Dean Guitars Dave Mustaine V VMNT1 Signature

- 2008 model I'm guessing
- Made in Korea
- 24 frets
- 25.5 neck scale
- Dave Mustaine slim D shape neck
- MOP shark tooth/dot inlays
- Mahogany body/neck
- Set neck construction
- Seymour Duncan Dave Mustaine Live Wire active pickups
- Striped ebony fretboard
- Grover tuners
- Dunlop strap locks
- Silver sparkle paint job

The Seymour Duncan Dave Mustaine Live Wires are amazing. I play through a Peavey 6505+ with a Randall Straight XL 4x12 with V30's. They are beefy and have a lot of crunch. They are a little mid scooped, but I just turned my mids up a bit. They are also hum canceling pickups, which are nice when you are running through a 6505+.

I think it would be pretty rare to find buy a guitar that does not need any adjusting.I bought it online from a store where they had it hanging up, so I'm not sure if I got it with the factory set-up or if the store set it up. Either way, I did some tweaking. The neck had too much neck bow for my taste, so I straightened the neck out. The action was a little high, so I raised that as well. I just noticed that the intonation is not set-up, so I will have to fix the intonation.

The finish, while not perfect, is still very good. There are a a few flaws in the silver sparkle paint, but you have to look close to see them. The neck binding is perfect on mine. Inlays aren't bad, but they aren't perfect either. There spots where they had to use epoxy to fill a bit of the inlay hole. My 5th fret inlay, they either forgot or didn't use enough epoxy to fill it in, so there's a little gap. No big deal though, I can fill it in.

There's only 2 frets on this guitar that buzz no matter what I do. I think it's the 20th fret on the low E and the 22nd on the high E. It probably just needs a fret level, not that big of an issue. Other than those 2 frets, I can have the action extremely low with minimal to no buzz at all.

And the fretboard is NOT rosewood, it's ebony. In pictures, it may look like rosewood, but in real life, the fretboard is dark, shiny and the grain is tight. It's not completely black though, it's striped ebony.

This guitar will definitely withstand live playing. The hardware feels very solid. I can't speak from experience with the strap locks yet, I've only played standing up at home so far, but look for reviews on the Dunlop strap locks. And nobody should gig without backup, doesn't matter if you're playing a $6000 Ken Lawrence or a $200 Ibanez.

Have not needed to contact Dean.

Overall, this guitar is awesome. The few little flaws can't take away from how awesome this guitar is. And it's incredibly light weight, so you will never have a sore back after. If it were stolen, I would track down the person who took it and would make them need a new face.

The VMNT1 is the new(ish) Dave Mustaine signature series guitar by Dean. It looks just like a neckthru, but is actually a set-neck guitar. It's sculpted very nice where the neck meets the body. Pretty smooth and comfortable. The guitar is 25-1/2" scale model featuring a Mahogany body and neck, bound Ebony fretboard with pearl sharkfin (?? closest thing I can think of to relate them to) inlays as well as pearl dot inlays, Seymour Duncan Dave Mustaine Livewire active pickups, all black hardware (Grover tuners, Tonepros bridge, and metallic silver finish. The neck profile is a flat D shape, which feels very similar to Dave's old Jackson signature King V models. Jackson calls it the "speed" neck profile. This guitar also comes in Black, but I got the metallic silver. I own a black Jackson King V Mustaine sig guitar so wanted a different color :)

This is a pretty large guitar. I didn't realize it until I got it home and had it sitting next to my Jackson King Vs. It stands quit a bit taller/longer/whatever you wanna call it. I can't speak with total authority on the topic, BUT I believe the VMNT1 is smaller than the old Mustaine sig ESP DV-8R guitars. I've played one or two and I recall them being even bigger. You could bury a body in one of those guitar cases. The headstock on the Dean is pretty big compared to the Jackson too. I'm not particularly fond of that fact, but the build quality of the guitar and the price I paid for it make it okay to overlook. Plus it's just cosmetic and doesn't affect playability at all.

While speaking of features, I need to mention something about the Dean VMNTX models, which are the bolt-on, cheaper version of this guitar. Let me assure you that they are two different beasts ENTIRELY. I've played a few VMNTX models in Guitar Center and every one of them I've picked up to play suffered from bad QC on the part of Dean. Loose input jacks, broken pots, scratchy pots, sharp/unfinished fret ends, twisting necks, high frets and dead spots, etc etc etc. The list goes on. Granted, it's a $300 USD guitar, but you can find much better quality elsewhere. Shame on you Dean! I just wanted to let you all know about that in case you've played one of the lower end models and its keeping you from ordering a VMNT1. Totally different guitar... THANKFULLY.

