Dean has unveiled a new Thoroughbred Select electric guitar that piles the spec up high, modernises the classic solidbody singlecut archetype, and prices it within the budget of the jobbing guitarist or serious amateur.
There is a lot going on here. Indeed, the guitar's official designation gives the game away. The “Thoroughbred Select Floyd Quilt Maple Natural Black Burst”? Quite the mouthful, but then this is quite the spec, and, yes, there is a highly figured quilted maple top, complemented by the Natural Black Burst finish, and the Floyd Rose 1000 Series double-locking vibrato unit promises all kinds of stunt guitar hi-jinks.
All this is quite something on an electric guitar under $/£1,000. But there’s more. This Thoroughbred Select is appointed with a classic Seymour Duncan humbucker pairing of the jazz-friendly APH-1 Alnico II at the neck position and the “PAF-on-steroids” Custom at the bridge.
The pickups are open-coil zebra models, too, which always looks the part on a guitar such as this. The control setup is very Les Paul-esque, with each pickup allocated an independent volume and tone knob, and a three-way pickup selector mounted on the shoulder.
The Thoroughbred Select has a solid eastern mahogany body and a set-through eastern mahogany neck with a satin finish in contrast to the high-gloss elsewhere – all the better for high-performance lead guitar. But these high-performance appointments sit on a chassis that once more refers to the Les Paul with regards its dimensions. Here, the scale length is 24.75” and the ebony fingerboard is carved into a familiar 12” radius.
The 22 jumbo frets, however, once more place the Thoroughbred Select in the modernist camp. And surely those anguished by the eternal debate surrounding the moral rectitude of affixing a Floyd Rose unit to a Les Paul might see the appeal of this hotrodded twist on the singlecut recipe.
Completing an impressive spec, there are Grover 18:1 ration tuners, and that fancy quilted maple is reprised on the headstock. The Thoroughbred Select Floyd Quilt Maple Natural Black Burst is available now, and priced $1099. For more details, see Dean Guitars.
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