Dillion DR500XI

Solid arch top maple body
Quilted maple laminated top
Set neck and hand polished frets
Original style headstock and Dillion pearl inlaid logo
Chrome tulip style die cast machine heads
Dillion custom pearl fret markers
Double pivoting tremolo or fixed bridge
Two open humbucking pickups with cream rings
One volume, one tone, plus 3 way switch

mine came with upgraded locking tuners, and strap locks

Let me start by saying i am being completely honest an unbiased. this is not my first guitar, im not some kid who thinks his equipment is the best. That being said, I am very very impressed with this guitar, i was a little hesitant on getting my dillion because i had never heard of the name before i felt it was just going to be a crappy knock off of a prs. I am very glad i changed my mind. The sound on the factory pickups is superb (for factory pickups) they can get a little muddy through my amp but overall id rate the pickups for being factory on a mid priced guitar 7/10. I play alot of genres, from blues to rock, to metal, mainly focusing on metal right now so i was a little concerend with whether or not this guitar would cut it for me, i have read reviews saying that this guitar is no good for metal, i beg to differ, this guitar is perfect for everything i can throw at it, it plays amazing for metal and blues, the harmonics sing like angels on this guitar, i am astounded. this guitar does sound bright and the cleans are very clear and very nice, i get no annoying buzz from the pickups. id say all in all this is a very versitale guitar

i got my guitar used, so i cant say anything about factory set up, but when i got the guitar the action was set a little high for me but that is an easy fix, and im actually getting use to it. there was a crack in the clear coat at the base of the neck but it wasnt in the wood and the person i got it from said he bought it like that but got money knocked off.

i know for a fact that when i do gig this guitar it will hold its own, although i would never recomend playing without a back up, if i had no other choice i would attempt it with this guitar. everything on this guitar seems built to last the guy i got it from said it was quite a few years old and it still looks brand new. i would depend on this guitar for sure.

never dealt with the company but i hear very good things

i have been playing off and on for 7 years, throught that time i have played and owned peavey patriot, b.c. rich v. esp ltd viper, prs soapbar 2, gibson sg special, fender mim telecaster, jackson dx10d and more. i traded the jackson for this guitar and i am very glad that i did. i would definatel try and replace this guitar if it were lost or stolen. i love everything on this guitar however i will be installing emg 81/85's to make it kick even more ***. ive hgeard all diferent kinds of prs guitars that this one is aiming to imitate, to me it looks like a prs se custom , but it plays better, to me a dillion dr500xi is a cross between a prs and a gibson, just making a total bad *** dillion. if you can find this guitar buy it you will not regret it, take a risk on a brand youve never heard of because once you have played it you will want it.

I got this with the quitled blue maple finish, solid maple body, and it was gorgeous, much nicer than it looked in the picture. Body style is similar to that of a PRS, has easy access to the full 24 frets. Solid bridge...thank god because i wasnt too happy with the tuners and i can only imagine the disaster had this been a tremelo bridge. Dont get me wrong, the tuners arent bad, but i would replace them before i played live with this guitar. Also, the first thing i did to this guitar was replace the crappy plastic nut with a graphite one. Thats nothing against this guitar, SO many guitars come with plastic nuts these days, in my opinion its a must.

I play a lot of music, mostly jammy phishy stuff, blues and rock. This guitar fits nicely for the blues and rock but is a little bright and not warm enough for my taste in jamming. Stock pickups are good for stock...but on mine they kinda lose some life above the 12th fret. I dropped some stewmac overwound schaller golden 50s copies and what a difference. Makes the guitar a lot warmer but still has the bright edge up high and the response is there all across the fretboard now.

Im running it through a fender blues jnr and i have a home built copy of a ross compressor, a boss overdrive, an ibanez ts9, and a jim dunlop wah. the pickups even before i changed them stayed quiet and were fairly responsive with all these effects.

Guitar was set up almost perfect out of the box. Nice action, only a tiny little bit of buzz that took me about 3 minutes to fix (cant complain since it was shipped from wherever in a box and sat in the back of ups truck for god knows how long). The intonation was almost spot on, no complaints there. The quilted maple top looked gorgeous as i have mentioned already. The inlays on the fretboard were nicely done, no obvious slacking there. Overall very impressed in this catagory.

havent had it for long enough to say

havent had to deal with them yet but i have heard good things from other people

Ive been playing for a about 10 years now. i own a bunch of other guitars. this one isnt gonna replace the one i play the most but id be more than happy to have it as a backup and id def pick it up to play a few songs in a live set. when i bought it i didnt expect it to be perfect and it wasnt. With the new pickups, tuners, and nut, this guitars looks, feels, and plays like something that you could easily have paid double the price for.

2004 Dillion DR500XI, X is for the bridge, I for the inlays.

Solid arch top maple body
Quilted maple laminated top
Mother of Pearl Isis Inlay
Set neck and hand polished frets
Original style headstock and Dillion pearl inlaid logo
Chrome tulip style die cast machine heads
Dillion custom pearl fret markers
Two open humbucking pickups with cream rings
One volume, one tone, plus 3 way switch

I haven't been playing long enough to really have a "style". Only been learning how to play for about a year. I have a Line 6 Flextone III, and I'm using a Boss SD-1 Distortion pedal, a Boss GE-7 Equalizer, and the Boss compressor. The pickups are not noisy at all. However, I recently put a set of PRS Dragon II's on this guitar, and the improvement is immeasurable (i think that's the word).The original pickups just didn't have "it", whatever "it" is. Just a plain jane sound. No energy. No excitement. No depth. You get my meaning, I hope. Anyway, the Dragon II's changed this from a very good guitar to a great guitar when you select either pickup. when you select the middle position, it still sounds kind of thin, if i have it installed correctly, which i think i do. To me this is not a guitar that screams, but one that has some bottom to it now. My rating of 7 is before I changed pickups; now it's a 9.

