NGD/Review: Dean Gordon Virtus (full-carve headless) custom-build

[narad]

I can relate to the pickiness because I was the same way when ordering customs, but man, that bobbin hue obsessiveness only gets you into the top 5? Who are these other guys and what were their demands?

 

[LunatiqueRob]

I can relate to the pickiness because I was the same way when ordering customs, but man, that bobbin hue obsessiveness only gets you into the top 5? Who are these other guys and what were their demands?

If I were to venture a wild guess:

1st place: Pink finish that mixes the blood of Dean's first born with white paint. If no child exists, then his pet. If no pet, then his own blood
2nd place: All plucked open strings must ring for at least 30 seconds
3rd place: Guitar must balance perfectly on one finger to pass the equal weight distribution test
4th place: When rubbing the edges of the fretboard with pantyhose, there must be no signs of any snags
5th place: The motherfucker who wanted "lavender" finish on his goddamn middle pickup bobbin

 

[narad]

If I were to venture a wild guess:

1st place: Pink finish that mixes the blood of Dean's first born with white paint. If no child exists, then his pet. If no pet, then his own blood
2nd place: All plucked open strings must ring for at least 30 seconds
3rd place: Guitar must balance perfectly on one finger to pass the equal weight distribution test
4th place: When rubbing the edges of the fretboard with pantyhose, there must be no signs of any snags
5th place: The motherfucker who wanted "lavender" finish on his goddamn middle pickup bobbin

Issues 1-4 cover the usual DirtyPuma evaluation criteria, but I wonder who the remaining guys are...

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Dean said I was easily in the top 5 of pickiest customers, but he appreciates the challenge because if he could make the dream guitar for someone like me, it'd be a piece of cake when it comes to less picky customers. He's a perfectionist himself so he totally gets that greatness never resulted from anyone who simply shrugged and said, "Whatever. Don't really care."

I mean I get pursuing a specific vision. That's what I did with my Waghorn but I wasn't breaking out the pantone color codes for a middle pickup or trying to find a very specific shade of white

 

[LunatiqueRob]

I mean I get pursuing a specific vision. That's what I did with my Waghorn but I wasn't breaking out the pantone color codes for a middle pickup or trying to find a very specific shade of white

Just for the record--he sent me the different white colors to choose from after I told him I wanted the look and feel of white plaster sculptures and white chocolate.

 

[LunatiqueRob]

I forgot to mention something about the Titan neck pickup. Remember I said I contacted DiMarzio for advice on a neck pickup that has a split-coil tone as close to the custom DiMarzio pickup in the Ibanez KIKO10BP as possible?

When the Virtus first arrived, the neck pickup sounded unexpectedly bright when I recorded test clips, and I was surprised and disappointed. Next day, when I continued with the test clip recordings, the pickup got much warmer--it was almost night and day difference. I have never experienced such a drastic difference within 24 hours, especially I only played the guitar for maybe an hour or two on that first day, as well as stretched the strings.

Now that the strings have settled in, the Titan neck pickup sounds so good--warm and articulate in humbucker mode, and when split, it sounds so close to the split-coil of the KIKO10BP that I think some people will have a hard time telling them apart in a full mix, since even just the way the player varies the playing could have caused those subtle differences from the same guitar. So, much thanks to the DiMarzio guys for the recommendation. I got pretty much exactly the lovely neck split-coil tone that was always my #1 among all single-coil tones. It's got this pleasing resonance peak that's really sweet sounding and never shrill or tinny.

People in guitar communities always say a split humbucker could never sound as good as a real single-coil, and I think they only say that because they have never heard the KIKO10BP's neck split-coil or the Titan. I also have other guitars with nice split-coil tones that are as good or better than some "real single-coils" so don't believe everything you hear/read about how split-coils never sound as good.

 

[Thesius]

Easily one of my favourite builds I've seen this year. Dean makes some great looking guitars

 

[narad]

By the way, you listed "satin marble white" as the color -- is there a marble pattern that is visible in real life? I don't see any patterns in the photos.

 

[LunatiqueRob]

By the way, you listed "satin marble white" as the color -- is there a marble pattern that is visible in real life? I don't see any patterns in the photos.

