Dillion DR590A

Korean made of March 2000. Copy of a McCarty soapbar but of a better value. 24 frets vs. 22 frets. Adjustable tune-o-matic type bridge with stop tailpiece vs. non-adjustable stop bridge. Tuner machines are modern and though well made and hold tune I prefer the vintage type Klusons that come with the PRS McCarty. This is a personal taste and in no way reflects the capability of the stock tuners. They look good and work quite nicely. This is a sweet knock-off of the pre-factory McCarty's. The neck heel is not as pronounced which allows for smoother play at the upper register. Mine was not made for the U.S. market as it has the correct headstock for PRS. The "birds in flight" inlays are as perfect as I have ever seen. The neck is classic PRS. A tad thicker than I'm accustomed but as good as any guitar I have ever played. The fret quality is pure Dillion. No one does it better. Dillion builds the best playing guitars for the money. Period. Came with a hardshell case and strap. Though of a nice quality, the case just doesn't keep the guitar from moving around. A real PRS case is recommended. I ended up buying a real Gibson case to protect my Dillion LP Goldtop. Good fitting cases seem to be a weak point but I don't think Dillion is building the cases. Rotary pick-up selector. This was a real bad idea. I've had this guitar for over a year and still don't know what my pick-up selection is by looking at the knob. It is numbered 1-10 like the volume control. This is the only change I would and will make to this guitar. A traditional toggle switch for pick-up selection is in order here for two reasons. First, a toggle is a heck of a lot faster than a rotary. Second, with a toggle you can visually see your pick-up selection!

My preferences of style go from "Pink Floyd" to "Muddy Waters". Rock and blues is where I live. Fender "Twin Reverb" (black face original '63) and Marshall JMP 45 half stack through a Yamaha FX-900 effects processor. Charley Stringer "Blues Bawl" wah pedal finishes off my chain. P-90's are inherently noisy in the bridge only, neck only position. Noise is dictated but not limited to your position in relationship to your amplifier. Both pick-ups together generate the least amount of noise and a bright, full sound.

This is where Dillion guitars live. Action, fit & finish is rival to any guitar that is being made today and at a much more affordable price. The action and intonation was right on from the beginning. No finish flaws on the wood and the hardware was faultless. This is a standard top and in no way should be compared to the gorgeous & breath taking "10 top" of PRS fame.

This guitar will probably out-last me. Live playing, interesting term, does anyone do dead playing? Well made instrument and will withstand "live" playing unless it includes batting a microphone into the upper deck of Yankee Stadium. But if your playing Yankee Stadium you can afford a lot of these fine guitars but wait 'til the last set before you smack the homer. Just FYI

This is the way it should be. I have never had to deal with customer support except for dating my Dillion guitars and the response was immediate and friendly. Dillion builds quality guitars. If for some reason yours needs repair, I believe Dillion will make it right with no hassle. I just never heard of a Dillion guitar needing repair because of a factory mistake. I would give them a 10 but this is an unknown territory and so I can't comment.

I've been playing since the '60's. Owned or played the "holy grails" of guitars. A great guitar player can make any guitar sound good. The bottom line is the "player" and not the guitar but this guitar has all the qualities to make you sound like the guitar player you are. Good or bad.

Brand new from the Korean factory 2003 DR590 24 fret set neck PRSomething-like guitar. Maple lam arch top oak finish, 1 volume, 1 tone, 1 rotary 3-way pickup switch. 2x P90 pickups of unknown heritage, maple body and neck. Tune-O-Matic bridge with stop tailpiece, chrome tuners. Came with cable, strap, allen key and polish cloth.

Raunchy and very live sounding P90s in this puppy, the sound is very aggressive with a lot of highs and mids on the bridge pup with the expected lows on the neck. The neck is much clearer sounding than a humbucker which makes it a more likely choice than on an LP or similar for chording or soloing overdriven. Three way switch gives standard choices for each + combi of pickups. Volume and tome controls are smooth and taper off as expected. Knobs on controls are the speed type - acrylic cylinders with numbers embedded. This is a very nice guitar with a great sound that tends to be noisy as you overdrive it but you can cut much of the noise by selecting the mid position. This guitar tends to sound like a LP with single coil P90s on it, very heavy and aggressive. Awesome for blues or classic rock type material.

very minor dressing will need to be done to fretboard - just a couple edges need trimming and it will be perfect. Fretboard is a bit flatter than I'm used to but it's very well finished and smooth up and down the neck. Guitar came strung and truss rod adjusted very well, probably wont need to mess with it too much unless we hit the next ice age soon. In a thorough inspection of the finish, no flaws were found and no damage to the external finish either. Neck seam to body is excellent, smooth curves transition neck to body very well leaving this one of my fav axes to play.

given that there are no obvious flaws either thru shipping or manufacture I believe the instrument will withstand my playing at a gig. I wouldnt ever play without a backup but I feel confident that I wouldnt need to change guitars because of a failure or broken string in an evening. Hardware is simple and as a result solid. I dont know yet the quality of the pots or switch, but given that this is an otherwise well made instrument I dont doubt the controls would survive well also.

