Dean Club!!!

Hi,

since some years I own a Dean Bass, bought second hand cheap 2xx €, I don’t remeber exactly.

View attachment 5479798

Light weight, very beautyful, playable very good.

But: The sound is quite good, but lack of bass. He came with EMG HZ and an old EMG active BTC (I assume not the original electronics).

First I swapped the HZ to EMG 40DC / 40CS, the same thing: poor bass.

Now I changed the old BTC to an actual BTS - and yippiee!

Very good sound, reminds me something of my Spector Rebob.

Which series is it? In the moment I don‘t have the serial number, will supply later.

Great bass for little money!

Edit: May be I‘ll change the tuners to light weight due to some neck diving.
That's a bargain.

vendetta price.jpg


2007 price list. Don't know if street or MSRP. If MSRP, then street would be around $500
Not a cheap bass.

In today's dollars that would be
2007 to 2024.jpg
 
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?
The Vendetta is not neck thru. It’s a bolt-on.
If yours is a neck thru then it’s extremely rare.

Basically an Edge with a carved top and razor wire fretboard inlay.

Do a search within this thread ( not all of Talk Bass) for ‘Vendetta’ and you’ll find catalog information.

I'm currently on vacation and can't check, it may be that it's a bolt on after all.

Thanks for all this informations!
 
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How would you describe the difference? I never heard EMG HZ passive, only with this crap old EMG BTC.
Just so you know my ear is most familiar with Warwick MEC electronics which are voiced a little bit different. So with my Dean it's a smoother growl and the eq is fairly flat which gives you a lot of room to dial in the sound you want. They don't have the MEC bite and grind that I'm used to but that's the reason why I bought the bass. Diversity of tone. I'd say the highs are pretty glassy and it goes from deep and punchy tone with glassy highs to pretty barky on the rear pickup. It has mids but vs MEC not as powerful. I've had a Hohner b2 which is a wood Steinberger bass and I remember getting a similar tone as I do now. It had EMG soapbars that were passive. The Hz sounds like an upgraded version of those. I remember the bass always sounding better with the active preamp bypassed. It would sound more open and full passive. Mike Kroeger who plays bass in Nickelback uses Hz soapbars in his Spectors and they are modded with the preamp removed. I understand why because I do think at least the old selects and the Hz sound better passive for some reason. Besides I have tons of preamp pedals to shape my tone and color it however. That's another thing, I found that coloration sounds better than ultra transparent. I found that either Aguilar tone hammer or my Mesa Boogie clone pedal sounds best. The EMG sounds very transparent on its own to me. Hope all this ranting has been helpful.
 
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Just so you know my ear is most familiar with Warwick MEC electronics which are voiced a little bit different. So with my Dean it's a smoother growl and the eq is fairly flat which gives you a lot of room to dial in the sound you want. They don't have the MEC bite and grind that I'm used to but that's the reason why I bought the bass. Diversity of tone. I'd say the highs are pretty glassy and it goes from deep and punchy tone with glassy highs to pretty barky on the rear pickup. It has mids but vs MEC not as powerful. I've had a Hohner b2 which is a wood Steinberger bass and I remember getting a similar tone as I do now. It had EMG soapbars that were passive. The Hz sounds like an upgraded version of those. I remember the bass always sounding better with the active preamp bypassed. It would sound more open and full passive. Mike Kroeger who plays bass in Nickelback uses Hz soapbars in his Spectors and they are modded with the preamp removed. I understand why because I do think at least the old selects and the Hz sound better passive for some reason. Besides I have tons of preamp pedals to shape my tone and color it however. That's another thing, I found that coloration sounds better than ultra transparent. I found that either Aguilar tone hammer or my Mesa Boogie clone pedal sounds best. The EMG sounds very transparent on its own to me. Hope all this ranting has been helpful.
Rant away. Just remember that they’re Humbucking Soapbars too.
 
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Hi guys.

Thank you for the great info and for keeping alive this club! It is a great resource for this brand that doesn’t receive enough appreciation from the bass community.

I’m looking for a 5 string (High C) short scale bass on the budget and I found that Dean EVO XM is a great option.

Since there’s not enough detailed info about this bass I would like to ask few questions for Dean bass geeks and owners:

1. Are the humbuckers on the bass rail or poles? I just found that they’re EMG clones and since EMG usually uses rails I infer they’re railes.

2. Do you think a 16mm musicman 5 string bridge can fit? I’m worried about the distance between the bridge and the bridge pickup.

Bridge diagram:

IMG_9720.jpeg


3. For the 5 string I’m thinking to add a single Steinberger gearless tuner in the middle of the headstock for the D string (EA ->D<- GC). Do you guys think there’s enough space to fit this tuner? Due to the lower string tension on a short scale I think there’ll be no problem.

Tuner diagram:

IMG_9721.jpeg


Thank you in advance for your insight guys!
 
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Hi guys.

Thank you for the great info and for keeping alive this club! It is a great resource for this brand that doesn’t receive enough appreciation from the bass community.

I’m looking for a 5 string (High C) short scale bass on the budget and I found that Dean EVO XM is a great option.

Since there’s not enough detailed info about this bass I would like to ask few questions for Dean bass geeks and owners:

1. Are the humbuckers on the bass rail or poles? I just found that they’re EMG clones and since EMG usually uses rails I infer they’re railes.

2. Do you think a 16mm musicman 5 string bridge can fit? I’m worried about the distance between the bridge and the bridge pickup.

Bridge diagram:

View attachment 5485014

3. For the 5 string I’m thinking to add a single Steinberger gearless tuner in the middle of the headstock for the D string (EA ->D<- GC). Do you guys think there’s enough space to fit this tuner? Due to the lower string tension on a short scale I think there’ll be no problem.

Tuner diagram:

View attachment 5485016

Thank you in advance for your insight guys!
Unfortunately that is one Dean Bass model that I do not own nor have I ever played.:(

Looks like @kodiakblair , @JACink and @Alek each had one at one time or another.

2007/2008 Catalog cut
Dean_0708catalog 36 EVO XM.jpg


Here's a really cool owner mod to active:
IMG_8055_2000x.jpg
IMG_8056_2000x.jpg
IMG_8060_2000x.jpg

Should've bought it when I had the chance. Really well done mod.
 
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Hi guys.

Thank you for the great info and for keeping alive this club! It is a great resource for this brand that doesn’t receive enough appreciation from the bass community.

I’m looking for a 5 string (High C) short scale bass on the budget and I found that Dean EVO XM is a great option.

Since there’s not enough detailed info about this bass I would like to ask few questions for Dean bass geeks and owners:

1. Are the humbuckers on the bass rail or poles? I just found that they’re EMG clones and since EMG usually uses rails I infer they’re railes.

2. Do you think a 16mm musicman 5 string bridge can fit? I’m worried about the distance between the bridge and the bridge pickup.

Bridge diagram:

View attachment 5485014

3. For the 5 string I’m thinking to add a single Steinberger gearless tuner in the middle of the headstock for the D string (EA ->D<- GC). Do you guys think there’s enough space to fit this tuner? Due to the lower string tension on a short scale I think there’ll be no problem.

Tuner diagram:

View attachment 5485016

Thank you in advance for your insight guys!
So basically that stock bridge is very close to the older Ibanez and Warwick 1 piece bridges. I'd probably look for one of those just so it's easier to fit up but if you're down to make the music man work then go for it. I personally like the Ibanez quick release bridge system on the newer Soundgears. Let us know how it goes with your mods.
 
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