This guitar sounds incredibly huge. I've never been a fan of active pickups, but am a Seymour Duncan player for many, many years. I know everyone seems to love EMG active pickups, but to me they seem to be a one trick pony. The Duncan pickups on this particular guitar are really amazing. They sound very organic and not as compressed as EMGs. From what I've read, these are the active versions of the Duncan JB (bridge) and Jazz (neck) model pickups. I still prefer the passive Duncan pickups BUT these are very powerful and great sounding pickups. The bridge pickup is pretty brutal, while retaining a very clear edge to it. Great for speed metal riffing. Articulate. The neck pickup is nice and warm. I've used it to pull of some blues as well as clean passages, and it just sounds great. Volume balance between pickups is good. There's no huge jumps/drops when switching from pickup to pickup (the guitar has a 3-way toggle switch for selecting pickups).

Factory setup was not so hot, but from my experience, they rarely are :) When I first got it home, I noticed it seemed to have an area it would fret out, but after changing the strings to my desired gauge, it worked itself out. Action is excellent now. I've not had this guitar for long but the finish seems to be pretty professional and durable. Excellent work on the paint as far as I can tell. The fretboard is Ebony, but if you notice in many pictures of this guitar, its "striped" ebony... meaning its not totally black. It has streaks/striped down it. Doesn't look bad, but I don't know why the didn't use black ebony like most guitars of this calibre use. I think it would make the inlays and binding stand out better. Speaking of inlays, the workmanship is pretty solid. I don't see many mistakes where they had to epoxy to fill in their errors. There's a couple areas its noticeable but not bad at all. I'd say overall the inlay work on this particular guitar is very good.

The only complaint I have, if you can even consider it a complaint at all, is the flush mount Dunlop straplock system. The straplocks are literally routed into the body, so if you wanted to replace them with another brand you're screwed... because there are big holes in the body where they sit. I didn't care for that at all. It really sucks for me because I have all my other guitars fitted with Schaller straplocks, which I find to be superior to the Dunlop models. So I need to buy a seperate guitar strap to use with this one. I can't use any of my other straps. Oh well.

One more thing I'm not a fan of is the fret wire used on this model. I prefer jumbo frets and this guitar has really thin and tall fretwire. It's not too big of a deal, but has a different feel to me... perhaps its in my head? I don't know. All I know is I prefer the jumbo wire. Always have. I assume the thin fretwire was Mustaine's choice, as I believe the modern KV2 models from Jackson have the same wire... but I could be wrong. My older King V Pro has wider fretwire just like I prefer. Don't get me wrong though, the Dean plays like nobodys business. I can FLY on this thing. Great action, feel, and speed. Effortless.

From the first moment I picked this guitar up, I knew it was well built. I've been playing for over 20 years, so I know my guitars thats for sure. This guitar is fairly lightweight, very well balanced, and feels rock solid in my hands. One thing I've found over the years is that you can judge a guitars build quality by the way it resonates when you play it. This is, by far, the loudest electric guitar I've ever played unplugged. You can FEEL the guitar as it resonates each note played throughout the body and neck. Its amazing. My neckthru Jackson King V is the same way, but the Dean seems a bit better in this respect. Sustains forever too, and I'd imagine that's related. I've not gigged with this guitar but, as I said, it feels pretty solid and I'd be confident to gig with it. I always take more than one guitar to gigs, so I'm always prepared with a backup. The hardware is professional grade and should last forever. Grover tuners, Tonepros bridge, etc.

Never had to use them, but I hear that Dean customer support is excellent. Hopefully I never have to use them but I've at least heard good things.

For the money, this guitar is a really great instrument. I've played many guitars in this range and I can safely say the Dean is well worth the asking price. I was surprised, because when I got the guitar I noticed it said "Made in Korea" on the back of the headstock. It cast some doubt on the purchase, but after playing this instrument, all my concerns went out the window. I've also never been a Dean fan, so me owning this guitar says alot for it's build quality. I really love the way this guitar looks, feels/plays, and sounds. As I said earlier, don't judge this by it's shotty cousin, the VMNTX. Those things are toys compared to this guitar. It's a professional quality axe for just less than $1000 USD. You can't go wrong!