Italia D-man

Purchased new from Bananas in California, shipped to Cincinnati, Ohio.
I think it was manufactured in Korea.
Two Wilkinson humbuckers, each with volume and single master tone.
Rear routed wood body with thick black plastic pebbble/splatter finished top. Looks kinda like undercoating. Very subtle for an Italia ! Most of their axes are really flashy.
Maple neck with rosewood fretboard with jumbo frets.
Neck and body back and sides finished in a nice satin semi-gloss.
Body is sort of a Jaguar shape but slightly larger to balance out the longer neck. Proportions are really good. You have to set it next to a "regular" gutar to notice it is a baritone. Too big for most guitar cases. Fits in a bass case just fine. A bit on the heavy side but still lighter than a regular bass. Balances well on a strap. Not neck heavy like a lot of baritones.

We play political and socially active hard rock with a distinct 1st generation Punk influence. Even though we sound nothing like a roots/Americania band we listen to a lot of singer/song writers.
(e.g. Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, James McMurtry, Robert Earl Keen)
I play through an Ampeg Retro-Rocket 100 bass amp with a Digitech effects pedal. I'm still playing with the settings, but I like it so far. The two Wilkinson humbuckers sound pretty damn good. In the future I may replace one of the two humbuckers with a stacked Bill Lawrence single coil or maybe an old DiMarzio "Fat Strat" (out of production model) This guitar is shipped with "B" tuning and a fairly light set of Baritone strings. I may try slightly heavier strings and drop the tuning some more. The D-Man seems really solidly built so I don't think heavier strings will cause any problems. It's a nice guitar straight "out-of -the-box" but priced low enough I'm not afraid to experiment a little.

Played great as soon as I unpacked it. It was even in tune !
Intonation, finish and action was very, very good.
Outstanding for an instrument in this price range !

A little early to tell yet since I just got it.

I'm really impressed so far.
If the rest of Italia's products are this good I'll buy more.
I'd like to try their 12 string now...

Too early to tell.

The store I purchased it from was very helpful.
I talked to a guy named Sean who had an Italia D-Man himself.
I asked him some pretty detailed questions and his honest answers
helped me overcome my reservations about buying an instrument
sight-unseen via mail order.
Maybe I got lucky this time but I'm happy so far !

I've been playing since '75. Have a '74 Fender Strat and a mid-
eighties Jazz Bass. Both have Bill Lawrence pickups. Strat has an
old "Fat Strat" DiMarzio in the neck position.
I looked at a Fender Jaguar baritone (Jap repo) and a Fender
Telecaster SubSonic.
Jag was $ 699.00 and the Tele is a "custom shop" item for around
$ 1400.00 !!!

For the price I'd rather get one of those Jerry Jones baritones like
James McMurtry uses. They are made in Nashville and go
for about $ 700.00. Just not sure I wanted that masonite top/lipstick
tube pickup kind of thing.

I think I have what I wanted; a really
solid baritone guitar at a great price.

If it got stolen it I'd just buy another one.

I do think they should offer it in other color combos and I really
would have prefered a maple fretboard.

Korean made 28" scale baritone. 2 covered wilkinson humbuckers. master tone and volume for each pickup. standard 3-way toggle switch. maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. black agathis body with a strange moulded tolex top. like plastic asphalt or something. very cool but don't even bother trying to put a skicker on it ;) the body is like the Italia modena, kind of a cross between a non-reverse firebird and a jazzmaster. fixed through the body bridge.

the sound, being a baritone, is phenomenal. you have to play a baritone guitar to understand. it's just beautiful. clean it is a beautiful instrument, but overdriven it's a stomach rumbling monster! i play very angry straight up punk and this gives me a more distinct sound. it is intended to be tuned B->B (a fith below a standard guitar i believe). i tune it in a more open non-standard A-D-A-D-D-A using a custom guage of strings. it's one of the quietest guitars i have owned. if you aren't playing it's nearly silent.

out of the box, the strings were quite suited to the tuning of the guitar and the action was quite nice. mine are custom set up for my tuning and guage. almost never breaks strings and i play pretty aggressively.

these guitars are built so well. i play hard and they take it quite happily. the tolex top keeps it from being scratched but even the finish on the back is quite tough. i have 2 of these now, but i played one without a backup live for almost a year before getting the second. i have never needed the second yet and i only have it in case of a broken string since i couldn't just use another guitar (since it's a baritone). i have had only one problem, the bottom strap button came off my first one, but i have secured it and it has been fine since. i was looking for a backup baritone and just ended up getting another D-man cause i love them so. this would be a 10 if not for that strap button and that could well have been my fault.

n/a i haven't dealt with italia at all as i have a fantastic guitar repairer here in brisbane that takes care of everything.

i have been playing for over 22 years. i have played this guitar live through a couple different amps, but currently use a Randall RG100SC combo. i also play other non-baritone guitars like an epiphone flamekat, but these are my babies. the sound, the shape, the top the feel i could go on and on about this guitar like a zealot. my house was broken into recently and they left both my italias only stealing a fernandes, but i would instantly replace them with more of their kind if i had lost them. i tried other baritones (the ESP viper, the gretch jet baritone) and this was the easy clear winner. the price is fantastic and all the Italias look fantastic. if i could choose 1 guitar company to use exclusively it would be them.