That's how Dean describes it in the specification sheet, and I think he meant like white marble sculptures, which might be a slight misunderstanding of when I told him "white plaster sculptures and white chocolate."

 

[Alberto7]

Congratulations!! It really is gorgeous I always appreciate reading about Dean's builds. His are in my top 5 custom designs out there!

And excellent choice on the Freeway 10-way. I was nervous when I asked Dan to put one on my Oni, especially since it only has two humbuckers, but I absolutely love the gajillion options and I find the operation of the switch super intuitive. It is kind of literally like driving a manual car with 10 gears

 

[Mboogie7]

I’ve been looking at these photos for a good 30 minutes now. This is by far the best NGD of the year imo. Your vision come to life is absolutely beautiful and I can’t stop drooling over the Jack output location haha.

Happy NGD!

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Congrats! Glad you finally ended the long journey of finding the one guitar that suits your needs.

Looking forward to your next 8 new guitar purchases!

 

[LunatiqueRob]

Here's a visual diagram of all 10 tones of my Virtus. I hate having to read text descriptions of pickup wiring arrangements as I find a visual diagram far more intuitive. Also, lower bank is placed on top and position 5 is on the left in the diagram because that's how it looks from the guitar player's POV. This is the only logical way to do it IMO and I don't know why some companies do it the opposite way. This isn't the same as the whole drummer's POV vs the audience's POV debate because pickup position/wiring diagrams are strictly for guitar players and not for the audience.

 

[Riverview]

I’m one of those old school guitar guys ( give me 1 bridge pickup and a headstock and I’m happy ) but this thing is absolutely wild , even if it’s something I wouldn’t normally consider . It reminds me of those high end orchestral string instruments that have a similar lower horn .

Looks amazing . Good choice on specs , and his work looks excellent . My only question is , do you use all 10 pickup options ? I know my hearing is mediocre , I just can’t imagine using 10 . I don’t even like 5 ways . 3 is enough for me and that’s already too much haha

 

[littlebadboy]

Beautiful beautiful beautiful guitar!

I need to ask... What do you do for a living?

 

[LunatiqueRob]

Congrats! Glad you finally ended the long journey of finding the one guitar that suits your needs.

Looking forward to your next 8 new guitar purchases!

I do have a Fender Player Plus Nashville model coming in a couple of days, and then in July I have the Jericho Fusion Evertune 8-string finally shipping. I think that's going to be it for me for a long while, although I am on the hunt for a Tele that has all the comfort contours (forearm, neck-heel, belly) but also the classic pickup configuration of just lipstick neck single-coil and slanted bridge pickups. It's kinda shocking how difficult it is to find even one guitar like that on the market. All the models with those comfort contouring are modded ones with different pickup sets and switching. Maybe the only way is to do a Partscaster, but I won't go there unless I absolutely have to. And also, this last Tele is something I just kinda want because I want a classic configuration Tele but with all the comfort contouring, thinking it'd be cool.

 

[LunatiqueRob]

I’m one of those old school guitar guys ( give me 1 bridge pickup and a headstock and I’m happy ) but this thing is absolutely wild , even if it’s something I wouldn’t normally consider . It reminds me of those high end orchestral string instruments that have a similar lower horn .

Looks amazing . Good choice on specs , and his work looks excellent . My only question is , do you use all 10 pickup options ? I know my hearing is mediocre , I just can’t imagine using 10 . I don’t even like 5 ways . 3 is enough for me and that’s already too much haha

I don't need or use all 10, but because of limitations on how the pickups can be wired, to get the essential tones I DO use, the simplest way was to use a 10-way switching system (or a 5-way with a split-coil toggle). Basically, the 8 essential tones I actually use are:

Neck humbucker / Neck split-coil
Neck split-coil + Middle
Middle / Neck + Bridge humbuckers
Middle + Bridge split-coil
Bridge humbucker / Bridge split-coil

And out of those 8, the ones I use the most by far are the neck humbucker, neck split-coil, bridge humbucker, and one of the in-between positions (depending on which frequency ranges I want emphasized/deemphasized). The rest of the positions are for when I need rhythm and fingerstyle tones with better clarity in certain frequency ranges with less lows or low-mids. During the songwriting and arranging process, it's just faster to flick a switch than to dial EQ settings to get those tones, since you can't break the momentum of the inspiration while in the thick of it.

