Dean Guitars EVO Special Select

Dean Evo Special Select , Quilted Maple Cap, Maple bound TigerEye Moahogany Body,
Set 22 fret Mahogany Neck with Angled Neck heel, Rosewood board with Abalone 'hourglass' Markers,
Dean Zebra humbuckers, 3way Selector, one Volume & Tone with pull shafts for Single Coil,
Good Grover tuners, Tune0matic, Stopbar Tailpiece

I was worried about about having to buy and install pickups, but these Stock Deans , with this guitar,
sound alot like the DirtyFingers in my V, and that is a GOOD thing. (Good thing my ass, thats GREAT !)
Woulda been nice to have had two Volumes, so I could still do the toggle interupt, I like that :)
and the Single Coil sounds aren't near as single coil as the real thing, or my Schecter C1Elite,
If you just want to wail some rhythm, blues, and lead, Buy Two an hit the Road.

the TigerEye finish is Flawless and Beautiful, even if I'd have prefered a touch lighter, amber center,
I was disappointed with the quality of the Top, It looked great in the photo (on Ebay),
but after I got it I realized that , while the Quilt pattern is Quite Distinctive ,
the top looks more like Blow torched plywood than Quilted Maple...
also If Dean used Rosewood dust, instead of BLACK epoxy for the inlays, the gaps wouldn't be as noticable.

So I knock 2 points off for that.

On the other hand, the Specs for the Special Select are MOP Fretboard markers, Not ABALONE.
Thats a $100 option on Carvins. The Neck is a Joy to play, Goldilocks says 'just right' :)
Its not a fretless wonder, but they are unobtrusive, and nicely crowned and finished. I HATE Jumbo Frets.
The Long Tenon Neck Joint has been receiving alot of Press time, But if it ain't neck-thru, Give me
this Sweet Angled Neck heel everytime ! I can finally use some of those top 7 frets , yeah !

Bottom Line, while I might rather Look at a Desertburst LP Studio , I'd rather Play an Evo Special Select.
I hope this doesn't screw up my Gibson Signature deal ...

This guitar is a beauty! It's a 2001 Special Select made in Korea with a quilted maple sunburst, two 59 Seymour Duncan humbuckers (both creme/black), Grover tuners, and an arched top. Controls feature the usual LP setup: three-way switch, a tone knob, and a volume knob. Also with a stop tailpiece and a tune-o-matic bridge. Pretty solid setup for any guitar if you ask me. The neck is great! You can slide up and down that thing with the greatest of ease. It makes you feel like a rock god. The neck is rosewood (of course)and is fat (I absolutely love fat necks). It also has fairly good-sized frets.

This guitar can fit any music style. I mostly play rock and emo. But this guitar can still crank out the blues, jazz, and pop styles too. It's one of the most versatile guitars I've ever played. I play it through a 67 Fender Bandmaster head and cab. From the amp I have a buttload of effects that I run through. I'm sort of like the Edge when it comes to effects, I have about 14 stompboxes. I also own an Epiphone ES-335 Dot that sounds great too. But, this is about my Dean. The thing about this guitar is if you don't like alot of high end in your eq, this beast is your kind of guitar. My friend has a Double Fat Strat and his lowest 5-way setting is like my highest 3-way setting. It almost destroys the need to own a Mesa/Boogie amp. Anyway, this thing will sound awesome even through a shitty little Gorilla amp!

The guitar was set up pretty damn well at the factory. I had to adjust the pickups just a bit but other than that, everything has been fine. The finish is flawless. It's like a PRS top-ten finish. If it wasn't perfect, they would've sawn my baby in half and burned it.

I can get pretty wild when I play and this thing has withstood anything I can throw at it. I've tried to be really careful with it though. I replaced the strap buttons with Dunlop Strap Locks just because I didn't want my guitar to fall. The strap buttons that were on it before were fine, but I wanted to be sure nothing would happen. I would definitely gig without a backup guitar. This is the most reliable guitar ever.

Haven't had to do anything and with the way things are going I don't think I'll have to. I'm sure Dean would have good service when they do so well with their guitars.

I've been playing now for 6 years solid. I absolutely love this guitar. I compared it to about 4 other guitars before I bought it. Gibson and Epiphone being the competitors (I'm a LP freak). This baby smoked them all in everything. Sounded clearer, played better, looked prettier, and still was a LP. Plus, 2 thousand dollars cheaper (Gibson's just a name mostly). I love everything about it. If it were stolen I would go out and buy another. And if that got stolen I would buy another, and so on. It's just awesome! If you haven't played one yet, look for them at the music stores. Once you try it, you're addicted for life. Dean kicks ASS!

$439 for a 2001 Dean Evo Special Select...22 frets, Grover tuners, dual humbuckers with one volume, one tone, mahogany body, rosewood fingerboard, tune-o-matic bridge, archtop, wood binding, etc...you're probably only here because you already looked at it. Giving this an 8 because I would have liked coil taps to be there like the Evo Special.

