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In 1993, the Dean brand was pretty much dead. The Dean name had been sold off 2 or 3 times and all that was being manufactured was some mediocre Korean(Samick) imports. The owners at the time made an attempt to bring the Dean name back and tried to start up some USA Dean production. They had no USA shop so they contracted Chandler in California to build some fancy archtop Dean ML's and Elite's(Cadillac). According to Adrian Chandler, they only made approx. 20 guitars with the 1st guitar being a copy of Dimebag's Dean From Hell ML which was given directly to Dimebag.
Over the past 20 years, we have only seen 2 of these fancy archtop ML's anywhere in the world. They were both featured in 1993 magazine advertisements. No others have ever been found or even seen in pictures or advertisements. My guess is that these guitars were so weird, so ridiculously thick and heavy, they just sent them out of the country so they wouldn't get confused with any of the previous and later in-house built USA Deans.
The cherryburst one was featured in full page guitar magazine ads all over the world in 1993. The blue one and the cherryburst one were featured together in an English guitar magazine article in 1993. I was able to pick up the cherryburst one about 10 years ago from a seller in England. The blue one had been sent to Canada and had been up for sale at a Canadian music store with a ridiculously high price for a couple of years. A buyer in the USA finally bought it about 6 or 7 years ago and I was finally able this week to acquire that guitar from the USA buyer.
So here they are, back together for the 1st time in 23 years, the only 2 known 1993 USA Dean ML Archtops. These things are beasts. They are ridiculously thick with a super thick quilt maple top on top of a solid mahogany body. They weigh more than any Les Paul I've ever picked up. These things are absolute works of art.
Over the past 20 years, we have only seen 2 of these fancy archtop ML's anywhere in the world. They were both featured in 1993 magazine advertisements. No others have ever been found or even seen in pictures or advertisements. My guess is that these guitars were so weird, so ridiculously thick and heavy, they just sent them out of the country so they wouldn't get confused with any of the previous and later in-house built USA Deans.
The cherryburst one was featured in full page guitar magazine ads all over the world in 1993. The blue one and the cherryburst one were featured together in an English guitar magazine article in 1993. I was able to pick up the cherryburst one about 10 years ago from a seller in England. The blue one had been sent to Canada and had been up for sale at a Canadian music store with a ridiculously high price for a couple of years. A buyer in the USA finally bought it about 6 or 7 years ago and I was finally able this week to acquire that guitar from the USA buyer.
So here they are, back together for the 1st time in 23 years, the only 2 known 1993 USA Dean ML Archtops. These things are beasts. They are ridiculously thick with a super thick quilt maple top on top of a solid mahogany body. They weigh more than any Les Paul I've ever picked up. These things are absolute works of art.
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