Dean Edge 09 (E09-CBK) Bass

I had been without a bass for a while now and figured it was time to get one. Knowing full well that I don't play bass MOST of the time, and that it's really only something to have some fun on once in a while (or record the occasional bass-track) I didn't want to spend too much money.

Previously I had owned a Samick Brand Bass which was basically a typical Fender P-Bass clone with a Black Body, White Pickguard and my preferred maple neck & fretboard. The thing weighed a ton, but was fun to play on.

Looking for a new Bass I definitely wanted another black one (favorite guitar color) - The choices were quite overwhelming, but setting a strict budget of Less than $150 narrowed down the field quite a bit! Normally I'd cringe at setting such a ridiculous max-budget knowing full well you'd be guaranteed to end up with a painted piece of plywood, but I just need something to throw around occasionally. This price range also definitely knocked out any 'combo' deals , but since I had a few amps sitting around this wasn't really an issue.

On one of the big warehouse sites (can't remember which one, either MusiciansFriend / SamAsh / SweetWater etc) I saw a black Dean 4 String bass..

Running down the checklist I saw:

• Black 4 String Bass - Check
• Looks Nice - Check
• Cheap - Check
• Maple Neck/Fretboard - no.....

But figuring 3 out of 4 wasn't bad I decided to let go of my obsessive 'maple only' philosophy and ordered it anyway. The specs according to dean are below:

From the Manufacturer

This no-frills bass from Dean features a lightweight basswood body, a Dean vintage bridge, a single Dean soapbar pickup, and a speedy maple neck. It's an affordable axe that's ready for any modern style.

EDGE 09 Specs Body: Basswood Scale: 34" Neck: Maple Fingerboard: Rosewood Inlays: Abalone Dot Tuners: Die Cast Hardware: Chrome Bridge: Dean Vintage Pickup: One Dean Passive Finish: Classic Black

Dean passive soapbar pickup with volume and tone controls.

A vintage-style bridge provides precise intonation.

Dean's Edge Series
Sure, beauty is skin deep, but the Dean Edge Bass might be the exception. Dean started with a body styled and contoured for comfort, and made it lighter with basswood construction. The maple necks were profiled to be faster and sleeker than most, and Dean designed a custom neck joint and heel, for uninterrupted access all the way up the two octave neck. The Edge Bass is offered in four, five and six string models. The Edge 09 is the most affordable instrument in the Edge Line.

Mahogany Looks
The Edge 09 features basswood construction, but it's topped off with naturally finished mahogany. The basswood means this axe is lighter than most its size, and the eye-catching mahogany grains give it plenty of class.

34-Inch Maple Neck
The Edge 09 features a speedy maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, and classic abalone dot inlays. It's a 22-fret model--this barely matters on some instruments, since access to the high frets is difficult, but a deep cutaway and Dean's custom joint/heel mean you can ring out the high notes when you want.

Dean Passive Pickup
The Edge 09 features a Dean "soapbar" style passive pickup, for smooth low-end, aggressive high-end, and plenty of response to your playing and the tone control. Dial it in no matter your musical style.

Chrome Dean Hardware
The vintage-style Dean bridge lets you set things up perfectly on the intonation front, and Dean diecast tuners ensure that you'll stay in tune.



No Frills was right - 1 Tone Knob, 1 Volume Knob, 1 Pickup - However that was exactly what I was looking for and I've been very happy with it. The bass actually says Made In China which in guitar-making hierarchy would be basically the on 'bottom' as far as quality goes etc, however so far it has held up nicely.

It IS very light (relatively) and much thinner than any other bass guitars i've played on (probably even thinner than my telecaster or strat!). A little thicker/more solid feeling would've been nice, but surely that would also make it a lot heavier. That aside - it feels & plays great (for my use & (lack of) skills) especially with their custom neckjoint. Another nice 'feature' I found was that while the fretboard is standard rosewood, the back as usual is Maple - however the finish on mine felt VERY thin (almost 'woody') which I enjoy tremendously. One of my biggest beefs with guitars is always the neck being so thickly coated in polyurethane that it feels like plastic.This guitar makes it feel like you're holding a nice smooth piece of maple in your hand which is always good in my book!
As far as the rosewood fretboard... meh... It's fine... 'tolerable' I guess, but just not my thing.. I guess it's just one of those things I'll never click with just like Gibson/Les Paul Guitars ;)

Fender Standard Telecaster (MIM)

As mentioned on my Guitar Timeline Page I had been without a 'fun' electric guitar for a while. Having been through a major move I had only kept my Ibanez Jem 10th Anniversary Guitar and let go of the Samick Bass & Squier Strat I had at the time. The Jem is an awesome guitar, but I had already gotten some significant wear on the chrome pickups (quite common apparently) and some on the engraved pickguard as well. So I was trying to take good care of it and not beat it to hell playing on it all the time. Time to shop for something new!