This guitar suits my style pretty well...heavy distortion but nice, full cleans. I use it with a pretty crappy amp, a Marshall Valvestate VS100R with a TS-7 Tubescreamer, a Boss Chorus, and a Vox Wah. The pickups aren't particularly noisy. They are incredibly versatile pickups...even the bridge can get really muddy and deep if you want. But with both humbuckers going, it's a beautiful, full and clean sound. I play mostly incubus-esque stuff with some Pearl Jam / Weezer / Tool thrown in. Basically, I like everything.

The guy at the store I bought it at set it up for me...action was really good and that neck joint is amazing. It makes it feel like the neck just goes on forever. The finish is completely gorgeous. Never trust the internet pictures of it...it's breathtaking in real life. But, there is a significant buzz, especially on the fat E string. But once you get used to playing the guitar, you don't have a problem.

I'm going to have to depend on this since it's the only guitar good enough to be seen in public with! good finish (deep with lots of highlights). Strap buttons seem sturdy, hardware gives me no reason to complain...since I'm not throwing it on the ground, I don't think I'll have any problems with it's durability.

These tchochmeisters didn't get back to me until a week later when I talked to them by email.

This is the best guitar I have so I give it a 9. Great value for the money.

My dean is the same as the rest 2001 model, tiger eye finish etc.. so i wont be stating the features. The only probem though is the lack of versatility due to the presence of only one volume and one tone nobs.

Well for me, i have 3 strats having pickups from lace sensors to Jbjr and hotrails, and a gibson flying V 67 reissue.When it comes to pumping distortion, the dean kicks their ass, clean it sound better than my V, with more depth and clarity, but on the other hand cant come close to my strat plus. so i basically use it for heavier music where it provides tons of sweet sustain. I my opinion it is best for heavy stuff and leads that need sustain, may be used for jazz, but is useless for blues. I am only rating it high because it is so cheap compared to its quality.

Well here is my basic problem with the guitar. Although the neck is fat, i find it too narrow for me to be fully comfortable, and yes, the buzzing, i had to fix some frets to get rid of that. so if the neck was wider and the frets a bit more professionally set up, you would have a killer axe, but i guess the price and the sound , make up for that.

Solid, thick, the pefect workhorse. Very dependable, so unless you go breaking stuff on stage, this guitar will last a long time.

Never tried it.

wellout of all my guitars, i feel inspite of its imperfections this is my best deal. for what is lacking is made up for by the price and sound, and guys be real, it only costs a couple of hundred. Well to me i have not found a guitar that does what this guitar does better that would not cost at least 3 times as much..

For features see above reviews. The push/pull knobs are sweet. I wish it had individual tone controls for each pickup, otherwise it has all the features I need.

I play through a POD to a Crate GFX65 and i've also used my bro's Saldano head and cab. It has quite a variety of sounds available even though it has only 1 tone knob. I basically play blues and metal, great bluesy tone. I found the pickups to be pretty hot, not as hot as I would like though. I am going to rate this guitar on the quality of the tone though, it sounds great- thick, warm, and creamy like mama's milk. For my taste I would like a little more heat though so i'm going to throw in some duncan live wires and then get back to you.

The action was a little to high for my taste when I recieved the guitar. I dropped the action and its like budda now, for the hell of it I even dropped it way down to see how low I could get it before it would fret out, that sucka got shred metal Jackson low and still barely any buzz! The fit is awesome. I was a little worried at first because the neck is an unconventional size, (a tiny bit smaller than the other EVO's or a Paul) I couldnt tell when playing it though. The neck is sweet, frets are finished to just about perfection and the heel at the neck/body joint is tapered for easy playin' up high.....oh yeah baby tis nice! I have the quilt sunburst finish, gorgeous, flawless, even the bookmatching is spot on. The bridge, tuners and the rest had no flaws either and were all good quality.

As far as this catagory goes I can only offer you my assumptions 'cause i've had the guitar for just a matter of weeks. It seems plenty rugged to me. The hardware is of good quality, the tuners are Grover. The finish seems like its 1/4 inch of gloss! I dont see that it will wear off anytime soon. All in all it feels plenty sturdy for any situation.

Like I said, I havent had the guitar long so I cant rate customer support.

I've been playing for 12 years and owned and tried alot of guitars. No bullshit- this is the best bang for the buck you can get. Its in the same price range as an Epi Les Paul (actually cheaper) but is the same quality as a Gibson Les Paul. If your thinking about gettin' a new guitar, save some $ and the dissapointment of gettin' a piece of poo poo and get yerself an EVO.

Made 2001 in Korea. Features are all listed by others, so I won't bother. I do wish there were tone knobs for both pickups, but i did pay a great deal less than a Les Paul, so who's complaining? Tiger eye finish--very beautiful. Stock strings were kind of stiff so I laced it up with Ernie Ball Super Slinky's.