Beautiful beautiful beautiful guitar!

I need to ask... What do you do for a living?

Thanks!

I'm just a lower-middle-class guy who makes a living being a professional creative. I'm an artist, writer, musician, and photographer, and I also teach all the things I do professionally. I started out freelancing in comics, then worked in video games and animation while I moonlighted as a musician, and then went back to freelancing.

My wife and I live a pretty frugal lifestyle where it counts, and use the money we save up for investments and savings, and anything left that's disposable we splurge on things that make us happy. We don't travel or go on vacations (we did plenty of it when we were younger), we rarely ever eat out, we don't spend money we don't have with credit cards and pay interests--we always pay off our cards every month. We buy used everything whenever we can--car, electronic devices, whatever. Even my guitars are almost all used, and I only buy new when I want something that was just released and it would take too long to wait for used ones to pop up. When we do spend money, it's always on things that matter like a healthy diet of high-quality food we use for home cooking. She loves gardening and cooking so she splurges on fruit trees, flowers, landscaping, fertilizers, and nice kitchenware. For me, I like convenience and performance, so my mobile devices and computers tend to be high-end. My music gear is more utilitarian--I will use what gets the job done at the lowest price, but as we know, with music gear, often you get what you pay for and some things just are more expensive if you want quality, features, and reliability.

 

[littlebadboy]

Thanks!

I'm just a lower-middle-class guy who makes a living being a professional creative. I'm an artist, writer, musician, and photographer, and I also teach all the things I do professionally. I started out freelancing in comics, then worked in video games and animation while I moonlighted as a musician, and then went back to freelancing.

My wife and I live a pretty frugal lifestyle where it counts, and use the money we save up for investments and savings, and anything left that's disposable we splurge on things that make us happy. We don't travel or go on vacations (we did plenty of it when we were younger), we rarely ever eat out, we don't spend money we don't have with credit cards and pay interests--we always pay off our cards every month. We buy used everything whenever we can--car, electronic devices, whatever. Even my guitars are almost all used, and I only buy new when I want something that was just released and it would take too long to wait for used ones to pop up. When we do spend money, it's always on things that matter like a healthy diet of high-quality food we use for home cooking. She loves gardening and cooking so she splurges on fruit trees, flowers, landscaping, fertilizers, and nice kitchenware. For me, I like convenience and performance, so my mobile devices and computers tend to be high-end. My music gear is more utilitarian--I will use what gets the job done at the lowest price, but as we know, with music gear, often you get what you pay for and some things just are more expensive if you want quality, features, and reliability.

Thank you for sharing your lifestyle and philosophy. I'm just living off a public school teacher paycheck with lots of obligations. I have a few more years until I retire and I have given up on owning a high end guitar, or even a custom built. But, I highly appreciate for what I have now.

I apologize for the off-topic! Again, that is a beautiful guitar. I'm speechless.

 

[vark]

I do have a Fender Player Plus Nashville model coming in a couple of days, and then in July I have the Jericho Fusion Evertune 8-string finally shipping. I think that's going to be it for me for a long while, although I am on the hunt for a Tele that has all the comfort contours (forearm, neck-heel, belly) but also the classic pickup configuration of just lipstick neck single-coil and slanted bridge pickups. It's kinda shocking how difficult it is to find even one guitar like that on the market. All the models with those comfort contouring are modded ones with different pickup sets and switching. Maybe the only way is to do a Partscaster, but I won't go there unless I absolutely have to. And also, this last Tele is something I just kinda want because I want a classic configuration Tele but with all the comfort contouring, thinking it'd be cool.

 

[Moongrum]

Here's a visual diagram of all 10 tones of my Virtus. I hate having to read text descriptions of pickup wiring arrangements as I find a visual diagram far more intuitive. Also, lower bank is placed on top and position 5 is on the left in the diagram because that's how it looks from the guitar player's POV. This is the only logical way to do it IMO and I don't know why some companies do it the opposite way. This isn't the same as the whole drummer's POV vs the audience's POV debate because pickup position/wiring diagrams are strictly for guitar players and not for the audience.
View attachment 144151

To me, this one is rather uncommon. How did you decide on neck hum and bridge single as a combination?