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Dean Performer Electro Acoustic Guitar
by spiritwood
As a musician, I have a house full of instruments and many guitars. Despite the fact that I have some expensive and more "sought after" guitars than this one, I would say that this would be in my all time top 5. The Dean performer is a semi-acoustic guitar with interesting cutaway and visual appeal. Mine is ... "Trans-purple" which is actually more of a maroon purple but it still looks fantastic. The performer model comes in a variety of colours and exotic finishes including tigers eye, quilt ash and probably the prettiest -the very beautiful Koa wood.
I must admit that one of the reasons that I got this guitar was the colour, I am a sucker for purple and I am also a guitar tart so this appealed on both levels. I also like cutaway guitars rather than jumbo style as I just find the jumbo too big to get my fingers around the high frets. I bought mine from the States and had it sent over (surprisingly not that expensive) as the cost of the guitar when it came out over in the UK was prohibitive. I paid $350 for mine when new.
FEATURES:
This beauty has a wealth of features for the price and all of them are good quality. You have the abalone which brings a bit of bling to the sound-hole, a thick cream binding and the Dean performer tribal style inlay in the headstock. The rosewood bridge is also sculpted to match the general curviness of the guitar and the feature pointy cutaway which further enhances its good looks.
The Dean performer has an A grade spruce top with a nice grain pattern that shows through the translucent cellulose finish. The body is mahogany with the stunning cutaway feature. This is a semi-acoustic guitar so has a 4 band EQ and volume meter with pre-amp and integrated tuner.
This is classed as a "mini-jumbo" guitar, ie you get all of the full and rounded sound of a jumbo in a smaller body that is much more comfortable to play, on a fingerboard that is much easier to access.
The neck is also mahogany and "c" shaped with a rosewood fingerboard which is well finished and easy to move across. The fret wire is finished nicely with no jagged edges and there are of course the standard dot markers in mother of pearl. The Grover style tuners are solid and die cast, they stay in place and are easy to turn. The tuning stays true over long periods of time and the intonation is great too.
AMPLIFICATION AND TONE:
For anybody who does not know what an electro-acoustic guitar is, this is two guitars in one. An acoustic guitar that can also be amplified via the inbuilt pick-up and jack plug at the bottom. This guitar features a black cased Dean three-way EQ system tucked tidily into the guitar which is accessed via the side of the body at the top. The guitar more than holds its own acoustically but there is a lot of fun to be had playing this through an amplifier.
With any new guitar, I always check the action and nut before replacing the strings with strings of my choice. I tend to go for Martin strings because they have a depth of tone and build quality that suits my style of playing. Surprisingly the action on the Performer was decent straight out of the box, not too high and not too low. The strings bent easily, the intonation stayed true right up the frets and it was easy to play.
This guitar not only looks beautiful but it sounds it too. It has a real richness to the tone and is much louder than you would expect from a smaller bodied guitar. The sound projects well and the tones are ringing and sweet. I was very pleased with how it sounded acoustically and actually surprised that this sounded as good as it did for the money. When plugged into an amp (I generally use a 30w Marshall with a tiny bit of reverb) with a good quality cable it really sings and fills the room.
Being an acoustic bodied guitar, this is a great guitar for fingerstyle and picking as well as strumming, the notes when playing fingerstyle are clean and have a good sustain on them. The guitar sounds great played either way and I love the versatility of a good quality electro-acoustic. The design of the body of course means that it is easy to reach the higher parts of the frets so there is a real bonus to the special cutaway as well as it being aesthetically pleasing.
Like all good musical instruments, the guitar tone will develop as you play it and it adjusts to your playing style and humidity in your house. I have found it get richer and deeper as time goes by as the wood ages and settles. There is no upkeep involved in owning this guitar, just the odd dry dusting. I have not lemon oiled the fingerboard either as it has not needed it. I have used this guitar for busking, playing socially with other instruments and recording and it has excelled at all of these. It is bright enough in sound to hold its own when jamming without needing the amplification.
FINISH:
The finish is flawless and the front has an incredible mirror shine to it. The cream binding is well fitted and contrasts with the guitar body. The rosewood fingerboard is of excellent quality and has a deep rich colour and nice tight grain. It is not pitted like some of the cheaper rosewood on the market and it does not look dull or dried out. The machine heads are Grover style, chromed and semi-closed with button cover which is fiddly to get off but possible should you wish to change tuners. Unfortunately one of mine snapped under heavy handling from a friend and I had to do just that. The guitar neck is formed from a one piece mahogony chunk in an easy to manage standard "c" shape. The neck is slim enough to be easy to play.
