass that I took the plunge and now I am expecting a custom short from Jimmy in Landingbass anyday now, but this one is definitely a keeper nonetheless.

What I would change ?

The bridge. About $35 for a quality straight replacement.

I do no enjoy either the two volumes. Gives you the option for versatility but I do not like fiddling with % of pups. Ideal would be 1 Master vol, 1 bass, 1 treble and a switch for pup selection.

Headstock design is a little bit too modern / hard rock for my taste. Not annoyingly so.

The bass came with the strings a little high. When I changed to flats, tweaked a little bit the bridge (which will be changed sooner or later) and the neck (about 10mins for both) and the little one came in order. Spot on intonation and very low action. No buzzes, no noises.
Do not expect highly polished finish or any fancy decorations but everything is well finished with no flaws (satin finished not for everyone)and assembled as it should. Not enthused but not dissapointed either.

The bass withstood with no problems live playing, rehearsals and studio playing. Keeps on tune, pots without scratches, nice output.
Different environments never affected the neck which was adjusted once (see above) and never again within 1,5 year.
Its light weight and the nice balance combined with the comfortable neck makes it a breeze.
I have backup strings but no backup bass. Don't see the reason.
I never abuse the ladies in my arms and those in return never let me down.

Never needed.

I 've been playing on and off for about 25 years. I played (as owner and borrowed from friends) a large arrays of basses.
Lately, for reasons I mentioned, I have a preference for short scales. I do not have the money to go for Alembics or Cortos (although a Landing is on its way). Vintage shorts are usually (sorry for the strong expression) either crap or monodimensional or they need substantial overhaul. Unfortunately, companies do not pay attention to this market segment. I did not like the low-medium priced ones that I tried.
This one (and the beautiful and more expensive Ibanez AGB-200) is an exception.

Although is matter of taste, I never understood (apart from investment reasons and the logo on the headstock) the purchase of Musicmaster or a Mustang or even the very nice Stu Hamm Urge, without having a look at this highly underrrated gem.

I'm happy I did.

24 fret - Solid wood body(basswood..?) - Eggshell red-brown finish.. looks like a bad paint job on a redwood fence..lol. The black ones look a bit better. Made in China. Medium weight. 2 medium powered humbuckers. Stock sealed tuners. Pot metal bridge assembly. Junk strings. Fret wires nicely done.

Actually sounds quite beefy for a short scale. With the two volume control setup you can get a fair variety of sounds. I set up my rig on the bright side and use the tone control in the middle. That way if I am funkin' it up a bit I just turn it full and away we go. The two humbuckers are very quiet and work well on stage. Keep the expensive axes at home... for a weekend warrior it's a great gigging axe. Body resonates nice and even with very little buzz etc... pretty solid setup.

Came setup better than many of big name brands. Once I dumped off the cheap asian strings and put on some 40/100's Di'Addario's I was able to tweak the truss rod and get it in pretty good tune all the way up to the 15th fret... which is very good for a import. Action 3/16" at the 12th... very playable with no fret buzz. Fret wires were smooth and the edges a-ok. I sanded the back of the neck with 1000 and 1500 paper and it feels great! You must put on larger strap buttons or straplocks... it will fall off if you don't. I also wet-sanded the front of the body with 1000 to 2500 wet paper and buffed out with 3M Finese-it microfinish compound and it came out like a nice piece of furniture. Though there was a bit of fine scratches here and there it passed the 10 foot test with flying colors. Looks mucho better!

I have done 2 gigs with it with not a problem. Stays in tune great and the neck does not seem to have the reaction to changing weather like most of the import necks suffer from. The only piece of hardware I changed out is the bridge. I went with a Wilinson black base with brass saddles knock-off. A twenty dollar investment that will pay off in the long run. Plus it made it sound much smoother! I always take a backup to gigs but on the second gig I felt comfortable enough to leave the P in the trunk. Also I did a bit of computer recording with this and the pickups don't pickup up the monitor static to bad. You will need to put a lock washer on the input jack. Has a tendency to come loose.

Never have dealt with Dean.

I have been playing cover stuff for 30 years on guitar and bass. I feel if you consider price point vs. value you cannot go wrong with this bass. Nice balance, good sound and being short scale it is a pleasure to play on a long 5 setter. A bass player budy of mine who pretty much only plays Warwicks or Fender Am P's said he is thinking of picking one up and playing club gigs with it. There has been a rash of thefts in our area lately of guitars from gigs. If someone walks off with this I will just pickup another..no problem. I actually am considering picking a up a black one to have as a backup. I play thru a Carvin R1010 combo and get a very nice sound with this bass using only the stock pickups. I compared this with a short scale Fender, Squire and Hamer. This was the best buy and the best bass. Rock on all....

4 string short neck bass, 2 passive humbucker pickups, solid basswood body, satin finish. 2 volume and 1 tone controls. Fits in an acoustic guitar gig bag.

Good sound for this price range. The pickups are dead quiet, as noted by others here, as opposed to buzzing and static on every Squire Bronco I've tried. The sound is fine for my needs, I'm using it to record simple bass lines behind my acoustic guitars.

