verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message dean guitars type private industry musical instruments founded 1977 ; 39 years ago 1977 headquarters tampa florida united states of america area served global key people elliott rubinson owner dean zelinsky founder products electric acoustic & resonator guitars acoustic & electric guitars banjos mandolins ukuleles amplifiers pickups owner armadillo enterprises inc. website deanguitars.com dean guitars is an american manufacturer of musical instruments . it was founded in 1977 by dean zelinsky in chicago illinois and is currently under the ownership of armadillo enterprises in tampa florida . 1 the range of products includes electric acoustic and resonator guitars basses banjos mandolins ukuleles amplifiers and pickups . contents 1 history 2 instruments 2.1 other products 3 affiliated companies 4 references 5 external links history edit dave mustaine left with his dean signature vmnt . dean 79 z. a razorback model . dean guitars was founded by dean zelinsky in 1976 when he was 19 years old . oscar medeiros gained ownership of the brand from 1986 and until 1995 . 2 armadillo enterprises under the leadership of elliott phillip rubinson then purchased the dean trade name in 1997 . rubinson continues to run the company today and is also an active musician . he tours as bass player for the michael schenker group as well as for uli jon roth and michael angelo batio . 3 zelinsky left from the company in 2008 and went on to form dbz guitars . 4 instruments edit dean is best known for their line of electric guitars that include the ml v z cadillac splittail soltero evo custom zone vendetta and deceiver models . in 2012 dean guitars debuted its 35th anniversary collection including reissues of the original 1977 ml v and z. dean also has many signature electric guitar models . the company offers numerous dimebag darrell models including some signature ml models and his own original shapes the razorback and razorback v. dean also has signature models for dave mustaine bret michaels michael schenker leslie west michael angelo batio michael amott rusty cooley and other artists . the company s bass guitar models include the ml v z cadillac edge demonator hillsboro evo and custom zone . dean has extended its range of products to other strings instruments such as resonator guitars mandolins and banjos . dean ml dean v dean z dean cadillac dean soltero dean hardtail dean splittail dean sledgehammer bass other products edit in 2007 dean guitars began producing their own pickups called dmt dean magnetic technologies . dean manufactures artist signature pickups for dime schenker west batio amott moore and others . 5 dean also produces amplifiers for electric acoustic and bass guitars . at the 2009 namm trade show dean unveiled the new dime blacktooth amplifier which is a recreation of dime s favorite amp that he played in pantera for over 12 years . it was released to the public in early 2010 . the 20 watt combo version kept the blacktooth name but the head and cabinet version were renamed the dean dimebag d100 and d412 . the blacktooth d100 and d412 are now produced by a subsidiary of dean guitars dime amplification . the amplification line has since been discontinued . affiliated companies edit armadillo enterprises the parent company of dean guitars also owns luna guitars and ddrum . references edit music trades magazine december 2007 ed roman . dean guitars history of dean guitars ed roman guitars . edroman.com . retrieved 2010 07 28 . repositioning ddrum for growth drawing on lessons learned reviving dean guitars elliott rubinson reintroduces ddrum as an alte printable . entrepreneur.com . retrieved 2010 07 28 . http www.dbzguitars.com buddy blaze guitars . buddyblaze.com . 2013 12 28 . retrieved 2014 03 24 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to dean guitars . official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title dean guitars & oldid 728911510 categories guitar manufacturing companiesguitar amplifier manufacturershidden categories articles needing additional references from march 2014all articles needing additional referencespages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscommons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages 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