I had been going through the catalogs I had laying around & looking online as well. What to get? How about a Les Paul this time around? ehmm 'maybe'...? but really again I felt no 'click' with one so back to the Fender camp as always :) Humbucker or Single Coil? My Jem has Humbuckers, so let's do traditional Single Coils. Budget? Nothing too crazy - so I was basically figuring on getting a Mexi-Strat - I just had to either order it online or go to the local insane-asylum ehmm I mean Guitar Center. I didn't really want to wait for weeks once I had the funds and I was somewhat curious about a Telecaster since I was listening to a lot of Jonny Lang at the time who was getting some VERY nice tones out of his. I always made the common assumption of it being a 'country' guitar, but obviously they are much more versatile than that.

So, I hate most local places like Guitar Center (from all the idiots playing powerchords as loud as they can to endless noodling, useless sales clerks, to the bag check on the way out...I really AVOID this place nowadays and instead shop at another much nicer store (and if happens to cost more there, so be it), but sometimes you gotta bite the big one, especially if you want to actually try out a guitar before you buy it. So I went there looking for possible a new black Strat or just maaaaaaaaaaaybe a black telecaster, but I was 99% certain I'd get a Black Strat - as long of course a they had one with a maple neck.

Walking into a guitar center is always a cringe-worthy experience in my book for the above mentioned reasons. This time I actually ended up NOT being pestered with 50000 "can I help you"'s from the sales staff and thus was able to try out a few Stratocasters. I didn't even bother plugging them in the crappy floor amps since to me I had to find one that felt right more than anything. Tone can be shaped by Strings, amps, pickups etc etc. Nothing really clicked, not to mention most of the guitars just look beat to hell already (looking around the store you can see why...).

I noticed a Wine-Red Telecaster hanging a little higher up out of the reach of the masses. It was missing the hat on the 3-position switch, but other then that it looks pretty good. After the sales guy was able to tear himself away from telling grandiose stories to his buddies he got it down for me and I tried it out. Feels... nice.... Little 'chunkier' than a Stratocaster obviously, but there's some kind of 'back-to-basics' feel about the telecasters body. The neck was your basic modern C-Shape, and maple naturally.. I noticed a slight scratch or chip on the polyurethane coating between 2 frets, but that didn't really bother me since I could always sand it out a bit with some steel wool or something. The Hard-Tail was actually a nice change from the Strat Tremolos

All in All, I actually LIKED this telecaster more than the strats they had... I looked around and saw a Black Telecaster as well, but this was one was just so different from anything else I had owned up to that point that it really felt like the guitar to get. The 'Too cool for you' sales guy forgot to find me a new switch top so I had to remind him of that yet again after getting all rung up. It didn't come with a gig back or anything (another reason I HATE buying guitars every Tom, Dick & Harry have had their dirty hands on - basically you're buying a floor model... i LIKE getting the original boxes etc) so they stuck it in a generic box from some other guitar just for transport. Ok All set to go.. oh wait of course not.. unpack everything again because at the door they have to make sure you're not stealing anything even though they SAW you get rung up 3 feet over.. Gotta make sure those serial numbers on the guitars match the ones on the receipt. At that point I basically already had made up my mind to NEVER go back here again.. Loved the guitar, but the experience/service , while maybe fine for teenagers who expect to be treated like that, is just not up to par..

This guitar really became my main guitar that is always out & ready to go. I would just play it for hours , even unplugged on the couch while watching TV etc. It sounded very nicely for the relatively cheap pickups that were in it and very clean. Over time I started to get the Mod-Itch though and changed a few things about the guitar as described in later Posts.

Ibanez Jem 10th Anniversary

Ibanez Jem 10th Anniversary (#741)
I don't know how I got into Joe Satriani / Steve Vai, but I do remember renting Joe Satriani's "The Extremist" from the local library and being blown away. Holy Crap this guy could play. Ever since then I've been a Satriani fan and bought every album (even ChickenFoot!). Naturally that also introduced me to Steve Vai. I think the first album from him I heard was his 1997 Alien Love Secrets.. WOW.... While I love both I always felt Vai was a bit more experimental while Satriani's music was more about the melody etc. It would be VERY hard to pick one over the other though I feel I'd probably pick Satriani in the end.

As I found myself wanting to play this kind of music , my battered little old Squier Strat just didn't seem like it would be up to the job anymore. A local mega music store had a few JS models & Jems on Display.. the Burnt Stained Blue , the usual White and a GORGEOUS 10th Anniversary model. They had it in a case where no one was allowed to touch it, but just seeing it I knew I had to have one. Obviously that particular guitar was sold, and I had a hard time finding any others with it being a limited run of only around 852 IIRC.

