Dean Performer Mini Jumbo Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Classic Black

I was looking for a good guitar in this price range and had narrowed it down between the Ibanez AEL10EBK and the Dean Performer E Acoustic Electric Guitar. They seemed pretty equivalent from their description. Originally I had decided on the Ibanez because it had an established name (I never heard of Dean) and the pickup it used was an established brand ( a Fishman Sonicore). By contrast the Dean had it's own pickup which I knew nothing about. I was about to buy the Ibanez but I wanted to hear it first. I went to a local music store and took it down to try out. To my surprise it sounded very shallow, wooden, and muddy. There was very little resonance to the instrument. It sounded almost like a solid body guitar. When you strum all the strings at the same time it sounds muddled. I plugged in the Ibanez and found it sounded the same way. It was muddled. You didn't hear the individual strings. Just an overall "blahhh". As it happens, another music store down the street had...Read more

The guitar have a big jumbo box and the sound is excellent, plugged and unplugged. Beautiful guitar. :-)