Just like most products in the world, guitars are usually marked with a serial number of sorts.

1. Dean Ml 79 Made In Korea
2. Dean Ml Made In Korean

The Dean Buddy Blaze ML is a set-neck design featuring a mahogany neck and body. Despite its size, the body is a mere 1.5' thick, unlike the 1.75–2' thickness of most guitars of this type. The size of the body makes up for it in the guitar’s overall mass, although it isn’t really that heavy when you strap it on. Dean guitars are played by a roster of seriously shredding heavyweights. Artists like Megadeth's Dave Mustaine, Pantera's Dimebag Darrell, Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch, Michael Schenker, Laura Wilde, and more have all plugged into Dean guitars when they hit the stage to tear the roof off the joint. The '79 series uses the Series 2 headstock, larger than the time capsule, and has the same look and feel as their predecessors of the seventies.

They have been used for decades to diagnose when and where the guitar was manufactured.

This allows you to properly determine the value of a guitar and its real age. It is a similar case with Dean guitars.

Now, like most other guitar manufacturers, Dean has two categories of guitars that they offer. You have the more affordable models which are made somewhere in Asia, and then you have guitars which are made in United States. Naturally, the latter offer a higher level of quality, and hence come with a more expensive price tag.

Today we are going to take a look at Dean guitar serial number, and what you can find out using this information.

Guitar Overview

Determining the origin and value of American made Dean guitars is actually quite easy. Every Dean guitar made in United States comes with a seven digit serial number that is printed on the back of the headstock.

Dean Ml 79 Made In Korea

First two numbers in the sequence will tell you when your guitar was produced, while the following numbers represent the serial number of the instrument itself. The origin of these guitars is not marked anywhere on the instrument, but it’s pretty easy to determine which factory it came from. If you see a seven digit serial number on the back of a Dean guitar, you can be sure that it was produced in United States.

Now lets talk about Dean’s more affordable line of models that is manufactured abroad. These guitars also come with a serial number of sorts, however these serial numbers are completely different and they follow a different nomenclature. One of the main differences is the fact that these serial numbers don’t indicate the year of production.

Instead, they just tell you which batch that guitar is from while the country of origin is usually written underneath. In order to figure out the production year of an import Dean guitar, you will need to look at all of its features and elements. This requires a more extensive knowledge of their hardware, and is the only way you can figure out when it was made.
Unfortunately, this is a gray area of sorts for many models. Dean used a variety of hardware, including pickups, on numerous guitars.

Sometimes the a same model would feature one set of hardware, while other times it would sport a completely different setup. This is why you need to know exactly what kind of configuration they used for a certain year in order to properly determine the year when these guitars were made.

To summarize

If you were wondering about Dean guitar serial number, and how to use that information to your advantage, hopefully this short article gave you some useful insight.

Knowing how to read the serial number on these guitars can make a big difference if you’re shopping for a used one. It will allow you to fact check the sellers claims with more certainty.

Dean Guitars, commonly referred to simply as Dean, is an American importer and maker of stringed instruments and musical products with its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

Its products include solid-body electric guitars, bass guitars, and acoustic guitars. The company also distributes resonators, basses, banjos, mandolins, ukuleles, amplifiers, guitar cases, accessories, and custom guitar pickups.

The company was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1976 by Dean Zelinsky, but came to prominence under Elliott Rubinson in 1997 after his company, Armadillo Enterprises, purchased the Dean trade name.^[1]

History[edit]

Dean Guitars started in 1976 and made instruments used by bands such as Heart, Kansas, The Cars, Molly Hatchet, Triumph and ZZ Top.^[2]

With the advent of the Superstrat and grunge music, Dean Zelinsky sold the business to Oscar Medeiros of Tropical Music, who gained ownership of the brand from 1986, and until 1995 focused on selling to Latin bands overseas. The company had all but disappeared from the American market at that point.^[3][1]

Armadillo Enterprises, under the leadership of Elliott Rubinson, then purchased the Dean trade name in 1997. Rubinson, a musician who toured as a bass player for the Michael Schenker Group, Uli Jon Roth and Michael Angelo Batio^[4] expanded Dean's products to include acoustic, electric and bass guitars; mandolins, banjos and ukuleles with prices from less than $99 to more than $13,000.^[4] Rubinson had previously built Thoroughbred Music,^[5] a music retail store, music supply, and music clinic. Rubinson sold Thoroughbred to Sam Ash Music in 1999 so he could focus on Dean.^[6][7]

After getting a number of endorser-user guitarists (including Dimebag Darrell, Michael Angelo Batio, Michael Schenker, Leslie West, Dave Mustaine, Michael Amott, and Jacky Vincent),^[8] Dean Guitars' popularity increased. Under Armadillo Enterprises the company outgrew its Clearwater site and moved to a larger building that includes a custom guitar shop.^[1][9] Today the company also assembles guitar pickups^[10] and guitar parts.

