Dean Guitars EVO FT

Made in Korea. Figured maple top on mahogany body, single cutaway, dual Dean humbuckers, with coil-split switch, one tone, one volume, 3-way pickup selector, yada, yada, yada...

I love the sound of this guitar! The Dean humbuckers were a real suprise. Good for blues, rock, etc. Nice and quite with both the HB and SC pickups. The coil split gives this guitar a lot of different sounds...I like single coils for strumming and humbuckers for lead, and I get both with this guitar. Good sustain, nice neck, and clean frets.

Bought it used and it was set up perfectly. While the body slab itself is kina plain, the finish in it is beautiful! Nice flamed maple top. Much nicer than I expected at this price point.

I've only had it a few months...we'll see. Seems rock solid.

Say what?

Been playing a long time. I've got an early 70's Gibson LP Deluxe, Japanese Squire strat, Fender Nashville Tele, and about 4-5 others. If lost I'd try to find another, although it's been discontinued, and I haven't seen many of these out there. I like the light weight, the pick-ups, and of course, the coil split. If you can find one at a decent price, BUY IT!

Price Paid: retails for around $500, street: $359.
Correcting the last reveiw: this is a solid mahogany body, with a flame maple cap, with a set-neck 22-Fret, well dressed, med-jumbo size. Made in 2004, in my country of choice Korea, much better than any of the Chinese slave labor stuff! Visually it is stunning! Real mahogany! Real Flame Maple, if only Gibson could do a guitar of this quality, at this price. I build relic strats and teles, and really did not need this guitar, it was offered at a price too low to pass on, and I thought, I can always throw it on Ebay, if I don't like it, just got offered full price for it and turned it down. P/U's: Dean's own zebra-pick ups, had a couple of seymour's to put in it, decided after playing, not to, sounded too good. Wiring: toggle in the Les Paul spot, upper bout, the tone/volume pots are placed in a good position, mine came wit a coil-tap! Which when Dean wires these, put the humbuckes in a paralell circuit, so although it switches to single coil, there is no single coil hum. Wow! Too cool, I'm a strat guy, and the transition to this was immediate, couldn't get over it, now I've had it 6 months. Came with factory installed Grovers & and a tune-a-matic bridge, probably could use a Tone Pro's...but it came perfectly set-up, probably by the local dealer, Music City in Clearwater Florida, he sells 1st's and factory 2nds, and sets up his stock, before it goes out. The neck has been called fat OR chunky, it is not, it is the same a Gibson thin 62 SG or LP. For old guys like me, it also is light, under 8lbs, not everyone wants a 10lb beast, sustain claims aside. I get plenty of tone from this and all the sustain I need.

Most tone comments are above, this is my blues machine, sustains all day long, no noise in the single coil setting,that's major for me, I hate single coil hum, but endure it. What don't I like? Elliot at Dean has discontinued this model, along with his Gold-Top P-90 Dean Evo, and other very cool products, where as Gibson, adds new models, while keeping the great standards.
I use this thru my SF Princeton Reverb, late 70's Acoustic 60-watt combo amp, pedals: tubsescreamer, Fulltone Fulldrive, Guyatone tremolo
and some amp modeling stuff. The coil tap, opens up sounds that really add to the value, without switching between guitars.

Can't comment on factory set-up, only that my dealer had this one right, no adjustments needed. Pick ups were at the correct height as well. No flaws noted, though this one was supposed to be a factory 2nd, it was not stamped or marked, that way,and I found no flaws. Hardware seems awsome, I'll let you know in 5-10 years. The Woods were too cool, book matched amber flame maple...Elliot are you listening? Re-introduce this.

Reliability: live gigging, club playing verus church? Can't say, don' t play out nightly, sweating over it. Certainl would stand up to weekend gigging, or Worship Team type venues. It all seems very durable, nice durable finish, as good as American Hamer's which I measure most set-neck guitar by. Would gig without a backup, have seen comments on the 3-way selector switch, on other Deans, so at worst you could install a Switchcraft one.

No experience, except when I called today they told my cust. support guy who'd been there, had been fired after 5 years, another move, that doesn't seem smart by a growing corporation, hello out there!

Been a mediocre player for35 years, build relics, more than I actually play, Guitars: 63 Gibson Melody Maker, with Seymour Duncan Humbuckers, wired as in the Hamer configuration. Two import SATF-HamerS. MIJ 62 reissue(squire logo'd from the 80's), several relic'd teles and strats I built. Lost/stolen: most definately scarf one up on ebay...since Dean quit makin' 'em. Favorite feature: tone/playability/weight. Like it better than most Gibsons I've plaid and certainly better than my 63 Gibson, they compare cause they are both flat tops, with mahogany, and humbuckers.

