DEAN ZELINSKY GUITARS

Custom Boutique - Online Direct - Affordable - Delivered to your Door, Stage-Ready

You may or may not know, I am the founder of Dean Guitars. I sold the company years ago, and now own Dean Zelinsky Guitars, my signature brand. I've been a guitar designer and builder for over 40 years.

Please do not confuse me with guitar companies that are simply dudes who go to China, order containers of guitars and now call themselves Guitar Builders.

Also please do not confuse me with the corporate-owned Gibsons and Fenders that are now run by ā€œbean countersā€ who do nothing more than reissue versions of their 1950's models because they are not guitar makers. Companies that are hundreds of millions in debt forcing bean counters to make decisions on how to recoup their investment rather than producing truly great guitars!

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Dean Zelinsky Guitars is a few thingsā€¦

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1) A Real Builder: A small company owned and operated by a real guitar builder and designer, who has made guitars for top artists for decades.

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2) Innovation: A company with real meaningful technology that no other guitar company has, including;
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3) Affordable, Boutique: Professional Guitars at very affordable prices.

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4) Built for You: Customized to your specs, the way you want it, shipped direct to your door stage-ready.
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FOUR DECADES OF DEAN ZELINSKY

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I started building professionally in 1976. As soon as I got Dean Guitars up and running, I spent my days building guitars and my evenings backstage at big rock shows hustling my guitars to major rock bands. Kerry Livgren of Kansas was the first to purchase one of my guitars and the first to play one onstage. Soon after, I was working with top bands of the late '70s and early '80s like like Heart, The Doobie Brothers, Elliot Easton of the Carsā€¦and many more. Then a bigger break was hanging out with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. I made him an ML model guitar and shipped it to him. He phoned me when he was recording the Eliminator record and said he used the guitar for the entire album. I was soon making guitars for their tour. With the advent of MTV, ZZ Top had a big resurgence and their 'Legs' video featured the Spinning Fur Guitars I built for them.

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Over the years, I added quite a few artists to the list including some of my guitar heros: Dimebag Darrell, Michael Schenker and finally my idol Johnny Winter. Johnny played the custom engraved guitars I made for him almost almost exclusively for the last 4 years of his life. Here is a partial roster of world-class guitarists who have graced the stages with some of my guitars:

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Michael Schenker, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott (Pantera, DamagePlan), Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill (ZZ Top), Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Leslie West (Mountain), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), Elliot Easton and Rik Ocasek (The Cars), Rik Emmett (Triumph), Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), Kerry Livgren (Kansas), John McFee (The Doobie Brothers), Nancy Wilson (Heart), Joe Don Rooney (Rascal Flatts), Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown), Johnny Winter, and many more...


You can read more about my history as a guitar builder at my blog HERE. I will be telling stories about my early years, the early days of Dean Guitars, the more recent Dean Guitar daysā€¦my relationships over the years with artists like Billy Gibbons, Michael Schenker, Dimebag Darrell, Kerry Livgren, Elliott Easton, Zakk Wylde, Dave Mustaine, Johnny Winter...some groupie stories and many more. Stories of my rocking and rolling career as a guitar builder during the formative years of Rock Music...click the LEARN MORE below.

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Why I only Sell Factory Direct...

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Iā€™m offering you my guitars factory-directā€¦saving you money on my latest designed, top-quality guitars. Eliminating the unnecessary cost of distribution, sales commissions, and retail store markup here in the USAā€¦You save big money!

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Selling direct came down to a few factors:

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#1: Music Industry State of Affairs

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Like all industries, the Independent Dealers have been on a steep decline for years and are now to a point where they fall into two categories.

One, too small or broke to have any sort of a selection on the wall.

Two, a viable store who feel they need the bigger brands to be competitive.Ā 

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Gibson and Fender know thisā€¦so every January they go in and make these guys buy $100,000 plus of their guitars to keep the line one more year. If the dealer does not buy in, Gibson and Fender threaten not to sell them. After Gibson and Fender and a few other brands do this to them, the dealers have no money nor wall space left for Dean Z. Furthermore, Gibson and Fender are not letting these dealers buy the guitars they want. They make dealers buy what Fender and Gibson need to sell. Gibson and Fender make a lot of bad judgment calls and force it on their dealers! Then the dealers are pushing this crap on to you...most consumers don't know this!

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So I decided - ENOUGH! I am well known enough to sell my guitars direct. I offer you better pricing because a dealer is not making $300 on the guitar. I give you a 30-Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee and a 5-Year Warranty. If for any reason you donā€™t like the guitar, we take it back!

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#2: Natural Selection Ā 

Because I only sell direct, I have to offer a better guitar!

