Review of the Dean Playmate EAB Acoustic/Electric Bass Guitar

Dean Playmate EAB Acoustic Electric Bass Guitar

Review of the Dean Playmate EAB Acoustic/Electric Bass Guitar

-Alan Arnell

The Dean EAB Acoustic-Electric Bass is a full-sized bass guitar

that produces a deeper, fuller tone than basses costing much

more. 34" scale, easy-playing neck. Case sold separately.

-Guitar Center

The Dean Playmate EAB Acoustic Electric Bass in my humble opinion is a very-good moderately priced bass guitar to purchase and own.  Remember, you get what you pay for in a guitar.  The Dean may not be a Martin, Tacoma, Fender, Kelly, or even an Ibanez bass guitar, but the Dean is well worth or maybe succeeds its price tag.  

As a little background of the author’s bass play: I just started playing bass not more than three months ago.  I have played the six-string guitar for over 40 years with moderate ability.  I have for many years wanted to learn the bass, but as those things go I never pulled the trigger.  Until.  I visited my friend in Missouri and he had just started to play the bass.  Doug is, in many ways, my muse for learning and playing my string instruments.  I was so strong in emotion about picking up and learning to play a new stringed instrument that Doug took me to his favorite used music store.  I was not there more than 10 minutes; before I bought a J.Reynolds bass and Fender bass amp, before I drove back home to Texas.  

Back in Texas, I hit the bass real hard and learned several songs.  I was really enjoying my new instrument, when I took a job out of state in California for three weeks.  I was flying to the job and did not want to transport my J. Reynolds with me on the flight.  I also did not want to loose what I had learned by having to take a forced three week break from practice.  So, I decided to purchase my Dean Playmate EAB bass on Ebay from seller “caraudiodistributors” and have them ship my bass to where I was staying in California.  

Over-all:  The The Dean Playmate EAB Acoustic Electric Bass has a good acoustic bass sound.  The workmanship quality is good as well for the money.  I have been told that the Dean sounds like the Tacoma acoustic basses.  I would say that the buyer of the Dean EAB would take more that a fair return upon his or her investment of a Dean EAB.

The only criticism I could say is that the Dean is really large in size.  Having not played other acoustic basses before, I can not say if the Dean’s size is common or not, however after playing a Gibson SG Les Paul Junior six-string for 45 years it took some time to get comfortable when I began playing the Dean. For bass players with small hands, like my daughter, the fret sizes can pose a problem. My daughter plays a Hofner-Violin bass like Paul McCartney, that has basically the same neck size as a typical 6-string electric guitar. She was not happy with the Dean’s large size.  However, her and my criticisms are purely personal and have no reflection on the play-ability, quality or the sound of the bass guitar.  

Hofner-Violin bass

One thing to point out is that the Dean when plugged into an amp it stills sounds like an acoustic guitar.  The sound is bad when you are used to the sound of say, my J. Reynolds bass. If, I want to play on an amp I pass on the Dean.

I have been told that the Dean EAB does not play loud enough unplugged.  I would say in reply, that may be true if you are playing in a group or band.  Yet, after playing a electric bass unplugged, I feel the Dean produces a more than adequate amount of sound for practicing and learning. If you have sound problems while playing in a group, I might suggest that you might have to spend a couple of thousand dollars more and buy a higher end unit to play.

Play-ability:  The Dean EAB has a long neck fretboard made of Rosewood.  I have been told it is quite similar to a Fender American Standard Jazz bass.  I got in the bad habit while playing the Hofner of pressed the third fret of the E string using my third finger (the Ring finger), that is hard to do on the Dean.  I have to correctly use my fourth finger (pinky) to reach the press point of the fret.

The Dean’s action or string height is ⅜ of an inch.  I think that is high, but my J, Reynolds has a similar action measurement.  The Dean has no fret buzz.  I maybe, could lower the action, but the height is okay for me and why take a chance of buzzing it out?

The frets are well set, dressed and of a good height.  The light-brown fret board is okay and functional.    

Electronics:  I have only played the Dean once on an amp.  I bought it to be able to play without an amp, so my lack of amp time should be self explanatory. The guitar’s sound through the electronics is not very good. Even with the tone turned all the way down, and the volume nearly all the way down, the bass does not have that deep-throat-ed electric bass sound that everyone craves. The bass on the amp sounds like it does unplugged only louder.  

Hardware:  The appearance of the wood and its satin finish is good.  My Dean came in a blond-natural color.  How it will stand up to the test of time is anyone’s guess.   

The body is a traditional acoustic shape and pleasing to the eye.  The tuning pegs are not the big bass half dollar size, but larger than normal 6-string pegs. The pegs provide sufficient power to properly tune the bass. I have had no problems keeping the bass in tune.  

The string-retention pegs are large and provide more than enough mass for equitable sound.  The pegs look like they are made of plastic, but have functioned as they should.  Of course, I would rather have bone, brass or Tusq retention pegs, but then again I am on a beer budget.

TUSQ is a proprietary material which is precision engineered under high

pressure and heat. It is specifically formulated to deliver the right frequencies

with the optimum transfer rate to the top of your guitar every time.

The neck is smooth and feels well to the touch.  The factory installed strings are nickel or steel wrapped strings.  Again, the strings, like the bass, are functional.

Sound: I am no expert on the sound quality an instrument makes.  It is like, I know it when I hear it, sort of thing.  For a more professional review I submit what was written on http://theguitarreview.com/ by Jim:

...The acoustic sound is extremely comparable to solid-wood guitars from a much higher price range! The bass frequencies are pretty tight, and the reproduction of the string flutter comes out nice and clear. The sound is pretty good when playing up the neck, especially when I switched from nickel to phosphor-bronze strings. When correctly mic-ed, the Dean sounds so very clear and wonderful – almost as rich as a grand piano with its top open.

The electronic sound (through the passive saddle pickup) is not up to snuff, though… see the “Wishes” section of this review.

The sound of the Dean was far better than any of the $300-$600 guitars I played….

My Dean Bass In Action

I suck in this video, but I have only been playing for 3 months

so, I somewhat have an excuse
and I really wanted you to hear how my Dean EAB sounds.

Price:  I got a great deal at $110 on Ebay for my Dean Bass along with free shipping. I had earlier gone to The Guitar Center and they were selling the Dean at around the same price or a little more in July of 2016.  I almost bought one, except the Guitar Center I went to was out of stock.  The silver lining of that story was that I did not have to carry it to California only back to Texas.

Made in P. R. C. means made in China.

As of today the Dean Bass is listed at $179 by the same seller on eBay.  $110 is a great deal for a great guitar, however $179 in my opinion would be at the edge of the envelope for the Dean EAB bass I have due to its construction materials.

Some Dean EABs are made of solid ash and go for $300+.  

I like my Dean EAB.  It satisfies my needs for a bass guitar at this time of my life and my stage of play and the price is right!

Features

Select Spruce Top

Mahogany Body

34" Scale

1-5/8" Nut

Set Mahogany C Neck

Rosewood Fingerboard

Pearl Dot Inlays

Sealed Die Cast Tuners

Celluloid Binding / Rosette

Rosewood Bridge

MANUFACTURER'S WARRANTY

5 year parts and labor warranty against defects.

*****

Did you like my post?
If you did, please share my blog with your friends

to help keep me motivated and making posts.

Love and Peace and keep Rocking!

Checkout the Right Column for more TABS & Posts
******
Please Check out my Google+ page "Old Guys Rock Rock N Roll @ (LINK)
and, my Cover Song Tablature Sharing Site @ (LINK)

Tal Wilkenfeld Bass Player Sadowsky Bass Guitar