I recently bought a DEAN EVO FTX, MIK, it's a Basswood Body, Maple Neck, Rosewood Fingerboard, Grover Tuners, Tune-O-Matic Bridge, 22 frets, 2 Dean zebra hums, in a Transparent Amber color. The neck joint is cut triangular, the bottom fret access is very good.

I play almost anything, this guitar can cover things I couldnt with my ibanez, it has a very warm tone for not being mahongany, the maple neck really helps there.
Im using a peavey solo 65, a flanger and distortion. I like to set a guitar on one setting and not change it, so as soon as I found what I liked I kept it there, I only play around with the tone when Im using distortion.

When I got it from gallucis in Scranton, the action was condsiderably high, and the pickups needed some adjustment. The neck is medium thick, but thats mainly for the tone, and after owning a ibanez everything feels like a baseball bat. The top is at least two pieces, they could have selected better wood because it doesnt match well. Everything that needed adjusting was easy to do, but the one thing I dont like is how fingerprints show up on the finish, Im considering slapping a couple stickers on it

The guitars solid, the strap buttons are great (no need to buy straplocks) and everything feels like it will last. Im not sure if I would go without a backup, just incase I snapped a string or two, it stays in tune well, I reccomend trying one out

Its got a one year warranty I havent used yet, dean is very good for customer support

A guitars a guitar, they dont effect sound to the drastic point an amp does. If it were lost or stolen, and I had the money I would replace it with something I found easier to play.

I believe it was made in 2002 in Korea. For a Korean-made guitar, the quality is awesome. It has a solid mahogany body and set neck, and flamed maple top with Transparent Amberburst finish. 1 volume and 1 tone control knob, with coil-tap switch, and 3-way pickup selector. The pickups are made by Dean. The tuners are excellent Grovers, very smooth gearing. The neck is very comfortable as it is thin. It has a rosewood fretboard with medium-jumbo frets.

Overall sound it great. I've played it thru a friend's Marshall Valvestate head and 4x12 cabinet. I've got a Peavey Bandit 112 80 watt amp, with a 12" Scoprion speaker (being upgraded to a Celestion Classic Lead 80 soon though). every setting on this guitar sounds good.

The only calm I have about it right now, is the setup. It goes out of tune a litte bit every couple of days, but I'm gonna take it to my local luthier down the street from me to set it up.

I don't play live now, but who's to say in the future. Everything on it seems like it will last a long time. The strap buttons are rock solid, but I still may switch them out for Dunlop strap locks.

Haven't had to deal with them yet. but I'm sure they'll do the job right, if I have to contact them.

I love everything about it except the setup but I'll have that fixed soon.

Stock EVO FT bought in December 2002, other reviews list the features and this was no different.

My style is new player, Well not completely. 32 years ago I played for 2 years, then sold my Harmony hollow-body electric and gave it up for sports at the age of 15. I wanted something versatile that could rock. This guitar provides a wide range of sounds. Like everyone else new I am messing around with different riffs and I can get a wide range of sounds. Blew my wife out of the living room playing a realistic smoke on the water thru a crummy little Park amp with the gain way up but mostly getting a full rich sound when I want and a strat tone when I want that. I don't know what I am doing so I turn a lot of knobs and adjust to the recorded music. Partial to Dickey Betts lp tone and I can match that real well.

The guitar is beautiful, everything worked well. I did have the shop make some adjustments after a week or so. The neck pickup looks low, but what do I know? I will have the shop look at it closely in a few months.

From what others say and from the solid feel I get from this guitar I believe it will do whatever you ask it to if you treat it right.

I haven't had to deal with them.

Playing two months now. I really like picking this guitar up, I love the way it looks and sounds. This was a bit of a middle age crisis thing. Wondering if I could "do it" and play, then getting the bug real bad and doing my research. I wanted a guitar that I would like, and I wanted a guitar I could resell if this didn't work out. I didn't want to spend a ton of money. I looked at a lot of guitars, and in my area (Chicago suburbs) everything is available - two big stores and many little stores. For a new guitar player I don't think you can do better than the EVO FT if that is the style you like.

