DEAN GUITARS
REBELS WITHOUT A PAUSE
Since 1977, Dean Guitars has drawn guitarists looking for quality axes with attitude. Nearly 50 years on, they’re pushing the envelope on innovation… and still raising hell.
BY ART THOMPSON
Chris Cannella (left) and Patrick Schuleit are leading Dean’s growth in the market and in artist relations.
DEAN ZELINSKY WAS just 17 when he founded Dean Guitars in 1977 with the single-minded purpose of making better instruments for rock and metal players than existed at the time. Using Gibson templates to start with, he created stylish guitars that included the V (Flying V), Z (Explorer) and the iconic ML, which combined the bottom of the V and the upper half of the Z. They all carried a standout element in the V-shaped headstock that defined the Dean look, making them flashier and more rock than any other U.S.-made six-string electrics available in the late ’70s. With artists like Elliot Easton of the Cars, Rich Williams of Kansas, and especially ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill — who flaunted fur-covered spinning customs in the 1983 “Legs” video — Dean hit the bull’s-eye as the go-to brand for players seeking something closer to a Lamborghini than a Les Paul.
Zelinsky sold the company in 1991, and after languishing for several years it was purchased by Armadillo Enterprises, whose visionary founder and CEO, Elliot Rubinson, breathed new life into the business, in the process bringing in key endorsers like Dimebag Darrell, Michael Schenker, Dave Mustaine, Leslie West and Michael Arnott, among others.