Dean Guitars Artist CSE

I think this guitar was made in 03 or 04 but not sure as was a factory blem, purchased from a dealer off Ebay.
Solid spruce top, rosewood sides and back.
Mahogany neck.
Rosewood finger board
Grover tuners
Fishman pickup
Beautiful inlays in neck, sound hole and around the body, abalone.
Gloss natural finish, no pick guard

Well im a new player, over 40, I know i waited awhile to start. Im into rock of all kinds, so hope to learn some good rock tunes new and old stuff.
The guitar sounds really good, It came with Dadario strings, I tried elixer ulta lights(bit weak sounding) and now switched to Martin Strings(medium) and a noticable improvement. Sounds like it did new again.
Since its an Electric Acoustic from time to time I play it on a amp, small Fender champ, would be nice if it had anti feedback in the electroincs as i notice if sitting to close it will feedback. I have seen two differnt fishmans used in this model, mine is not the shadow, has a name on it of classic. I think the shadow has anti feedback on it, dont know how well it works.

Action, when i got it I did not know good from bad action. I let my neighbor play it and he liked the action sd it compared to his yamaha. I still felt there was room for improvement on the action, maybe the elixer ulta lights made me think that. I took it to a local music store and a guy with over 30 years experince did a set up. He noted the bottow thinest stings were high and adjusted them down. I got it back and was impressed in the ease of play. Those bar chords played easier and i could really tell a difference. So I would recomend if you get this guitar to let some one do a set up on it. It was worth the 45 bucks. The luthier also noted "thats a pretty nice guitar" and one of the other store employees said"yeah it really sings".
The constuction of the guitar seems great, Im very happy. keeps tune very very well.
I got a deal on this guitar, it retails for about low price of 569.00 to high of list price 875.00. I paid 300.00 as it was a blem with a small crack in the tops finish. It took me 2 days before I could find it along the edge about a few inches long, it has not grown so Im leaving it alone, cant notice unless you look 4 it.

I feel this is a durable guitar, having only played it for about 3 months. There is no stap buttons, would be nice to have some. the finish appears very thick and glossy, so i dont see it wearing off any time soon. The bridge is bolted on with two bolts and the luthier said those hold up better than the glued only bridges and rarely need fixed. The gold tuners are great , no problems there.

One email before I bought the guitar,they answered me so thats a plus. Great website!

Since im a new player, I havent played on alot of other guitars for long periods of time. Tried many but brifley. I would say that overall im very pleased with my purchase, especialy for what I paid, dont think I could have found much better guitar for the money. If it were lost of stolen, hmmm I would probley start shoping again and consider the Dean line again in my search.
I do wish it had strap buttons, and anti feedback.

One of the most awesome looking guitars I've ever seen. Top of the line of every option except the crappy Shadow (Epiphone(Electar)) EQ and pickup, and the plastic bridge saddle and end pins. Some very cheap electronics for an awesome looking guitar. Thin vintage size frets kind of suck too.

For the size it sounds kind of weak. I'm replacing all the cheap plastic with bone, Fishman, and Ivory. So it will sound much better soon. Not as boomy as the adds would like for you to believe. I don't to much amplified with acoustics, but if I did I wouldn't use Shadow.

Nice low action and it looks better than about any other guitar I have seen, that's what puzzles me about the cheap plastic and electronics.

I would say it's put together as good as most $300 acoustics. At least that's what I paid for it.

Never talked to them. If I did I would plead with them to do away with the plastic and Shadow. That cheap ass rip off placed called MusicYo sells crappy ass Shadow crap.

I would say that it's worth $300 and if not for the crappy Shadow and cheap stinking plastic it would be worth even more.

I recently purchased this guitar after spending eight months playing every A/E I could get my hands on: In my mind, the Dean was notably better than anything within $500 of its price. It has a solid spruce top and rosewood back, sides, and fretboard. The tuners are gold and work beautifully. It's a cutaway (venetian) and comes equipped with a Shadow 5-band EQ (sub-bass,bass,mid,treb,bright)--also volume and a special feedback eliminator mode. It has an extended fretboard (22/25) and an angel wing design bridge. The finish is a medium lacquer over natural (the contrast between the spuce top and rosewood body is quite striking) and the inlay work is just beautiful. Block hexagon inlays in mother of pearl, abalone rosette with angel wing inlay--even the tuning pegs are capped with abalone! Quite simply a great-looking guitar.

This guitar has a very bright and full tone. Some bass response is sacrificed (as you might expect with a mid-priced A/E), but overall, the sound is what led me to purchase this guitar. I play a wide variety of music (Dire Straits, John Prine, Elvis Costello..??) and this instrument has lent itself well to each style. It sounds equally good plugged in or accoustic. I've been playing through a Trace Elliot for softer stuff and running it with a Zoom through a Vintage Music Man to crank a little. It won't ever sound like a Strat, but why would you want it to?

The factory set-up is great, though I did have the action tweaked a bit to reduce a slight fret buzz on the b-string. The finish is medium duty and is standing up quite well to hours of practice and performance: only very minor dings. Everything about this guitar seems well put together, though I could wish the frets on the extended portion had been filed a bit more carefully, just to maintain the instrument's overall good looks.

As I said, this guitar has held up very well in the medium-duty setting I play in. It never sits for more than about 8-10 hours without being played, but I play out with it only two or three times a month. Only one minor ding on the back (stupid belt-buckle) and one on the side (chair w/ arms). I would and do use this guitar gigging without a back-up.

Dean has a five year warranty, though I have had no cause to use it. Thoroughbred Music in Sarasota/Bradenton (A Dean dealer) has been great. They did the set-up work for free and have been nothing but supportive, friendly and professional.

My first choice in accoustics (or A/E) will always be Taylor. On a college budget, this is a good substitute. The guitar looks beautiful and sounds great--the cheapest guitar that sounded better was a $1,000 Tacoma. If it was stolen I would spend at least six months trying to track down the party responsible, then give up and buy another Dean.