My Dean EVO FT was Purchased in Dec. 2001. It is Korean made with a solid mahogony body and a flat maple top. It has a set neck with a rosewood fingerboard and plastic/graphite nut. It has 2 Dean "zebra" humbuckers. The bridge pickup has coil split controlled by a Dean installed toggle switch. 1 volume and 1 tone control are shared by both pickups. Mine has the Dean "Metallic White" finish on body and neck (almost a "pearl" white). Body has a single cut "Les Paul" shape with a VERY comfortable neck to body join. The strings pass through a standard stop tailpiece and tune-o-matic bridge and are tuned with Grover tuners. All hardware is nickel plated. The standard frets are nicely "finished". The neck has a "silky" smooth feel to it. The rosewood fingerboard appears top coated in some way (I've grown to like the feel). I would prefer seperate volume and tone controls but there is a simplicity to this set up i have come to appreciate.

I owned a Gibson Les Paul "Special" (double cutaway with P90 "soapbar" pickups)as a youth that to this day had the most comfortable neck I have ever played. I later installed 2 Humbuckers to replace the standard P90's and wound up with a pretty decent guitar. The only thing that guitar lacked was a maple top to add some "bite" and sustain. Regretfully, I sold that guitar and never really found one quite like it...until I played this Dean EVO FT. It has all the qualities that I was missing from my old Gibson. It's light weight and what I condider to be the best neck/body join by ANY manufacturer (check out the Dean website for a photo) make it a very comfortable instrument to play. It still lacks a bit of mass...thought the maple top is fairly thick. I am satisfied with the pickups though I may upgrade to higher output to get a bit more sustain out of the guitar. The pickups are plenty "sweet" however...enough to cause me to hesitate in making the change just yet (maybe a Tone-Pro tune-o-matic or a new nut will due the trick?).
The coil tap is used often and is not too noisy (sound is more Gibson P90 vs. Fender Strat) and you can get a great tone from combining the
single coil treble pickup with the humbucker neck pickup - a sort of a Stratocaster middle pickup single coil sound.

The EVO FT's factory set up was only "tweeked" a bit to suit my liking. The intonation is almost perfect. A slight buzz on 1 fret and a loose set of strap knobs were the only early flaws. The coil tap toggle has always looked a bit flimsy to me yet it still works fine. The nut scared me at first. It's plastic/graphite and I was used to bone. Now, after 1 years time, I don't think I will change it out. This guitar just will not go out of tune even after my heavy handed string bending. The action is fast. The slim neck and previously mentioned neck/body join are truly the best part of this guitar. I even got used to the "standard" height frets (my old Gibson had a super low fret height). The finish is not my favorite (I prefer the unpainted EVO FT's) but it's held up with no visable damage after 1 year of heavy (home only) use.

This guitar has worked flawlessly for the 1 year I have owned it. I would think this guitar would hold up well for live performance but I would recomend a higher quality coil tap toggle and an upgrade of the strap locks. Finish is pretty enough but I suspect its paint job would not hold up under the "spotlight" for long (an acceptable cost cutting sacrifice in my opinion). The tuners and pickups are fine and all the nickel plating has held up well after 1 years use.

No opinion. I have not had need for any Dean support. There web site is OK. I have found several dealers nearby if I should need support in the future.

I waited 1 year before I posted this review. I wanted to let my initial exitement pass (this guitar was a "steal" at $179.00 in 2001) before I posted this review. I can honestly say I still feel exited everytime I pick up this guitar but it's not the bargain I got that's the thrill anymore...it's the fact that this guitar has become "my guitar" - a guitar that keeps calling me back to play instead of heading out to the local guitar store in search of some new diversion or staring at an over priced fantasy from my past. Don't get me wrong, I still love Gibsons and Fenders but if you want a "Les Paul" type guitar at a steal of a price (currenly priced about $300-$400 as of Nov. 2002) than this guitar will fit the bill. It's not quite a Les Paul- not as heavy and not as much sustain, but very similar to a Les Paul in many ways. To some degree I still long for a Les Paul Standard but I now may upgrade to a Dean EVO Premium or Special (arched maple top) instead as I am so impressed with the quality of this Dean EVO FT. I am 40 years of age and have played since I was a kid. This guitar was the first guitar that finally broke me of my "Gibson or Fender only" attitude. Why spend a couple/few grand for a new Gibson Les Paul when I can buy several Deans and/or invest in other equipment and STILL have money left over to maybe even pay some household bills! With the money I saved I bought a Digitech Genesis 3 amp simulator and have money set aside for a nice tube amp (insert your "wish list" here). Please don't let the words "made in Korea" scare you away from the lower priced Deans- especially the EVO FT. Try them out. I don't think you will regret the time spent.