Perfect. No issues at all. Very little adjustment, only by choice, not because I had to. No flaws, everything quality, no junk.

I tried to put straplocks, but the screw hole is a different size, which stinks and I think is kind of trifling. But the strap buttons are solid and I don't think will fail. The rest of the guitar is solid, and appears to be as durable as any. Even though I haven't been playing long, I've had about 10 guitars trying to find what is right for me, and this is as good as any. 8 because of the straplock thing.

Sent one email, got a response back from Mr. Dillion. i asked him for the specs on the pickups. he thanked me for buying one of his guitars and said everything he wants anybody to know about the pickups is on the website. well, that info is not on the website. so i give him a 10 for answering personally, but i take 5 away for being so secretive about it when there's no need to be secretive (not anwering my question). i know the output of the pickups can be measured, but i don't know how and i don't have the equipment.

I have a MM Fender Strat that I put Texas Special pickups on, an Agile Les Paul copy that's a great guitar, a PRS Santana SE that i put Seymour Duncan's on (OUTSTANDING, everybody should get one of these), and an Ibanez acoustic. I won't part with any of these except the acoustic in the near future. If it were lost or stolen, I think that i would get another, and I would do the same thing, replace the pickups. I love the way this guitar looks, plays, sounds. There is nothing now about it that i do not like. I wish it had a different type 3-way switch, and I may change that later. i wish that the middle position on the 3-way switch did not result in a loss of "depth", but sounds slightly thinner than a single pickup. This is a great guitar, not even considering the pretty low cost. I'm not proficient or experienced enough to compare with other guitars, especially a PRS Custom 24, but i think this is as good a deal as there is out there.

I was hesitant to buy off the internet but risked it after reading the reviews... glad I did now.

Where to start.... When I first got the guitar, I got it because I wanted a nice decent copy of a PRS. While it does resemble a PRS, it has a little more personality to me. I don't even look at it even being like a PRS now...... It's a Dillion. It's a little thicker and about 1- 2 lbs heavier than a CE 24.

A very pretty guitar.... not trying to sound gay or anything. Transparent amber quilted top..... the actual wood is quilted... not the cheap laminated top you see on el cheapo brands. Very nice to look at. The Isis inlays are very detailed.... no filler in the fret board like on other brands. The tuning keys HOLD THEIR TUNE!!!!!! I was so sick of bending a string (on my other guitars) in a solo and going flat out of tune. This is extremley important to me. I CAN'T STAND a guitar that goes out of tune in the middle of a performance (Can you tell it's happened to me???) .... I even put on Grover tuners and they also went flat on bends.....This guitar does not go out of tune! I have bend strings after strings all over the place.... hold's it's tune. I pray that it continues to.

The sound that comes out of this guitar is heavenly. I normally do not like stock pickups. I ALWAYS throw in Seymour Duncans. These pickups sound amazing better than my Seymour Duncan Jb and '59 reissue humbuckers in my other guitars (that I just sold). If you want the tone of an athentic PRS 22 with PRS No. 7 model pickups, this is the ticket. This is the most versatile guitar. You can play anything from crisp bell like tones to hard rock. It is not a heavy metal guitar, for that go and get a Jackson with (sterile, no personality) EMG 81/ 85's.These pickups with this combination of wood, along with the .27 mm jumbo fret size. (The bigger a fret is the better the tone) sound better than any other guitar I have played, both mine and the guitars in stores. This guitar has massive tone. don't even notice them now. This guitar sounds like it was annointed by God.

Also I am trying to get used to the knob pickup selector switch thingy, but look man if that's your only complaint.....

Set up was dead on.... intonation, neck, action everything was perfect... Awesome finish, not cheap laminated top like stated above.
I have literally looked at this guitar as a sceptic at first trying to find a flaw with it. the only thing I can say is there is one black dot about the size of a fine ball point pen dot in the finish. but you have to look very hard to find (It's lost in the quilt). Other than that this guitar is flawless on the color and finish.

The only thing I don't like is after you tell people that it is a Dillion they go, "A what?"

The construction is solid. Tuning keys are tight and hold tune better than I could ask John Dillion for. The neck joint is tight. The finish is layed on extremely thick. This guitar will outlast me. I use it all the time without a back up. I am a worship leader for a church and we don't have room up on the stage for backups and the choir. So I have to depend heavily on one guitar alone. With the grace of God, and this guitar

I emailed customer service and John Dillion himself emailed me back...... that telles you right there what kind of company this is.

Probably the best guitar I have ever owned. I have owned top of the line Fender Strats, a 1967 gibson SG (In mint condition, I might add), a PRS Custom 24 single cut away, and more than I care to admit on the el cheapo guitars but they were just to bang around with. I sold all my good guitars for about a 10th of what they were worth, literally, while I was in college (Hey man, I was broke). Then I've worked my way back up from cheap guitars to this one.... while it is not the most expensive guitar. This guitar has more personality than any other guitar that I have ever owned, it plays and it sounds like it cost a 1000 more than I payed for it......like a dream. It makes me sound better therefore making me feel like I can play better. I am going to stick with my Dillion as long as it continues to perform, play, and sound like it already does

..... this is now my guitar of choice.