Neck is setup OK, action is easy. This bass looks much better than any Bronco, also looks nicer and feels better than an Epiphone SG stlye short neck I tried. Beautiful satin finish and reddish brown stained body.

Satin finishes aren't usually as durable, but I'm not gigging with it. Long term reliability unknown since I just got it recently. I would certainly play it live it the opportunity arose.

Not needed yet.

This is my 3rd short neck bass, I had a Squire Bronco and a Fender Musicmaster short neck from the early 80's. The Fender was great, the Bronco stunk. I wish I still had the Fender, but this bass seems close in sound and playability. I bought this after looking all over for short neck basses. When I saw and played this, I bought it right away. I'm giving it a 9 overall because there isn't anything 'wrong' with this bass, it looks good, sounds good, feels good, and has quiet pickups.

Made in 2005 - 24 frets - solid body, not laminate, type wood? - two passive humbuckers - v/v/t knobs - satin walnut finish, very thin - LP style body - 30" scale

I play Christian(Gospel/comtemporary), blues and 30's-80's oldies. Works well with what I play, plenty enough tonal variety to cover.
Good bottom for a short scale, a little bright on the top, but I roll back the tone a little and it's fine. Play through a Behringer BX300 for practice and a Behringer BX600 with line out to the PA for gigs

I really don't know if anything comes "set up" from the factory. Everything needs to be tweaked to suit you. So, I don't take any points off for that. Fit and finish was good to very good. Nice smooth satin finish on the neck.

It's heavy enough and seems solid. Tuners work okay and hold tune. Bridge is something I will replace eventually( they aren't real pricey, why not get a good one) Strap buttons seem solid. Yes I would gig it without a back up. How many strings have I broken on a bass? (zero). How many times has my axe totally died on me?(zero)

Customer support? Get real there isn't any customer support with anything nowdays. Sell em the product and forget em>

2 years. Fender J-Bass, SX J-Bass , above mentioned amps, Couple of guitars, baritone uke.
Yes I would buy it again, wish it came in colors. Love the neck, love the low noise humbuckers, Hate the bridge.
Really a great deal, considering the price. Had an Epi Allen Woody bass and sold it cause I like this one better. $$$$ doesn't mean it's automatically good. Try this short scale, I think you will like it.

late 2005? I believe this was made in korea. 24 fret short scale 4 string.2 passive dean humbuckers, 2 volume for each pickup and 1 tone.The neck is maple and the body i'm pretty sure is basswood. Mine has a beautiful mahogany looking finish.the neck has the p bass width at the plastic nut. it also has that crappy 50's fender bridge.Looks like your basic grover tuners, they do stay in tune!!

I play mostly british stuff Beatles to xtc,the furs, the jam. I'm playing the evo through my beloved vox t-60 bass amp. I;ve played the beatle bass through this amp with flats sounded very nice and thumpy, played the ebo epiphone through it but sounded muddy especially with the bassilator circuit engaged.The variety of sounds I can get with the evo is amazing.I did remove the stock bridge and replaced with the gotoh 201 which is a straight swap. i had plans of putting in some kent armstrong pickups but I really am enjoying the stock ones.....imagine that!!!!

action fit and finish are fair to good.nothing loose or buzzing. The pickups are dead quiet even being close to the amp.amazing at this price. besides the stock bridge being a turd I couldn't ask for much more.

I haven't touched the truss rod even after the gotoh 201 bridge swap,which I highly recommend everything is solid on this bass.As far as i'm concerned there are two types of finishes, Ones that have dings ,chips and dents and ones that will get dings ,chips and dents lol. I don't spaz out on stage so strap buttons should stay in place.Yea I'v gigged many times before without a back up with zero problems

i cant comment, havent had to deal with them

Absolutely love it . It's the best shorty at this price around. Chuck the lamo fender-like bridge, put a decent one on and your favorite strings and have fun!!!

I bought this new. Features include a short scale neck which is wide, but very thin. 1-5/8" at the nut,2 passive humbucking pickups 2 volume controls,one tone control,maple neck with satin finish, Les Paul style mahogany body and black hardware.

I'm running this through my Mesa Buster 200 15" all tube combo and a Boss GE6B multi effects unit. The pickups seem to be dead quiet. It has a nice full tone with various tonal options utilizing the front and back pickups or one or the other.

The action was sett very high from the factory, but the truss rod seemed about right. I dropped down the action a bit after I installed ne Fender flatwound strings. I was able to acheive a pretty good setup with little or no fret buzz.
Overall the fit and finish is quite nice. The bridge is straight, the string spacing is right on. The only thing I don't care for is the finish of the body. It seems to be the same finish that Fender uses on their "highway one" series. Very thin almost film like finish which will probably chip easily. Its a cool 70's looking color though.

Seems to be a sturdy bass with good weight to it. The hardware seems to be decent.I would gig this without a backup. The only thing I don't care for is the finish of the body. It seems to be the same finish that Fender uses on their "highway one" series. Very thin almost film like finish which will probably chip easily.

5 yr warranty!

I give it a good overall rating. I was surprised at how quiet it sounds, and the neck is nice.