Dean Z Select Floyd Quilt Top Electric Guitar, Ocean Burst

I must have over 2 dozen guitars in my collection. Gibson, Epiphone, Fender, Gretsch, Jackson, D'Angelico, Ibanez, PRS and now this Dean Z Select with it's explorer shape mahogany body and Seymour Duncan pickups. I thought it would be heavy but it's not as heavy as my Les Paul. 1/2 lb lighter doesn't sound like much but it makes a difference. The guitar is stunningly beautiful, feels and plays like a dream with it's huge frets and short scale fretboard bends note easily like a Les Paul with more room to take it further. I can get almost infinite sustain, especially with the neck pu. And pick harmonics are easy peasy to grab just for the heck of it just about anywhere on the neck on any string. It reminds of how I get infinite tones out of an open tuned Maple shell snare drum by how close to the center vs rim and how powerfully I hit a rim shot. Yeah I'm a drummer too. So the point is I can play the same note on this Dean Z with infinite "flavoring" of tone. Now that's fricken fun stuff right there. It's an extremely fun guitar to play. This guitar "sings." The tone of this guitar is the new standard in my collection. The body is huge, and I'm a little rough on it clumsily running it into stuff. But the body must be responsible for the awesome sound I'm getting so I'll live with this gentle giant's footprint any day of the week. It's a lot like my Thunderbird but this sounds so much better and feels so much better too. It's the first guitar I grab off my wall in the morning. And it's the last guitar I put away at night. That may change. It's only been with me a month. None of my cases fit it and no generic case will work other than the $30 extreme shape gig bag made by Chromecast. And that actually works quite nicely for traveling back and forth to the studio. It's not a hardshell but Dean seems to be the only source for a hardshell case and they want almost $200. It deserves a hardshell case.

The guitar is beautiful. It plays like beautifully. The quality and craftsmanship you expect from Dean. It is heavy so will take a minute to get used to it.The seller, Neal's Music, is amazing to work with.