I had actually sort of given up hope of ever finding one. After literally a few years I was still occasionally searching and I found one in Germany (Musik-Produktiv). New in hard-case.. wow I Could really get it this time! I was really torn on dropping such a huge amount of cash on a single guitar - I could buy several nice Fenders for this, but my heart steered my hands to my wallet to whip out the creditcard ;-) The box arrived after a few weeks and opening it up I had never seen such a beautiful work of art. It was almost too beautiful to play on!

The guitar (#741 according to the engraving on the pickguard) was supposed to come with a numbered certificate to match the engraved number on the pickguard, and it had Steve Vai's Signature on it. Of course who knows if he really sat down and signed over 800 pieces of paper, or if it was an 'Auto-Pen' type of deal...I noticed the numbers were wrong on my certificate! After some quick correspondence it turned out there were two Jem 10's - One the owner took and the other they sold and they mixed up the certificates. In about a week I had the right one so I was a happy camper. (Note, as I'm writing this out I don't have any pictures of my actual guitar hence I'm inserting some I found online)

Note how this guitar has some kind of 'shroud' to go with the guitar. I didn't learn until later that apparently the US Guitars came in a more Cloth Covered hard-case Like Case with the shroud, while European versions of the guitar came in a Black Hard-case.

A 'US' Spec Jem 10th Case

European Style Jem 10th Case

Mine, originating in Germany, obviously looks like the latter, however Mine actually has a plaque right where the handle sits that looks like this

There's sometimes heated discussion online (where else? ;) ) about how the US case is better / worth more etc, but in all honestly I like the black look of mine, and since I don't plan on selling mine anytime soon, who cares!

So what are the specifications of this beautiful guitar? According to the fine folks over at JemSite.com:

	JEM10
List Price	$2999.99 w/ case
Pictures	JEM10, Gallery
Color	Black w/ binding
Body	Basswood
Pickguard	Engraved Aluminum
Pickup Color	Chrome Plastic
Knobs	Chrome
5-way Tip	Black
Inlays	Abalone Pearl Vine
Fretboard	Ebony (bound fretboard & headstock)
Fret 21-24 Scalloped	No
Fret Wire	w6105
Neck Type	1-piece maple
Neck Joint	All Access Neck Joint
Hardware	Chrome
Pickups	DiMarzio Evolution (Humbucker/Single/Humbucker)
Tremolo	Lo-Pro Edge
Years	1996 -1997
Quantity	210 in the USA, 852 total worldwide
Note	10th Anniversary JEM. Incredible attention to detail.

JEM10 Notes - 10th Anniversary JEM. Includes numbered letter of authenticity hand signed by Steve Vai. The aluminum pickguard has an engraved vine and it's JEM10 serial number. JEM10s designated for the USA have a silver tweed JEM case with outside plaque and inner silk screened protective shroud. Later numbered JEM10s going to the USA have their JEM10 plaque screwed onto the case, instead of riveted/glued on.

Where Certain JEM10s Went: According to Hoshino USA distribution of certain JEM10s are as follows: Steve doesn't have JEM10TH #777. We're not sure which ones he DOES have, but he doesn't have these: #1 (is here at Hoshino USA) or #2 (at Roland/Meinl in Germany). #3, 5, 7, and 9 went for sale in the US market. #777 (unknown owner). After that, Hoshino has no further info on which # went where. JEM10 #16 was given away by Steve Vai during G3

Obviously the '210 for the US' now needs to be adjust to at least 211 since I brought mine here.

Another thing worth mentioning is the abundance of abalone inlays. Look at the details of the fretboard or the binding of the body. The Pickguard is fully engraved with a vine similar to the one on the fretboard. Also the neck has a very nice neck joint, called the 'All Access' Neck Joint, which makes reaching the higher frets effortless. Lastly the back of the neck is apparently bare wood which feels GREAT - MUCH better than those polyurethane necks that are so thickly coated they feel like plastic.

In the end, is there anything NOT to love about this guitar? well... sort of... The Monkey Grip is not really my thing, but funny thing is I DO actually use it to handle the guitar etc because it's fairly balanced when holding it there, so maybe Mr. Vai was onto something here. Obviously I'm not a big fan of the chrome flaking off the pickups, but really other than that I can honestly say that for me:
THIS is as perfect a guitar as you can make. A TRUE work of art to look at AND play on.

Oh yeah - Changing strings and taking them all off at once seems to be a bit of a bad idea ;)

P.S. This Gentleman has a whole bunch of pictures showing how beautiful this guitar truly is on PhotoBucket and is where I found some of the above pictures.