In December 2016, Elliott Rubinson's son, Evan Rubinson, assumed the position of President and CEO at Armadillo Enterprises (which includes Dean Guitars, Luna Guitars, and ddrum).^[3]

In February 2017, Elliott 'Dean' Rubinson died from cancer.^[11] Richard Ash, CEO of Sam Ash Music Stores, said, 'Elliott was a true genius. He would have been successful in any business but he went with his passion for music and built his business around it... He was truly one of my heroes. RIP Elliott Rubinson.'^[12]

Instruments[edit]

Dean has the line of electric guitars that includes the ML, V, Z, Cadillac, Splittail, Soltero, EVO, Icon, Custom Zone, Vendetta and Deceiver models.

Dean also has many signature electric guitar models. The company offers a number of Dimebag Darrell models.

The company has also worked closely with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth on a line of guitars. These cost from around $300 for imports to over $6000 for USA-built instruments. The Dean USA Dave Mustaine Signature VMNT Holy Grail ^[13] electric guitar, a more recent incarnation of the V introduced in 2016, is an example of the brand.

Dean also makes signature models for Bret Michaels, Michael Schenker, Leslie West, Michael Angelo Batio, Michael Amott, Rusty Cooley, and other artists.^[4]

The company's bass guitar models include the ML, V, Z, Cadillac, Edge, Metal Man / Demonator, Hillsboro, Entwistle, EVO, Razorback, and Custom Zone. Dean also imports and markets other string instruments such as resonator guitars, mandolins and banjos.

In 2017, Dean unveiled several new musical instruments^[14] to commemorate the company's 40th anniversary.

In 2018, the company formed a partnership between Dean USA Custom Shop and Angel's Envy Bourbon^[15] to produce the Dean Envy Series guitars made from whiskey cask barrels.

Dean Ml Made In Korean

Affiliated companies[edit]

Armadillo Enterprises, the parent company of Dean Guitars, also owns Luna Guitars and ddrum.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abc'Business: Dean gets new digs, designs'. 2005-02-27. Archived from the original on 2005-02-27. Retrieved 2017-02-09.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
2. ^'A Brief History of Dean Guitars'. www.streetdirectory.com. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
3. ^ ^ab'Episode 42: Elliott Rubinson, CEO of Dean Guitars, ddrum, and Luna Guitars breaks down the music biz like few can'. www.musicbizcast.com. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
4. ^ ^abc'Dean Guitars CEO Elliott Dean Rubinson Talks Gigging with Uli Jon Roth, Balancing Life As a Musician'. Guitar World. 2014-06-02. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
5. ^'Security Check Required'. www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
6. ^'www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/1999/04/12/daily3.html'. www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
7. ^'Elliott Rubinson'. NAMM.org. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
8. ^Jim Aardema (2013-04-08), Branding and Marketing Planning - Dean Guitars, Luna Guitars, Ddrum Drums, retrieved 2017-03-03
9. ^DeanGuitarsVideos (2016-09-28), Dean Guitars USA Shop, retrieved 2017-02-09
10. ^DeanGuitarsVideos (2009-04-29), Dean USA DMT Pickups, Live at NAMM'09, retrieved 2017-02-09
11. ^'Elliott Rubinson: The Man Who Made it Happen - All That Shreds!'. All That Shreds!. 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
12. ^'Sam Ash Music Stores on Twitter'. Twitter. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
13. ^Dean USA Dave Mustaine Signature VMNT Holy Grail
14. ^new musical instruments
15. ^https://www.deanguitars.com/evan-rubinson-vision-for-the-future

External links[edit]

• Elliott Rubinson Interview NAMM Oral History Program (2010)