Dean Edge 09 Bass Guitar For Sale (2024 Update)

I've owned the trans amber bass for a couple years now, and it's my go-to instrument for most stuff. This bass feels great, sounds phenomenal, and looks beautiful. The range is excellent, it's easy to dial in any tone you want for any style. It's also a lot lighter than my ML Metalman bass. If you're looking for an inexpensive, quality instrument, you can't go wrong with any Dean.

Unfortunately, this was the highest ranked, most praised acoustic bass in its price range, so I am not sure if I will try to replace this one and hope for one that doesn't buzz, or give up the idea of playing acoustic bass and stick with my electrics. Generally, while I appreciate the availability of low-cost instruments, modern, fast production methods and relatively low quality control evident in this Chinese model gives me pause to reflect on whether I want to support this kind of outsourcing in order to go easy on my pocketbook, while my purchase drives hungry, low-income Asian factory workers and adundantly feeds the MF shareholders. From the lovely packaging in which the Exotica bass ships from Dean (though the UPS guy plunked the clearly marked "THIS END UP" side of the box DOWN onto my porch), the first impression is dazzling. The quilted ash on the "black" model actually looks purple in some light, and that is very cool. The binding is a richly luminescent, gold "tortoise shell" that looks fantastic, and the bridge shape…lovely. Unlike another reviewer, I like the way the tuner works, a fun surprise! I am not crazy about the string spacing at the nut (the E and G could sit out a bit farther to the edges), but that is just my personal preference. However, upon closer inspection, the true colors of this inexpensive bass prove disappointing. Quality is where the rubber meets the road for a player, no matter how beautiful an instrument may be. The workmanship, overall, is good. And fresh, too: the instrument reeks of polyurethane (a bit too much, really). However, right away I noticed little chips and scratches around the nut…tiny, and by no means fatal. Also, I observed that two of the four chrome tuners have significant scratches on them, also maybe not fatal. But then, as another reviewer observed, I saw that the tuners themselves are positioned as if by a drunkard: they are not evenly spaced or parallel on the otherwise symmetrical headstock. (One would expect the drill operators to use some kind of template here, but apparently not.) This is closer to fatal, but not quite yet…. Fatal is that – no matter what I have done to adjust the neck and bridge – the first two frets on the E and A strings buzz badly with all but very soft plucking; not ok for acoustic, which must be played loudly to be heard. The neck adjusts easily, but to get the buzz out, I had to put so much bow in, the intonation at fret 12 went off. Looks like this one will have to go back. How can I rank the value then? As an object of beauty, it is worth every penny – if you plan to hang it on the wall. If you intend to play the instrument acoustically…well, I am grateful for Musician's Friend's return policy, which it seems I will need to use here. Too bad, because the instrument really is beautiful and I might keep it, if only it didn't buzz. Maybe this one is a lemon, but I worry about the way the tuners were positioned and fear that a replacement might have similarly haphazard construction. The initialed "inspection" label on the back of the headstock suggests that the inspection process may be a bit lax.