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Lets face it, when my competition ships 50 guitars into a Guitar Center Store, they donā€™t have to be good. Know why, because there is a natural selection process. The players 'in-the-know' will cherry pick the better ones, the lesser informed and beginners will walk out the door with the rest. You are forced to choose from a compromised selection. Simply the guitar quality does not have to be all that good for them to be successful and the consumer loses in this scenario!

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Our situation is totally different. If I ship a guitar to someoneā€™s house, I donā€™t know who they are. They can be a seasoned player, a beginner, an amateur or the pickiest guy in the worldā€¦we simply donā€™t know. All I know is that guitar has to be perfect! My reputation is on the line #1, and #2 it costs me $50 in round-trip FedEx bills! So the end result, because of our factory direct approach, we have to be very selective and picky on the guitars we send outā€¦and you the player benefit!

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#3: Guitar Center

1.7 billion in debt if you believe what is written on the internet.

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A company in total retraction mode, but they are the sales arm of Gibson and Fender. These guys are so in bed with each other but now they're all hurting. Guitar Center cannot sell enough to get these companies out of trouble nor get themselves out of trouble. Guitar Center is not looking for the next cool guitar, innovation or technologyā€¦it is also owned by 'bean counters' looking at how to get back their investment! You can read more about the End of Guitar Center here...

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#4: No Middle Man

No amateurs between me and my guitar-playing customers

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It always bothered me having a dealer in the middle of me and a guitar player. Why have anything get lost in translation? We like to communicate with the players and get them what they want. If we are not delivering, they will let us know. I love the fact that there is no one between the Dean Zelinsky Team and our guitar-playing customers.

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No inexperienced sales guy to filter your questions or telling you what can or cannot be done cause he doesn't have the guitar company at his fingertips! No amateur guitar tech at the counter trying to get your guitar to play good enough for you to make it to the cash register!

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#5: From our Setup Bench to Your Door

You can go through our site and have the guitar customized the way you like it. Choose your finish, fingerboard, pickups, hardware, pickguard, string gauge, etc. not just what's hanging on a wall. Delivered to your door as you like itā€¦ If you have questions, communicate directly with us! We have an expert staff of experienced guitar player/builders. Every guitar is shipped to your door, expertly set up and stage ready. You can take it out of the box and play Madison Square Garden!

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INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

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My job is to make you Play Better, Sound Better, and even Look Better...

Because I am a guitar builder, I constantly look to innovate and improve the guitar. A tall order because the guitar business resists technology. Players are looking for a nice piece of wood with some great pickups and a few knobs... and I know this. However, the only way I can be viable is to build a guitar that PLAYS better, SOUNDS better, and LOOKS better... If I cannot do this, I have no business being in business!

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The Z-Glide Neck

Years ago I incorporated a laser into guitar building. The laser became a valuable tool in the manufacturing process of guitars. I mostly used it for cutting wood and plastics but soon started using the laser for graphicsā€¦3D graphics. I began thinking about the neck. Not for decorative graphics but for improved playability. I thought about reducing the surface area so your hand wouldn't come in contact with so much neck. Reduced surface area meant reduced friction and would allow your hand to glide effortlessly up and down the neck. I patented the concept and started building Z-Glide Necks. We reduce the surface area by 72% and your hand only comes in contact with 28% of the neck, the rest is air. We are the only guitar company on earth with a laser engraved Z-Glide Neck.


The Pickup

Mercedes doesnā€™t use Cadillac engines and we donā€™t use other companyā€™s pickups. We spend a lot of time and effort creating the perfect pickup for our guitars. If you read the reviews, most players say our single-coil guitars sound better than an American Strat. And we take pride in that especially because our guitars are half the price! Ā 

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We have a pickup no other guitar company has achieved ā€“ The SideKick Pickup.

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Because we have such great sounding single-coils, it bothered me every time someone would order our Tagliare with a Humbucker. You gain a humbucker, but you lose that killer single-coil! So we created the SideKickā€¦the first pickup that is a True Single-Coil and Humbucker all in one.

You know when you pull up on the coil-tap of a humbucker and your volume drops in half... what did you expect? You don't have a single-coil, you have half a humbucker! But with SideKick, you donā€™t get that. The volume matches and you have a true 7.2ohm single-coil with the magnets in the pole pieces! No voodoo, no batteries or circuit board, just old-fashioned windings and magnets.

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I urge you to browse the site...

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There is so much more and I urge you to spend some time at our site, spend some time reading all the reviews, send us an email with your questions and get to know us a little better.

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Iā€™ve been Billy Gibbon's Guitars Builder...Iā€™ve been Michael Schenker's Guitar Builder...Iā€™ve been Johnny Winter's Guitar Builderā€¦I hope to become your guitar builder!

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Thanks,

DZ