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Dean Club!!!

#1,006
This is my Dean Edge 09
dean bass.jpg
bass and I love it. My wife and I were at a music store and I was telling her about how lucky young bass players are these days. They don't have to put up with the things we had to go through just to play a bass. Contrary to popular belief, back in the early sixties everybody didn't have Fenders or Gibsons or the like. We had Teisco, Kent, Winston, Sears, Norma and a host of other lesser brands. These instruments were the worst playing basses you can imagine. The intonation would be off, the necks would be warped, they wouldn't stay in tune, the strings sat so high off the fretboard as to make them unplayable. You had to be pretty dedicated to stick with it. A lot of these wunderkinds you see slapping and popping on Facebook wouldn't even be able to play if they were using a 1965 Silvertone bass. As I was telling her this, I spied a Dean Edge 09 hanging on the wall. I said "Here is a cheap bass and this is exactly what I'm talking about". I took down the Dean and started to play it. True enough it was head and shoulders above anything we had back in the day, but it was even better than I thought it would be. It was really easy to play and felt great in my hands. I couldn't believe something this inexpensive played this well. When I plugged it into an amp and heard it, then my mind was blown on a molecular level. Kids today have got it even better than I thought they did ! I got one and put a set of Fender tape wound strings on it (cause I hate round wound strings and every thing they stand for) and it sounded even better. I still can't get over the quality of this thing. Did I mention that it was under $200.00 ?
 
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#1,009
laughing house said:
This is my Dean Edge 09View attachment 3182387 bass and I love it. My wife and I were at a music store and I was telling her about how lucky young bass players are these days. They don't have to put up with the things we had to go through just to play a bass. Contrary to popular belief, back in the early sixties everybody didn't have Fenders or Gibsons or the like. We had Teisco, Kent, Winston, Sears, Norma and a host of other lesser brands. These instruments were the worst playing basses you can imagine. The intonation would be off, the necks would be warped, they wouldn't stay in tune, the strings sat so high off the fretboard as to make them unplayable. You had to be pretty dedicated to stick with it. A lot of these wunderkinds you see slapping and popping on Facebook wouldn't even be able to play if they were using a 1965 Silvertone bass. As I was telling her this, I spied a Dean Edge 09 hanging on the wall. I said "Here is a cheap bass and this is exactly what I'm talking about". I took down the Dean and started to play it. True enough it was head and shoulders above anything we had back in the day, but it was even better than I thought it would be. It was really easy to play and felt great in my hands. I couldn't believe something this inexpensive played this well. When I plugged it into an amp and heard it, then my mind was blown on a molecular level. Kids today have got it even better than I thought they did ! I got one and put a set of Fender tape wound strings on it (cause I hate round wound strings and every thing they stand for) and it sounded even better. I still can't get over the quality of this thing. Did I mention that it was under $200.00 ?
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Welcome to Dean Club!!!
And you're quite right...even today's inexpensive basses are decent and head and shoulders above the inexpensive basses of the 60's and 70' and even some of the 80's!
 
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#1,010
wintremute said:
We played it, but not plugged in. If I had realized how expensive it was, I probably wouldn't have touched it.
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Based on what I know about these, Dean has been making a limited run of 25 of these every year since 2011 which means to date there should be 175 of these out there somewhere.

You're lucky you saw and played one. That shop looks like they do a lot of other things besides sell guitars and basses based on the sign on the building and the stuff behind the picture of the owner.

Does Tony go there on a regular basis?

I just noticed the wooden truss rod cover. Nice touch.
 
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#1,012
laughing house said:
This is my Dean Edge 09View attachment 3182387 bass and I love it. My wife and I were at a music store and I was telling her about how lucky young bass players are these days. They don't have to put up with the things we had to go through just to play a bass. Contrary to popular belief, back in the early sixties everybody didn't have Fenders or Gibsons or the like. We had Teisco, Kent, Winston, Sears, Norma and a host of other lesser brands. These instruments were the worst playing basses you can imagine. The intonation would be off, the necks would be warped, they wouldn't stay in tune, the strings sat so high off the fretboard as to make them unplayable. You had to be pretty dedicated to stick with it. A lot of these wunderkinds you see slapping and popping on Facebook wouldn't even be able to play if they were using a 1965 Silvertone bass. As I was telling her this, I spied a Dean Edge 09 hanging on the wall. I said "Here is a cheap bass and this is exactly what I'm talking about". I took down the Dean and started to play it. True enough it was head and shoulders above anything we had back in the day, but it was even better than I thought it would be. It was really easy to play and felt great in my hands. I couldn't believe something this inexpensive played this well. When I plugged it into an amp and heard it, then my mind was blown on a molecular level. Kids today have got it even better than I thought they did ! I got one and put a set of Fender tape wound strings on it (cause I hate round wound strings and every thing they stand for) and it sounded even better. I still can't get over the quality of this thing. Did I mention that it was under $200.00 ?
Click to expand...

laughing house,

Welcome to Dean Club!!!