I had contacted Tony at Musician's Mate after purchasing my Brian May copy from him (another Dillion) and told him I was looking for this particular instrument in the oak finish. He wrote back saying he had one and would put it away if I were certain to take it and just send a small deposit to hold. I agreed and after a short time I sent the balance and he sent the instrument.

Just the fact that I purchased another Dillion from Tony should speak for itself. I was impressed with the VBM I purchased before and I didnt think I would say it, but I think this instrument is actually better and higher in quality than any name brand instrument, and the customer service is much better. Where else can you have the guy who's name is on the instrument call you to make sure you are happy with the guitar?

I've been playing 25+ years, own one other Dillion, two Jay Turser guitars and a custom made neck thru strat style to die for. I play thru a Line6 POD, Vox BHM15 amp and Marshall Studio 30. I played a PRS Custom 24 in Portland OR a couple months ago and really wasnt too impressed, but playing this instrument which is virtually the same feel and body style I find this instrument feels better in my hands and over my shoulder than the PRS that cost 4 times more. I've owned other gear and other guitars of all brand names, but for the price this easily stacks up against any Gibson, US Fender, PRS, etc... any production line instrument out there. And especially, considering you're paying what you'd pay for an Epiphone LP Custom, you are getting the same or better quality than the Gibson LP Custom's you buy off the rack from GC. A fine instrument at an exceptional price.

This guitar has 24 frets and is what they call the oak finish on the website. The body is maple with a laminated ash top. It features 2 p-90s, volume, tone, and pick-up selector knobs. I plan to have the pick-up selector knob replaced with a three way toggle switch. The knob is a pain in live situations where you need to switch quickly. The bridge is a tune-o-matic stle which i think is much better than the one-piece that comes on the PRS. I also think that the neck has a better feel than the PRS.

This guitar screams! I'm using it to play metal. The p-90s give great clarity but still have plenty of balls. They get a bit noisy with high gain but hey, it's metal. The neck pick-up is a bit muddy for my tastes but the combination of bridge and neck is great for clean sounds or beautiful singing leads(think santana).

Factory set-up doesn't really matter too much to me as i change it as soon as i get it anyway. It was set-up nicely though. The ash top is beautiful and i haven't seen any flaws in it.

This is my second Dillion guitar. These are some quality made some guitars and have played out with both of them. They take a licking and keep on ticking. I would never play without a back-up guitar. Everytime I try it I break a string.

Everytime I've emailed the company John Dillion himself has personaly gotten back to me . Ussualy on the same day.

2002 Korean made McCarty soapbar style. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of this guitar.I love Les Pauls but this guitar has it all at 1/5th the price,dual P 90's,stop bar tail piece adjustable LP style bridge,Grover style tuners.This guitar has everything you would expect from a $2500 guitar.Excellent Fretwork beautiful custom inlays on the neck its all there.

I play all styles of music but my favorites are ZZ top,the Who,Sabbath,SRV,Blackmore,Trower and alot of the newer stuff.
At the moment for amps I'm using a Marshall AVT 50 head with a Boogie 4X12 rectifier cabinet.My favorite amp is a 8 yo Fender Champ SE that I upgraded with a Celestion vintage 30 and Mesa Boogie tubes,
this amp sounds as good as any of the "Boutique"$1500 combos I've owned.I also own a Fender Deluxe 90 that I use with my Line 6 Pod.
This guitar sounds great no matter what I plug it into.I played it in Sam Ash music after I got it along with a McCarty Soapbar thru a Line 6 Vetta and the only difference was in the neck position it got a little muddy at high volume but I lowered the pickup a hair and it evened out really nice.
This guitar has a wide tonal array in the bridge position its really nasty in the middle its crystal clear and bright and the neck is really bluesy when you crank up the gain a little.I like everything about this guitar I can't find anything wrong with it.

