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Tampa Bay HFC Dean Invasion.


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So cool!  Hella jelly on this end! On the other hand, it's probably for the best I wasn't there as seeing all that would likely push me towards considering a custom made Dean!

Point of curiosity- the Dean V's looking amazing. Has there ever been any friction with Gibson over the use of the V shape or does Gibson not have the rights to that?

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Adding to the pictures I posted I'll say I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw at Dean.  I'm a Hamer/Shishkov man but I could see myself owning a custom shop Dean sometime.  

Pat, the head of the Custom Shop, was an awesome guide and - like Ting said - a wonderful person.  He literally spent 3 hours on every stage of the factory spending time explaining the process with hand gestures and various mid-stage guitar builds.  All the employees were friendly there.  The head of sales was also fantastic as was everyone we interacted with.

Their CNC section was impressive.  It was explained the consistency this offers them to get bodies and necks to a certain stage but the CNC'd product still needs a lot of hand work to get the parts to where they need to be.  Likewise their high tech glue press for the top/body includes radio frequencies for perfect distribution of pressures/glue distribution to get the perfect body.  Their pickup winders were pretty cool to see in action too.  

The wood selections were awesome.  Like I have heard, from Mike and others, many people don't realise how expensive and rare high quality wood is.  Having seen their stash you realise just how special some of their wood choices are and how passionate Pat was about turning them into great guitars.  The purple wood - I can't remember what it's called - was a stand out for me.  It was used in a decorate way but really looks great.  The luthier we saw in action looked masterful.  You know within a few minutes that you are talking to and witnessing a master craftsman.  He just eluded that quiet understated quality present in many artisans that are at the top of their game.  The neck he was working on is the "Shop Fox" photo of the maple neck.

After the tour completed we went to a final build assembly room and quite casually Pat picked up a guitar and started noodling.  Geez that dude can play.  I mean REALLY play.  Effortless shredding of the highest order interspersed with blues and country licks.  He also has a hobby rebuilding - authentically - old Marshalls.  You cant take the guitar out of the guy and he pointed out that he looks for those same qualities when he's recruiting new staff.  

In all it was a great experience and i learned a lot.  My thanks to BTMN for setting this up.

And I haven't even mentioned the incredible Hamer's I played at BTMN's house.  Dude has some pretty special examples of Hamer's finest!

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9 hours ago, DBraz said:

Neck being worked on by a very talented luthier in the custom shop, various artist guitars on the wall, the large factory.

0ED36479-FD43-4647-88CB-78D796E97B31.jpeg

 

 

What the heck is going on with the guitar that looks like a giant snake?

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10 hours ago, DBraz said:

Choice wood for custom shop order, fretboards galore, patent pending run guitars mid progress.

3759A0B2-DBE9-4AD4-85CB-64133393D7A6.jpeg

Don't forget.  It is "Patents" pending. ;)

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It's funny,  I mainly thought of Dean for their guitars but I was really impressed with their basses.  Really wanted to pick a few up in their showroom.

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1 hour ago, mathman said:

It's funny,  I mainly thought of Dean for their guitars but I was really impressed with their basses.  Really wanted to pick a few up in their showroom.

If I remember correctly you did just that, sat down on an amp and started noodling!

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3 hours ago, diablo175 said:

 

Point of curiosity- the Dean V's looking amazing. Has there ever been any friction with Gibson over the use of the V shape or does Gibson not have the rights to that?

I think their headstock cleared that up.  I agree with you on their V’s.  They rock!  I particularly like their retro big headstock.

8C4B21D3-6C68-49CF-ABA1-45D10B585047.jpeg

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17 minutes ago, DBraz said:

If I remember correctly you did just that, sat down on an amp and started noodling!

Yea, but I wanted to play MORE of them!

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Very cool!

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12 hours ago, 0054 said:

Really good to see a guitar company trying to build quality guitars in the vein of Hamer... It's easy to root for Dean, they seem to understand their customers.

Exactly what I was thinking.

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13 hours ago, DBraz said:

5606B4E3-E065-4CD9-82DA-A8F163ED98AD.jpeg

Check out Pat's face when I belted out, "TITS!"

In all seriousness. @DBraz had the best eye and camera among us so I'm not going to be redundant on the pics. His composition and mastery of depth of field surprises me as I had no idea he was this good. He captures repetitive shapes and sees the subjects from very cool angles and again, his depth of field is masterful. His prose are quite eloquent as well so I'll simply try to hammer together a few thoughts of my own, from my perspective where a few things were overlooked by the group. But not me.

The best guitar I've ever seen:

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Pat explaining how they secured the four pieces together to make the four neck guitar for Michael Angelo Batio. BTMN on my left, DBraz on my right.

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I was really glad to see this drum set. 

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The sign says it all. 

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This was a guitar that was onstage when Dime was shot. The guitar got smashed in the ruckus that ensued and they glued it back together at Dean for this memorial in the lobby.

dime_broken_guitar.jpg

And, of course, Dime was there in spirit in front of his stage gear.

dime.jpg

 

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2 hours ago, Ting Ho Dung said:

Some of Pat Baker's moves. (He's the lead over Dean's Custom Shop)

 

 

 

YEAH!!!!

Dude can play.  We witnessed some of this yesterday.  I was like "duuuuuude!" when he started noodling.  God given talent and an absolute gent too.

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1 hour ago, DBraz said:

YEAH!!!!

Dude can play.  We witnessed some of this yesterday.  I was like "duuuuuude!" when he started noodling.  God given talent and an absolute gent too.

You were just glad he grabbed the guitar away from me. 

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19 hours ago, 0054 said:

Really good to see a guitar company trying to build quality guitars in the vein of Hamer... It's easy to root for Dean, they seem to understand their customers.

As it happened, Dean and Hamer got their starts within a few miles of each other at about the same time.

 

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