Dean Guitars Edge Hammer 10

Got my Dean Edge Hammer 10-string in November, 2004, new from Musician's Heaven over Ebay. People gasp and roll their eyes at the notion of ten strings, as though it's an instrument only for those extravagant egomaniac showoffs. But it's sincerely just a five-string bass (BEADG fundamentals) with a second set of octave strings (BEADG) set just 3/32" next to the heavy fundamentals. If you can play a fiver, you can play this as soon as you strap it on. Waiting for my Dean to arrive, I figured I'd be stuck using a pick, but I immediately discovered my normal fingerstyle was the easiest technique. It's a very easy bass to play.

Solid Mahogany body and neck, brass nut, bolt-on neck, natural oil finish, Grover tuners, two Dean p-ups. Volume, treble, bass, and pickup blend knobs. Bridge allows individual intonation of all 10 strings, a feature I loved and one the guitar needed.

My main axe is a G&L L2500 fiver, which is the PERFECT bass IMHO, so I'm comparing this Dean to my ultimate instrument. Unlike the G&L, the Dean doesn't have lots of mini toggle switches with which to obssessively tone-tweak, but the Dean is damn nice sounding without them. The preamp and pickups seem to be pretty decent quality, certainly nothing I'd consider "upgrading" later.

My amp rig: Ampeg 350H into one or two Peavey 410TX cabs; clean, no effects.

At stage volume, this Dean creates such a huge, thunderous, full bass that it will disembowel everyone in the first few rows.

I LOVE the sound I get from the BEA strings; however, the D and especially the G have pretty small-gauge octave strings, and for my own taste, these create too much of a thin, tinny "guitar" overtone. At my first restring, I'll be going with a much heavier D octave, and my G will become a pair of regular bass .045s, NOT an octave.

To counteract those thin sounding upper strings, I find myself dialling in more of the neck pickup, adding a slight bass boost, and edging back on the treble control... but then, that's how I like to dial up my G&L tone, too -- darker, thicker, fewer mids and highs. Consequently, the tone of this Dean 10 is really appealing to me.

It's never gonna become my main axe (just as a 12-string guitar probably wouldn't be anyone's primary guitar), but it's a great instrument to switch to for about 1/3 of the songs on our set list. NOTE to anyone who would switch between this Dean 10 and an active pickup bass on stage: get an A/B footswitch, and make sure your two guitar volume levels are pretty even.

The woodword is beautiful, and the fretwork... well, for being a Korean-made guitar, I gotta hand it to the "Seoul Brothers" who built this axe. No fret buzzing anywhere, but a nice, flat action.

Forget that you're fretting two strings at once, the action on this guitar was at LEAST as nice as the action on my G&L. Regardless, I'm sure that fretting two strings at once will eventually give you a left Popeye Arm.

(Seoul Brothers... BWAA-HAA-HAA-ha!)

The mahogany is oil-finished, so it's already starting to exhibit some rub-marks where my thumb rests near the pickups. But then, that just adds character, doesn't it?

The strap buttons were instantly replaced with black Dunlop strap locks. The controls seem tough, precise, and I've found them to be very quiet. Like any single coil pickups, these can suck in some 60 cycle hum if you're not careful.

Tuning takes a little longer, but it stays amazingly in tune for days. Just make sure you ARE in tune, or you're gonna start creating some horrible harmonics that your band mates won't appreciate.

Certainly, you can't just walk into a music store and buy a ten-string bass set. I tried to contact Dean about where to get strings, but they'd never respond. I guess they figure it's my problem, now that they got my $$ for the guitar.

But I wouldn't get my strings from Dean anyway... I've already contacted a helpful Customer Service guy at SIT Strings for a custom set.

I've been a bassist since 1979. But I'm certainly no bass god, but this Dean gives me a little more capability to sound like I'm better than I really am.

My original intention was to try this bass, and if it didn't just float my boat, I'd sell it...and I pretty much expected that's what would happen. But, no way. I love it, it's mine, it's the only one in my town, and it's gonna become my brand... sort of like what Paul's Hofner did for him.

If you can play a 5-string, you can play this Dean 10-er.

This is a 10 string Bass, essentially a five string with an octave string for each. It's Korean made in the same plant as the other Dean instruments.

All Mahogany Body and Neck - Similar to the Dean 8 and 12 string basses.
Bolt On Construction
Rosewood Fingerboard
2 Dean Pickups
Active 2 Band EQ
Black Hardware
Grover Tuners
Dual Course 5-String Bass
Natural Oil Finish

The tone of the stock Dean 10 sits nicely within the timbres of my other basses. It's a tiny bit noisy and not as loud as you would expect from an active bass. I'll bet it's a good match for a player who's other bases are passive. I may eventually replace the stock P/U's and pre, but for now it's fine.

The stock electronics do provide a nice balanced tone. The 2 band EQ has a decent color. There are voilume, pickup balance, hi EQ and low EQ knobs. The EQ and balnace pots have a center detent so you know where "flat" is. The neck P/U has the throaty P Bass tone, and the bridge P/U has a musicman-ish tone.

When we took the bass out of the shipping carton at the music store, it was pretty much in tune!!! The action and setup are excellent as is. Whoever did the final quality checks at the factory KNOWS what they're doing. I haven't noticed any flaws in the construction or setup of this bass.

The Grover tuners are extremely stable and the tunig stability is rock solid.

The body feels like a Carl Thompson Bass (think Les Claypool's basses)and is very comfortable and balanced.

This is a very playable bass if you're used to a multi string instrument. If you're not, it will take a little getting used to, but in comparison to a 12ver it is much more articulate. You can play licks on it that you would play on a normal 5 string bass.

This bass seems to be very solid. I haven't had it out at a gig yet, but I have done a recording session with it, and rehearsed with it. I doubt there will be any problems live. In fact, I'm looking forward to the "shock and awe" reactions I'll likely see when using it live.

Haven't dealt with cutomer support, but I've heard very good things about Dean's customer relations. They were very nice at NAMM last year, especially the strip.. uh.. I mean booth bunnies!!!

I have been playing longer than I care to admit. I mostly play Prog Rock, and Hard Rock styles. My other basses are a Lakland 5, Yamaha RBX 5 fretless (w/ basslines P/U and active pre), Alembic Spoiler 5 and a US made Hamer (B12S) 12 string bass. I'm not a high end bass snob, but I do prefer exceptional quality instruments.

If this instrument were lost or stolen I would immediately replace it.

Unlike other multi-string basses, this low end bulldozer sits nicely in a band with 2 guitarists. A traditional 12 string bass is often too over the top and overpowering except in a power trio setting. You can get it to overpower a band very easily, if you want to.

Take this 10 string monster, add some nice overdrive, an SVT rig, and you can be the bassist for Tool if Justin ever quits.