CARE:
Never use a polish on a guitar! EVER. If the rosewood fingerboard becomes dry it is likely that it is not being played enough but you could oil it with a special lemon oil made for this task. Keep it protected in a case and out of sunlight and away from radiators. I change the strings each time I record with it (not often) or every 6 months but then I can tell the difference in tone however slight of older strings, they have a dullness to them. You may not care about this so change them as and when, there is no rule about this. Obviously do not get the guitar damp or try to hold your fag in the machine heads ala Keith Richards....
SPEC:
Dean Performer:
* Select Spruce Top
* Mahogany Body
* 25-1/4" Scale
* 1-5/8" Nut
* Set Mahogany C Neck
* Rosewood Fingerboard
* Pearl Dot Inlays
* Sealed Die Cast Tuners
* Celluloid Binding
* Abalone Rosette
* Dean DMT I2NR 4 Band EQ w/ Tuner
* Finishes: Classic Black, Gloss Natural, Trans Power Purple, Blueburst, Trans Red and luxury finishes available in the "E" models.
PRICE:
The price varies. They are available new from the states and in some UK stores plus are likely to come up on Ebay. Prices range from £280-£500 according to the finish choice.
GAK currently have a black version for just £208:
http://www.gak.co.uk
SUMMARY:
This guitar is excellent value for money. It has the looks, the sound and the build quality which means that it will last and last. It is a low maintenance guitar that needs very little care to keep it playing well and the tone and features are excellent. This is a very decent guitar for the money and I give it 10/10.
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Fender CD-60 CE
by Ptsface12
I was most impressed with this stunning guitar, I fell in love with it's beautiful design. The cutaway makes it easy to get your fingers to the end of the fret.
It has 5 knobs, 'volume' (this controls the volume when plugging it into an amp or your computer), 'tuner' (this switches the tuner on, the tuner does not always seem ... accurate and can sometimes give false readings but over all it's decent) 'bass' (this controls the bass when plugging into your amp, 'middle' and 'treble' (both of those affected when you plug the electro-acoustic into the amp).
I would definitely recommend buying this guitar, it's fairly cheap and it's from a trust-worthy brand! It has steel strings which give a lovely ringing sound to it, good for Rock, Indie & Blues. In my opinion, these strings are possibly some of the best I've used in any of my guitars. The guitar is definitely a great value for money!
The tuner requires a square batter (9v) but one is provided upon purchasing the guitar! If you are just starting to get into guitars and you're a beginner, this is a great starting point! Happy buying!
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Ernie Ball Polypro Guitar Strap
by Danscomp
Ernie Ball is a company that produces good quality guitar peripherals at reasonable prices. One of their biggest sellers are guitar strings, in fact they introduced "slinkys" into the market place after Fender wouldn't. But I'm going to be reviewing a different piece of kit. One of their entry level guitar straps. ...
Guitar straps need to be made of tough material. Guitars themselves will vary greatly in weight and shape, but the last thing you want is a strap that may break, resulting in a very expensive accident. Polypropylene is a very durable material, especially when woven in this fashion. At two inches wide, it is comfortable to wear. Furthermore, it takes colours well and will not bleed onto your clothes, even when wet.
The buckle is adjustable. You will generally want your Guitar positioned at a height where you can easily access the fingerboard, but some players prefer a higher or lower position on top of that. I went for a red colour to match the faded red mahogany of my G-400, the only authorised Gibson SG copy. It certainly looks the business. There are a whole host of other colour options available. As the G-400 is relatively light, I've never had the strap come off either button. However, I have had another Ernie Ball Poly strap on my Strat, and it came off a number of times, resulting in a swap to a locking strap.
The one limitation of a poly strap is that it has little resistance and will slide on most materials. This is not a factor with a body heavy guitar like a Stratocaster or telecaster shape, or with a smaller but thicker guitar like a Les Paul, but it is a severe drawback with an SG or any neck heavy guitar, like a flying V.
Why? Because such guitars tend towards neck dive, where the headstock wants to point towards the floor. With a heavy, wider leather strap, such things can be resolved. But with a strap like this one, it is a constant problem, particularly when fretting the lowest strings on the neck.
I only play lead guitar. As a result, I'm unable to advise whether these would safely hold a bass guitar. Even if they would, it could prove uncomfortable on the shoulder as time progresses. A wider strap would probably represent a sound (get it?) investment. Particularly with added internal padding.
In summary, these are good, cheap Guitar straps. But if you gig, even just with friends, or have any Guitar worth more than a couple of hundred, I would strongly recommend looking at the Planet waves series of locking straps. They are over twice as expensive than the six or so quid this costs, but the added security is an absolute must. The finish is also of an even higher quality and the added cost is absolutely negligible.
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