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I closed up my office early on Wednesday, and headed over to my friends guitar shop. I had an older strat I had acquired, and had sold it to him, so I wanted to bring it over. He was going to write me a check, but I told him to just give me a credit, sure as shit I am going to spend it there anyway at some point.
Thats when I said, "hey, just call Elliot over at Dean, and tell him I want to come over and look at some of the Hardtails in the artist room". As you all know, I am a huge fan of the US Hardtails. This isnt meant to be an ad for them, but if you havent played one, you are missing out. ( I owned 3 until Wednesday). Anyway, he called Elliot, the owner of Dean (among other brands), who I sort of knew, and told him I was coming over. He said " hey Elliot,my good friend Shawn is coming over, let him take whatever he wants and bill me" My friend Kent was the buyer for Thoroughbred music for 15 years, which Elliot owned, so they are very close friends
I wont go on and on, but lets just say Elliot met me at the door, and proceeded to take me on a 30 minute tour of their facilities. Things I saw and did:
Saw Dimes entire guitar collection, and played his original Dime from hell.
Played the Razorback that Dime had made for EVH, all striped up R/W/B, but never got to give it to him. (particularly bad-ass....seriously...I told Elliot, when you are ready to sell this, make me your first call)
Took me to the CS, introduced me to Ben Chafin, one of their head guys, and then showed me the double secret Namm guitars they are working on. Let's just say, if you are a Dime fan, get your checkbooks ready.
Saw their new line of US drums that are coming out, under the Ddrum moniker, VERY nice. Floating hoops, wood hoops, just gorgeous.
They have a room with rows and rows of Vintage Dean guitars, just unreal. They use all of them to get specs for their producton and CS models. We went through damn near all of them, held them, etc...some REALLY sweet old bluebursts.
Toured the entire 120,000 S.F. warehouse, its like a fuckin airplane hangar. What struck me as interesting, was the line of 10 guys all clearly taking interest in properly setting up the imports. Very impressive.
So at the end, Elliot took me to the racks of finished and available US Custom Shop guitars and says " well, go through these, take what you want to the artist room, play whatever you want, and I will be back in a while".
So I did. For 2 hours! The Artist room has multiple amps in it. Dual Recs, Kranks, old Marshalls, Engl's, Bogners, etc...It was so much fun to just take your time, go through dozens and dozens of killer US Hardtails, and just take what you want.
I have a question to ask, but in closing, let me say this. This is a class operation, run by a class individual, surrounded by class people. I was treated like a rock star, and yes, I am a buyer and a good customer, but how many other companies owners would greet you at the door, and spend 30 or 45 minutes with you, taking you around their whole damn operation, only at the end say, "hey, here are a bunch of 2k guitars, knock yourself out. Oh, and if you want something different, talk to one of the Custom Shop guys, and tell them what you want".
Fender/Jackson/Charve/et al? Yeah right. I love Charvels as much as the next guy, but my love for them lies in the guitars. My love for Dean's lies in the guitars AND the people. After Wednesday, lets just say that picking up and playing one of the hardtails is so much more than playing a killer guitar, it's being part of a killer company run by people that love guitars and customers as much as the almighty dollar.
I picked up 2 more Hardtails. One a midnite blue that is just gorgeous and sounds even better than it looks, and another, I fell in love with, and hasnt even been finished yet, just needs my final approval on hardware..it is just like this one below...Trans Black, freakin gorgeous, unreal tight flame..So my question is:
All Black hardware, except brushed nickel pickup covers?
or
All gold hardware all the way around.
Please help, in a mental bind......
Heres the black....
And here is the new Midnight Blue:
Thats when I said, "hey, just call Elliot over at Dean, and tell him I want to come over and look at some of the Hardtails in the artist room". As you all know, I am a huge fan of the US Hardtails. This isnt meant to be an ad for them, but if you havent played one, you are missing out. ( I owned 3 until Wednesday). Anyway, he called Elliot, the owner of Dean (among other brands), who I sort of knew, and told him I was coming over. He said " hey Elliot,my good friend Shawn is coming over, let him take whatever he wants and bill me" My friend Kent was the buyer for Thoroughbred music for 15 years, which Elliot owned, so they are very close friends
I wont go on and on, but lets just say Elliot met me at the door, and proceeded to take me on a 30 minute tour of their facilities. Things I saw and did:
Saw Dimes entire guitar collection, and played his original Dime from hell.
Played the Razorback that Dime had made for EVH, all striped up R/W/B, but never got to give it to him. (particularly bad-ass....seriously...I told Elliot, when you are ready to sell this, make me your first call)
Took me to the CS, introduced me to Ben Chafin, one of their head guys, and then showed me the double secret Namm guitars they are working on. Let's just say, if you are a Dime fan, get your checkbooks ready.
Saw their new line of US drums that are coming out, under the Ddrum moniker, VERY nice. Floating hoops, wood hoops, just gorgeous.
They have a room with rows and rows of Vintage Dean guitars, just unreal. They use all of them to get specs for their producton and CS models. We went through damn near all of them, held them, etc...some REALLY sweet old bluebursts.
Toured the entire 120,000 S.F. warehouse, its like a fuckin airplane hangar. What struck me as interesting, was the line of 10 guys all clearly taking interest in properly setting up the imports. Very impressive.
So at the end, Elliot took me to the racks of finished and available US Custom Shop guitars and says " well, go through these, take what you want to the artist room, play whatever you want, and I will be back in a while".
So I did. For 2 hours! The Artist room has multiple amps in it. Dual Recs, Kranks, old Marshalls, Engl's, Bogners, etc...It was so much fun to just take your time, go through dozens and dozens of killer US Hardtails, and just take what you want.
I have a question to ask, but in closing, let me say this. This is a class operation, run by a class individual, surrounded by class people. I was treated like a rock star, and yes, I am a buyer and a good customer, but how many other companies owners would greet you at the door, and spend 30 or 45 minutes with you, taking you around their whole damn operation, only at the end say, "hey, here are a bunch of 2k guitars, knock yourself out. Oh, and if you want something different, talk to one of the Custom Shop guys, and tell them what you want".
Fender/Jackson/Charve/et al? Yeah right. I love Charvels as much as the next guy, but my love for them lies in the guitars. My love for Dean's lies in the guitars AND the people. After Wednesday, lets just say that picking up and playing one of the hardtails is so much more than playing a killer guitar, it's being part of a killer company run by people that love guitars and customers as much as the almighty dollar.
I picked up 2 more Hardtails. One a midnite blue that is just gorgeous and sounds even better than it looks, and another, I fell in love with, and hasnt even been finished yet, just needs my final approval on hardware..it is just like this one below...Trans Black, freakin gorgeous, unreal tight flame..So my question is:
All Black hardware, except brushed nickel pickup covers?
or
All gold hardware all the way around.
Please help, in a mental bind......
Heres the black....
And here is the new Midnight Blue:
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