Dean Guitars
Dean Guitars was founded in 1976 in Chicago, IL, by Dean Zelinsky, and is currently owned by Armadillo Enterprises in Tampa, Florida. They have a 110,000 square foot facility that houses expanded warehousing, a quality control center, administrative offices, an assembly operation for U.S.A. made Dean guitars, and state-of-the-art woodshop. They have a line of import models as well.
After nearly ten years of production, the founder of Dean decided that he no longer wanted to manufacture guitars and sold the company.
Oscar Medeiros had ownership of the brand name and trademark until the mid-90's. The guitars Medeiros created under the Dean name
were also considered quality instruments.
Medeiros stopped manufacturing Dean Guitars in the mid 1990's or so when Armadillo Enterprises purchased the company and began making them. New owner Elliott Rubinson was credited with resurrecting a left-for-dead Dean Guitars in 1997. Production of the uniquely shaped Dean electric guitars and other musical instruments accounts for the majority of Armadillo's sales each year. In late 2008, Nathan Karls formerly of Megadeth joined Dean Guitars as Lead Engineer.
The company is best known for their line of electric guitars that include the ML, Razorback, Cadillac, Soltero, Split Tail, Vendetta, and the Dean V. The company's bass guitar models include the Demonator, Edge, Metalman, Rhapsody, EVO and Zone. Dean Guitars offers a full line of acoustics as well. In addition to the traditional acoustic instrument shapes, Dean also has acoustic versions of their ML and V electric guitars. In 2007, Dean Guitars began producing their own pickups in their USA facility called Dean DMT.
Dean Guitars features a diverse line up of artists who use not only their Custom Models, but Standard, off-the shelf models too, from thrash metal icon Dave Mustaine of Megadeth to jazz bassist Jeff Berlin. Dean Guitars' popularity soared with the return of Dimebag Darrell in 2004, guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan. Dean offers over 30 different Dimebag models today. Dean Guitars also conceived the "Six-String Masterpieces: The Dimebag Darrell Art Tribute", where some of the most recognized and influential names currently working in rock music, tattooing, and visual arts all customized their own Dean ML in Dime's memory.
Artists who have signature models with Dean Guitars include: Shane Renner of Gates to Abaddon, Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Rik Emmett of Triumph, Michael Amott of Arch Enemy, Sascha Gerstner Of Helloween, Michael Angelo Batio, Leslie West of Mountain, Rusty Cooley of Outworld, Vinnie Moore, Eric Peterson of Testament, Michael Schenker of MSG, Rudolph Schenker of Scorpions, Corey Beaulieu and Matt Heafy from Trivium, John Connolly of Sevendust, and Martin Doran of Severance.
GuitarsBaby MLBaby V Baby Z Bel Aire Budweiser Guitar Cadillac Cadillac 1980 Cadillac Deluxe Cadillac Reissue (import) Cadillac Select Cadillac Standard Del Sol Dime O Flame Eighty-Eight (import) E'Lite E'Lite Deluxe |
Golden E'Lite Hollywood Z (import) Jammer (import) Leslie West Mach I (import) Mach V (import) Mach VII ML / ML Standard ML (import) V Standard Z Standard Z Autograph (import) Z Coupe / Z Deluxe Z Korina Z Ltd. |
Bass GuitarsBaby ML BassMach V Bass ML Bass Rhapsody Series |