Out of the box it was perfect no buzzes no noises no P 90 hum and as I mentioned before the only thing I had to do was lower the neck pickup.I've had $2300 Les Paul Custom's that came thru with pickups wired out of phase,go figure.All the hardware is perfect this guitar is really tight.I was dissapointed that I could'nt get the blue Finish but I talked to John Dillion and he told me it did'nt sell well so he discontinued the color and all that was available was the oak finish and its perfect.Tony from Musicians Mate picked the guitar up from the factory for me personally and assured me that it was beautiful and he was right,I own a AAA top Desert burst Standard LP thats beautiful but the top on this guitar is nicer.

I don't play out anymore but I play alot and I have no doubts that this guitar can withstand being on the road.This is a case of having a Benz at Chevy prices.I would highly recommend Dillion guitars there is no reason to spend thousands .

It has a standard warranty that I'm sure I won't need but after my conversations with John Dillion I know there won't be any problems.I was always skeptical of "inexpensive" guitars but Dillion is doing it right his guitars are top quality and I'll be buying another one in the near future.
Thanks to John Dillion for being a hands on owner,its a pleasant change and Tony at Musicians Mate what can I say I drove the guy nuts with questions and he answered everyone Thanks guys

I have been playing for over 30 years and I own 3 les Pauls 2 SG's and a few Strats along with a few different amps.This is now my main guitar and I "AM" buying another one.It sounds great ,plays great and looks great all in one package and a great price!

Made 2002, based on PR()McCarty Soapbar. Maple neck; maple body with ash face; cherry sunburst; birds-in-flight inlays on fingerboard; 2 P-90's; master volume/master tone; 3-way rotary pickup selector; tune-o-matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece. 24 frets that feel somewhere between mediums and jumbos. I think the real McCarty's have a compensated bridge/tailpiece and of course different woods. Frankly I just can't bring myself to trust a non-adjustable bridge. Whatever the differences, this thing sure works. Oh, it came with a nifty patriotic-theme strap, very high quality in itself. I'm cutting off a point for the woods and hardware differences because they impede its being a "copy" but for the $$ I don't care. Regardless of the wood, this thing kicks ass.

I play rock and blues, mostly Tech 21 amps and pedals for recording. This guitar really nails the classic P-90 snarl. Outlandish balls when cranked with distortion. Cleans up really nice when you roll off the volume. Recorded direct with nothing but a little compression it's beautifully rich, detailed and full. The pickups have a great wide range-- good honkin' midrange and the famous P-90 raspy yowl. The neck pickup gives the nice woody expressiveness of a strat with more pronounced midrange and nice bass, and of course much much more powerful and sustainy. The bridge unit is go-for-blood nasty. Both pickups are about as noisy as you'd expect from a real P-90 but completely silent when both units are on. Great for rock/blues.

Everything was beautifully set up. Intonation is fine. It's very nicely constructed with a good atention to detail. Looks-wise it's killer. The ash top has nice graining that's very visible without having the "elegance" of more costly woods. Coupled with the flawless cherry sunburst finish (not too bright, very classy)the ash top gives the DR590A a really hot look without being flashy or pretentious-- great look for blues! The pictures on the website don't do it justice. The inlays are well done.(website doesn't show the birds-in-flight inlays either; they can't sell them in the US) The ash top is a little off on the bookmatching so I'm cutting off a point. But it's the type of thing that would only be noticed by the guy who spent the money (me)

The neck feels a little chunkier than the other Dillions I have-- somewhere bewteen the Gibson slim-taper and the baseball bat neck. Feels great, and the fretwork is flawless. No buzz or sharp ends and they're beautifully polished.

In all it feels very substantial without being heavy. It's nicely balanced too. Just like my other Dillions, It's hard to believe it cost so little.

I think this guitar would withstand a lot of abuse, but it's so pretty I'll try to baby it anyway. Strap buttons and other hardware seem solid though strap-locks are going on it soon. I see no reason why I'd need a backup-- the tones are so versatile I can probably get all the sounds I need anyway.

Fantastic. Tony at MusiciansMate is very friendly and easy to deal with, and all my Dillion questions have been answered promptly by John Dillion. Pretty amazing in this impersonal world.

In thirty years of playing I've owned/played all the big league guitars. What can I say, Dillions continue to amaze me. I can't in good conscience grade them on the same scale as the multi-thousand dollar guitars they're derived from. But in the category of "affordable" guitars, they're in a class by themselves. In terms of quality they could easily go for twice the price if not more. And for the money they charge, it's just insane.