You have been officially issued Member Number 176
 
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#1,013
NicJimBass said:
Got my third Dean Euro...

After taking this year to experiment with a number of basses, I have come to the conclusion that these are some of the most perfect basses, for me. Tone and quality of a Spector Euro, but without the uncomfortable (to me) body shape and larger price tag. I'll most likely start moving most of my collection before too long, and I'm going to continue to keep an eye out for these, so I can horde them!! lol
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Nice basses. I discovered the magic of these basses years ago, and went through the same process as you. Except after I played with three of them for a long while, i finally settled on the natural finished one as far superior and sold the other two to friends. Enjoy the Czechs man! Join the DOA (Dean Owners Association) if you want to hang with lots of like minded Dean fanatics.

3-Czechs.jpg
 
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#1,014
BradWorld said:
Nice basses. I discovered the magic of these basses years ago, and went through the same process as you. Except after I played with three of them for a long while, i finally settled on the natural finished one as far superior and sold the other two to friends. Enjoy the Czechs man! Join the DOA (Dean Owners Association) if you want to hang with lots of like minded Dean fanatics.

View attachment 3189828
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I'm also finding there is one, maybe two that are the best of the bunch. Surprisingly, the Select seems to play better than either Improv. I can get really low action, the neck feels slimmer, and it's noticeably lighter. I think the preamp on the newest Improv may be holding it back, so I'm considering swapping it for another SNC or Audere
 
#1,015
BradWorld said:
Nice basses. I discovered the magic of these basses years ago, and went through the same process as you. Except after I played with three of them for a long while, i finally settled on the natural finished one as far superior and sold the other two to friends. Enjoy the Czechs man! Join the DOA (Dean Owners Association) if you want to hang with lots of like minded Dean fanatics.

View attachment 3189828
Click to expand...
That natural finish is a bute! I'm on the Dean Forum and got a membership for the DOA, but unfortunately I don't do facebook. I wish they used some other platform for that.
 
#1,016
BradWorld said:
Nice basses. I discovered the magic of these basses years ago, and went through the same process as you. Except after I played with three of them for a long while, i finally settled on the natural finished one as far superior and sold the other two to friends. Enjoy the Czechs man! Join the DOA (Dean Owners Association) if you want to hang with lots of like minded Dean fanatics.

View attachment 3189828
Click to expand...
I just noticed the truss rod cover is the same as the headstock. Is that a stock cover or a mod?
 
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#1,018
BradWorld said:
Nice basses. I discovered the magic of these basses years ago, and went through the same process as you. Except after I played with three of them for a long while, i finally settled on the natural finished one as far superior and sold the other two to friends. Enjoy the Czechs man! Join the DOA (Dean Owners Association) if you want to hang with lots of like minded Dean fanatics.

View attachment 3189828
Click to expand...
Wow, really nice basses. :thumbsup:
 
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#1,019
I own a Dean Edge 09, maybe another member does idk. It seems that most feature black hardware(as does mine minus the tuners which are gold due to replacement), while others feature silver hardware. The dean website seems to offer the black hardware model, whereas some other retailers and websites seem to offer the silver hardware one. Now dean does offer the playmate model, which features the silver hardware, but i have seen edge 09's not branded under the playmate series that feature the silver. Anyone have any insight? Just curious.....
 
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#1,020
TheBassmaster27 said:
I own a Dean Edge 09, maybe another member does idk. It seems that most feature black hardware(as does mine minus the tuners which are gold due to replacement), while others feature silver hardware. The dean website seems to offer the black hardware model, whereas some other retailers and websites seem to offer the silver hardware one. Now dean does offer the playmate model, which features the silver hardware, but i have seen edge 09's not branded under the playmate series that feature the silver. Anyone have any insight? Just curious.....
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Here are 2 pages from the 2007/2008 Dean Catalog that show the Edge 09. I have a few catalogs but not all of them. I have the 2003 catalog and the Edge 09 doesn't show up in that catalog in either the Edge on or Edge Playmate 09. I think maybe the Edge 09 started in 2005, but I don't know that for sure.
Dean_0708catalog 34.png
The ones below are all Playmates and say so on the headstock
Dean_0708_catalog 53.jpg

I'll post more when I have some time. Looks like hardware was either chrome or black... so far anyway.
These are from the 2008 catalog:
dean_2008_catalog 34.jpg
dean_2008_catalog 51.jpg

This is from the NAMM 2011 catalog
DeanNAMM2011Catalog 17.jpg
 
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