Dean scraping the barrel...

Bucket · November 2015

http://www.deanguitars.com/subcategory?series=paramount_series

Really?

At least they had an identity when they were just churning out Dimebag signature after Dimebag signature... now it's like they just can't be arsed to think for themselves, and are just making any old shit for the sake of it.

I mean... they don't look terrible but who's going to buy one of these over a Fender Precision? What is the earthly point?

It's the same story with their guitars... they've got a bunch of generic SG and LP copies that have nothing to do with their history or heritage, and which no-one seems to be buying either. I posted a similar thread about B.C. Rich not long ago... same applies here. They need a brand makeover really... they need to stop dicking around trying to steal Fender or Gibson's market share and concentrate on making Deans again, because there IS a market for that.

Ugh.

stickyfiddle · November 2015

Bucket said:

It's the same story with their guitars... they've got a bunch of generic SG and LP copies that have nothing to do with their history or heritage, and which no-one seems to be buying either. I posted a similar thread about B.C. Rich not long ago... same applies here. They need a brand makeover really... they need to stop dicking around trying to steal Fender or Gibson's market share and concentrate on making Deans again, because there IS a market for that.

Ugh.

I can only assume their sales figures suggest otherwise!

guitarfishbay · November 2015

Well they're on sale at $499 so that makes them cheaper than a MIM in the states, from what I can tell looking at sweetwater a MIM P is $599. So they're pricing aggressively if the quality is there.

Bucket · November 2015

guitarfishbay said:

Well they're on sale at $499 so that makes them cheaper than a MIM in the states, from what I can tell looking at sweetwater a MIM P is $599. So they're pricing aggressively if the quality is there.

In that case, who'd even buy one over a Squier?

ICBM · November 2015

No idea.

It's sad when a company does this sort of thing - quite likely driven by falling sales of their original designs due to fashion changes, but the last thing they need is to make yet another generic Fender copy with no unique features and an ugly headstock.

Several other companies have already made this mistake and it usually doesn't end well.

IanSavage · November 2015

Pointy stuff just isn't selling at the minute, hideously unfashionable; I can see why Dean MIGHT do such a thing but reckon they'd be better off concentrating on their Les Paul derivatives and even the likes of the Cabbie (semis seem to be pretty 'in' from what I've seen around the unsigned scene recently...)