Dean Guitars EVO FT

Solid top, Korean Les-Paul Lite imitation with 22 frets, all mahogany, with a flame-maple top. Mine is a VERY green finish! One volume, one tone knob, tuna-a-matic bridge, stop tailpiece, and a mini-toggle to split coils on the 2 zebra humbuckers. Grover tuners are standard equipment as well. Passive electronics, 24.75 scale neck with rosewood fretboard, and Deans' usual superior fretwork on medium priced instruments. Feels like a 12" radius, real abalone inlays (dots), medium-jumbo fretwire.

Considering these are stock, Korean pickups, the sound is impressive. Deep, full and fat while humbucking, very "Fenderish" on split mode. Almost a P-90 sound when switched over, very little hum. Currently running through a ealy 80's Randall Mosfet 4x10 120 watt amp, but have also played through Fender tubes and Marshall JCM900, also a 1980's amp. Considering the price, this guitar sounded very alive and powerful on each amp. A very impressive guitar, MUCH nicer than ANY axe I've test-driven for under $500. Makes an excellent blues guitar, but with the coil-splitter option, can just about acheive any desired musical style if you tweak your EQ a bit.

On the surface, I found no flaws of any sort. Dean is meticulous about making quality surpass what one might expect or be accustomed to in mid-priced instruments. However, upon upgrading my pickups to a set of Duncans I aquired through a profitable swap, the toggle switch that controls splitting of coils was defective, Korean crap. Luckily Radio Shack had a decent one (probably also Korean!) for less than five bucks. Guess at this price, SOME corners had to be cut. Fortunately, the guys at Sight and Sound (Dave & Chuck) were very helpful and replaced this switch for me. Otherwise, the overall details on this guitar provide me nothing to complain about.

I know of people who only play Dean guitars and gig regularly. No complaints thus far. This guitar appears to be solid, and reliable, and since it's about 10% the cost of the guitar it emulates, you won't get your panties in a bunch should it get nicked up or scratched through the normal wear and tear of playing it. Having not owned it very long, I'll refrain from rating this category too hastily.

Again, no experience to call upon thus far, but some friends of mine have positive feedback from their experiences.

I've been playing around 3 years now, mostly blues, formerly a bass player, and blues harpist. This guitar is one I plan to keep, something I rarely do. (Trade-it-in-fever!) My Dean does exactly what I bought it for, and it's versatile enough to accomodate different types of blues-related techniques and tones. If you're on a budget, I strongly recommend you look at a Dean for excellent price/value/tone/playability issues.

made in 1999, in korea i believe. this guitar has a les paul style body just as all of the other evo models. this model doesn't have the carved top, i like to think of it as a les paul sl with humbuckers. has 22 frets, and a amberburst top. the neck is glued to the body and it is made of mahogany(neck and body). the guitar has two zebra humbuckers, i believe they are duncan designed. has one volume and one tone knob and has a coil tap. also has a 3-way toggle switch and the standard tunamatic bridge. has sealed tuners i believe grover is what dean is using.

i play a little of everything, kiss, limp bizkit, disturbed, incubus, tonic, soundgarden, etc. i am using a crate vc6210 tube series amp. the guitar is not noisy at all, unless you split the coils then you get that single coil hum. this guitar is versatile for all styles of music, especially with the coil tap already wired in. i love the guitar, definetely better than buying a epiphone les paul and in some cases a gibson les paul to.

action was alright, different for different people, everything else was good, i am satisfied.

this guitar has, will and does withstand live playing. the hardware will last quite some time, like anything else if you don't keep it up it will crap out on you. finish is beautiful, looks really good. strap buttons are solid, i depend on this guitar and i do gig without a backup.

company is great so far, it is kinda hard to get a catalog from them though.

i have been playing about 11 years and i have owned almost everything at one time or another. if it were stolen i would replace it immediately, i love that i got a les paul with a twist and not a fortune to own. definetely got to try one of these things out.