Exotica Review

Dao wood gives this instrument a complex & warm tone with great mid-tone range.

Features:	10
Sound:	9.7
Action:	9.3
Reliability:	10
Impression:	9.7
Overall rating:	9.7
Users rating:	7.8
Comments:	11

overall: 10

Featured review by: unregistered, on june 28, 2004

Price paid: 400

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Features: Wow, stunningly beautiful blonde guitar. Pearl dot inlays with pearl around the body and around the sound hole. The bridge is very unique and flows perfectly with the guitar. It's got a cutaway body for access to higher frets too. // 10

Sound: The Exotica is an electric/accoustic with active electronics. A 9V battery powers the 5-band equalizer sub bass, bass, mids, treble, bright, volume and an anti feedback switch, which comes in handy alot. I mean what can I say, Martin guitars watch your backs! I love the sound that I get out of this anywhere from Nirvana Unplugged sound, to John Mayor, to Frigan. Who ever else the sound is wow! // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: Action is nice and light with minimal twang. I got it in perfect condition, no flaws. Nothing. Nothing has had to be re-adjusted to make the action better so I mean its perfect! // 10

Reliability & Durability: This guitar has been with me thru my talents shows woo, relaxed accoustic gigs at parties, sing alongs by the campfire with all the friends, I mean its grown up with me and nothing has gone wrong yet! And I take it everywhere! It's always in the backseat of my car waiting to be played cuz she knows shes never going to fail me! the finish will be there forever on the body. The only thing thats wearing out a tiny bit is the bridge. The staining on the bridge is wearing off from palm mutes and stuff. // 10

Impression: One word perfect. I'de go out and buy 10 of these in the event it got stolen 10 times! I love this thing SO much. I've writin countless songs with it! it's so perfect it got me a girlfriend! But then again that was part guitar and part musician. Still, I love it. // 10

overall: 9.2

Reviewed by: alex lifeson7, on may 09, 2008

Price paid: 395

Purchased from: a little store

Features: // 10

Sound: I play all sorts of stuff, mostly classic rock, and blues. One this guitar I play all sorts of stuff, from just basic chord strumming, to stuff like kansas and zeppelin, to stuff such as what that kid in august Rush does. I play this without an amp mostly, when I do use an amp I use a 65W Fender Princeton. Obviously if you crank the volume and sit near the amp, you are going to get huge feedback, since this is an acoustic guitar. I can get a wide variety of tones from this guitar, since it has all the tone controls (presence, treble, middle, and bass). You can get a very bright sound, or a dark deep, mellow sound, really anything you want. It suits my music style good as well. // 9

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was setup pretty good, the action is fairly high, I would change that for sure, haven't tried yet, so I'm not sure how much lower I could go before I get some fret buzz. The flame maple top was perfectly bookmatched, definitely no complaints there. Can't really find any flaws, one tiny thing is that sometimes it's a pain to get the battery out of the compartment (if you leave the battery in, it will go dead, even if it's not being used). Not a big deal at all though. // 8

Reliability & Durability: I think this guitar will withstand Live playing. I haven't played it live, but I do play it quite a bit, and it has been dropped (not by me, I take loving care of my instruments) without any damage. The hardware seems like it will last, the tuners are good. There is only one strap button, on the bottom, it is solid. Definatley can depend on this guitar, could be played Live without a backup, although I'm not sure why you would want to do that. The finish is good, there are some tiny basically unseeable scratches from picks, which is normal on any guitar. // 10

Impression: This guitar is a pretty good match for my style. I've only been playing for 2 years, I own a Epiphone mahogany SG as well, and am getting a strat or a tele very soon. If this guitar was stolen, I would be angry, then I would find the guy Who stole it, demand money for the guitar, and then go and buy another acoustic guitar, such as a Garrison or Epiphone masterbilt. Not because I don't like this guitar, but just becuase I would want to try something different. My favourite thing about this guitar would have to be it's looks. The flame maple top is absolutely gorgeous, especially with the dark blue (almost greyish) color that I have (the color of my guitar is much darker than the color on most pictures). The abalone fret markers and inlay around the soundhole are also sweet. The feature that I hate, at least dislike, would have to be the shape of the bridge. I compared it to a Takamine acoustic electric, and another Dean, and they all sounded fairly similar, so I picked this one because it looked way better than any of the other ones. // 9

overall: 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on november 17, 2004

Price paid: 0

Purchased from: Chris' guitar shop

Features: This guitar feature a flamed maple top, grover tuners, spruce neck with a rosewood fretboard, the inlays are mother of pearl, the matching color continues around the sound hole. It has a beautiful blonde finish. It is slightly larger than your standard cutaway guitar. It is equped with a Dean pick-up, and features 22 fret (I think). // 10

Sound: The Exotica can be played in all acoustic situations. My favorite is solo numbers with a blues style backround. The volume is great and the sound is even as sweet plugged in as by its self. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: Everything seemed to be in place when I got the guitar and it really hold up well. I am a stickler for my instruments. They must have the right sound or I will not play them. The pickup amazed me Dean makes a fine pickup. The action was perfect I had a pro look it over for me and he said if I were to move the actuion one way or the other it would not be perfect. // 10

Reliability & Durability: Live play is the best for this instrument I have played it live, and I was told the tone was amazing. Grover tuners are the best I am sure they will withstand the years to come. I had to put a starp button on my guitar but the origianl button has never let me down. The finsih will hold for years to come. // 10

Impression: I play rock/blues and acoustic numbers I can do all this in some sences. I have played for years I enjoy my time with my instruments, I own a les paul gold top, an I Banez SA series Transparent Amber, and the Dean. I would be upset if it was stolen I would get the same thing but it would have to meet my standards. I can outplay most of the top names like Taylor and Martin, even if they were of a higher price. // 10

Comments

[595Metallica595]

VERY ODD PICTURE!!! took me like 3 minutes to realize it was a guitar lol

[Musicislife539]

its an acoustic you deuche

[Kid Fisto]

yeah that pic f-ed me up for a minute too.

[chll]

stupid pic but nice guitar

[Jericho114]

If it took you longer than two seconds to see how that was a guitar, you're a complete moron.

It should be mandatory for full body pictures, there is nothing I hate more than seeing a glimpse of a nice guitar and then having to look it up on google. Easy enough I know, but if we're already here it just makes sense.

[Brad_Bassist]

Yeah I 100% agree with Jericho

[TatarSalad2]

Excuse me?
Deans suck?

They are a very good quality guitar, and they sound excellent? You heard of Dimebag Derrel? Yeah, that awesome sound you're hearing is a Dean.

[.QOTSA.]

You heard of Dimebag Derrel?

haha u havent

[thenexthetfield]

Of course I've heard of Dimebag...I don't live in a freakin' hole in the middle of no where. Also, that's only MY OPINION... why do you care what I think? Every Dean I've ever played just feel horrible, the sound isnt bad, but they just don't feel like a solid guitar... to me anyways.

Anyways, I've got better things to do with my time than fighting some random person over an internet forum, so later.

So did that clear anything up?

[musicjunkie12]

Deans are kinda overratted, i'v owned to many of them and have not been 100% satisfied with any of them

[peaceonearth52]

.QOTSA. wrote:

You heard of Dimebag Derrel?
haha u havent

hahahahaha +1