Sound is very good, very flexible. This is really my first electric guitar. I have been playing classical guitar for 13 years and have now decided a change of pace will suit me. I was looking at Les Pauls and PRS's, but settled on this one figuring I should save the bucks and see if I really like the electric before the heavier investment. I play it through a run-of-the-mill fender amp, and sometimes a Pandora PX3 for kicks.

Action was another feature that sold me on this guitar--very nice. Also, overall build quality is excellent, stunning even. The neck settles comfortably in the hand. Factory setup was actually pretty good, but I tweaked it anyway just because I am emotionally and anally obligated to tweak all my guitars.

I've had it a very short time, so tough to guage accurately. Based on the attention to detail on this axe, I have to believe overall reliability will be excellent.

No exposure as yet...

I have a Tiger Eye finish as well so I won't repeat this area over again. Finish is ten times as good as the one on the Dean website.

well the pickups sounded a little bit too muddy to me, so I changed them out and put a Fernandes vintage pickup from a Japanese Rubber Jig and a Seymour Duncan 59 at the neck. Now it's just an awesome tone master. I have a killer bridge tone and a very flexible neck tone suited for playing anything from blues to metal leads. The woods combined with the fact that it has a long heel tennon (les paul freaks will know what I mean by this) make sustain on this axe a breeze.

Finish is awesome. Looks like a mirrored quilt and the binding is phenomenal. Everything came great out of the box.

This guitar is one of my primary slaves on stage. I love using it for the absolutely heaviest of our sets live. I play covers and originals alike with it.

Dean's customer support is awesome. Nuff said.

I've been playing for about 7 years now and it's one of my primary axes I use to both play live with and record. That should say something right there. I have a buddy who is signed on an independent label and he used it to record his lead tracks with. He tried to buy it off of me but I just couldn't part with it. He even tried to trade me his PRS but after playing on it and having that one I just can't justify substituting a Dean for a PRS.

Manufaqctured in 2001 (Korea, but don't let that fool you!), 6 Strings, Solid Mahogany Body, Set In Mahogany Neck, Rosewood Fretboard, Mother-of-Pearl Block Hour Glass Inlays, 22 Frets, Grover Tuners, Tune-o-Matic Style Bridge, Tiger Eye Quilted Maple Top, Wood Binding on Body, Dean Designed Zebra Humbucking Pickups, Three Way Toggle Switch, Single Volume and Tone Knobs. Great neck heel! Best design I've ever seen. It tapers on the underside to allow your left hand comfortable access to ALL frets! I'm deducting 2 points because of the single volume and tone and no coil tapping, which most of the lesser humbucking models in this line seem to have.

Great sound! Blues, Hard Rock, Rockabilly - it has them all. Bridge position: Les Paul with a little Tele twang. Middle position: Les Paul with some Strat overtones, clear and crisp, bell like without the nasal. Bridge position: Full rich sound. Jazz, Blues, Heavy Rhythm crunch. Very quiet through my Zoom GFX8 -> Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or Marshall AVT20. My only complaint is the volume pot is really awful, to the point that it basically is an on/off switch. I'll be replacing that though when I install coil taps. Other than that this is a killer axe.

Well, the aforementioned volume pot is a negative, but it is fairly easily corrected. The finish on this baby is what sold me on picking up this guitar. It is just absolutely jaw dropping eye popping gorgeous! I've never seen a guitar with this type of quilting before. As far as set up goes, well I never expect any guitar I buy to be set up unless it's negotiated as a part of the sale. I always do my own set ups to kind of bond with my new guitar anyways. It's kind of a spiritual thing. I did have to do some minor tweaking of the truss rod though to eliminate some fret buzz. After all, this isn't a Custom Shop guitar (despite it's impeccable quality!) and I didn't talk to the guy who set it up as it was being shipped out the door along with however many other guitars were produced that particular day. Otherwise everything fits just fine. No complaints at all.

This is one solid piece of lumber! Well made with quality components throughout (except for the volume pot). The bridge posts are even sturdier than a Les Paul's! I have no doubts as to it's durability. I've just ordered an EVO 60 so I'll have a backup.

Dean has THE BEST customer support in the world! I've emailed them several times regarding different specs on different models and have always gotten a prompt reply with helpful information. The president of the company, Elliott Rubinson, has even responded personally to several of my inquiries. And Dean Zelinsky himself goes on line every Thursday night on their website for a live chat. They have a discussion board on their website that is very well maintained and monitored, so there really isn't any reason you couldn't get help if you needed it. They've proved to me that they're committed to quality customer service and standing behind their excellent products.

This is a great guitar! I was in the market for a Les Paul and willing to pay the big bucks. Then I saw this one. I can't get over the quality for the price I paid. I had never really paid attention to Deans before. Sure, it's made in Korea (they also manufacture in the U.S. and hand craft guitars in Europe). But from what I understand Dean has their own manufacturing facility there with very high quality control and I think it shows. If you really feel the need to spend a lot of money to have the "G" word on the headstock then go ahead. But every time I pick this beauty up and play it I'm glad that I made the decision to get this one instead. It sounds better, plays better, looks better, and cost about one third the price. I've been converted to Dean guitars.