Stock EVO FT

The sound is a bit limited. If you play rock you'll love it. Switching between single and double coil makes a small difference but, stock out of the box it gets a 6.

I traded my best friend's teen aged boy an accoustic for it because he said it "buzzed" and the action was too high. It "buzzed" because the truss rod was out of its nut at the bottom of the neck. A little work and a few magic words and the neck was back in playable condition. It takes a bit of getting used to and, while it isn't my preference I could see using this as an opnstage guitar. It took some time to intonate, but I blame that on the dealer (Daddy's in New England) for not taking time to check it out before selling it to a novice. All the hardware is of good quality and the finish is superior. All the parts are well fitted and the overall look is A-1.

I have been playing for nearly 40 years and, I would take this with me and never worry that I didn't have a backup. It is as dependable as a guitar can be, the finish is great and it is sort of sharp looking in a tacky sort of way...no complaints here!

Never had reason to ask for support. Once the initial truss rod problem was fixed I had no problems that would require calling Dean. I understand they are quite helpful though. I wouldn't go to the dealer where it came from...too much of a supermarket feel. i would rather pay more from a smaller guy who takes the time to look at and play each instrument sold.

If you are looking for a snazzy paint job, a decent (if limited) sound, and a good overall ax, then this would be for you. It is one of the calmer Deans as they make ones that look like everthing from Bud 12 packs to toaster ovens! I do give it a pretty good mark here. I wouldn't buy another one of these models, but not because of the guitar or the company that makes it, because of personal preferences in sound.

Korean made in 2000 Mahogany body with flame maple top in black very nice looking. Hot humbuckers that sound like duncans. abalone inlays very colorful. Selector swith tone and volume control Grover tuners, Full Shred

Its has a good raunchy blues sound and can be cleaned up very nice with the selector and splitter switches. I play only through fender tube amps. I would only like to get a little warmer like a strat if I could change anything

There is not a blemish on it and everything factory is of the usual dean quality. The set needs to be changed to fit whoever is playing like any guitar. My music store guy knows exactly what I like and set it up for me

this thing is ready to play all night long and the only reason I take extras is for variety in tone

Flame Maple Top, Mahogany Body, 24-3/4" Scale & 1-11/16" Nut, Grover Tuners, Nickel Hardware, Zebra Pickups, Tune-O-Matic Bridge, Set Mahogany Neck, Rosewood Fingerboard, 22 Frets

The thing i like about this guitar is that you can switch between humbucker and singlecoil. The only problem with this is that when the toggleswitch is set on humbucker it seemes like it overrides my distortion, so it almost sounds like it has active pickups. This really screwed up my former distortion sound, so i had to modify it.

First when i got the guitar, i really had to get used to the shape of it. The neck seemed to be flatter than my former guitar, but that's all. Till now i didn't encounter any problems and/or flaws.

In the beginning my strapbuttons weren't screwed tightly enough to the body, so they almost came loose when i played it for an hour. But a friend of me fixed it by putting a twig (just found on the street) in it, and put the screw back in.

When i bought the guitar, i tried all guitars in the store. Fender and Gibson were just too expensive, but i needed a guitar that could get a little of both. My next step was Ibanez only they played like hell, really...it was crap! So that brought me to the Dean EVO series. The store also had the Dean Phantom and some weird looking guitars (like flying V and such...) but they weren't as good as the EVO. I could have choosed for the EVO Special, but i didn't have enough money for it. Although it sounded better (more sustain) it didn't have the humbucker-singlecoil switch.

look at what every one else says for the specs. It plays great and is lite!

I play for church and in a punk band. it does great for booth. It has a nice clean sound and a great dirty sound! good over all.

it was set up ok but I wanted to ajust the pick ups some and I wanted a lower action, but you have to change any guitar to the style that you play. (unless you buy a PRS) my dad has a PRS and it plays alot like a prs and one of my friends has a les paul and it is alt like that too. they are sort of a mixture of the two. one thing I did to my guitar is I fliped around the action things. I like it alot better that way!

I think I will keep this guitar my whole life! I have NEVER had any trouble with it. I would play this guitar without a backup anyday. everything is sturdy.

never needed to deal with them. once I did email them for some thing but don't remember wht it was for and they were kind and helpful

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.