It’s been a rocky few years for Dime Guitarz’ Rita Haney and Dean Zelinsky. The company was founded to preserve the guitar designs of late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, but it’s faced a prolonged legal battle while trying to reclaim Dime’s bodies of work – the Stealth, Razorback and Culprit guitar designs he conceived while endorsed by Washburn.
Those trademarks were later transferred over to Dean Guitars, the company Zelinsky founded in the late ’70s, with which he’s no longer involved. A spring court ruling left the Stealth and Razorback with Deans’ current owners, Armadillo Distribution Enterprises. But Haney – Dimebag’s longtime girlfriend and estate trustee – is appealing the decision.
In better news, Dime Guitarz recently went to market with standard and customizable versions of the Culprit. Originally delivered in the late ’90s, the mahogany-body design can now be fitted with Zelisnky’s patented, friction-reducing Glide-Z neck, and they all come with his newly-developed Dimebooster technology – a USB-charged tone pot you can tap for a 15db gain boost.
Haney is pleased to see Dime’s guitar finally delivered with an edgier presentation, vis-à-vis its reinstated “Checkmark” headstock shape. “He always hated that banana-shaped headstock – couldn’t stand it,” she says. “Washburn really insisted on trying out a different-style headstock, so he let them run with that. But in the drawings I have of the Culprit the ’Checkmark’ was one of the headstock choices.”
While currently only available via the Dime Guitarz website, Zelinsky says they’re in talks with “one of the bigger box stores in the United States” as a potential distributor. Haney teases that fans may eventually get their hands on other unique designs based on Dime’s old notes.
“There are still five other body shapes that no-one has seen,” she says. “I’m about to share them with Dean – he’ll be the first person to put eyes on them. I’ve coveted those. It’s crazy that I haven’t shown them to anyone.”
She continues: “I’m so blessed to have all that stuff, because a lot of people lose someone and they forget how they smell, or how they sound or look. I have all these things. He’s still here every day.”
How does it feel to have the updated Culprit ready to be shredded on?
Haney: It feels really good. It’ll feel better when we’re able to do all of the guitars that Darrell designed – and trust me, we’re working real hard on that. It’s been this long fistfight that I’ve had to do since he’s been gone. There’s been so many things that people try to take that don’t belong to them. They belong to him, you know? He was the creator, the designer.
A lot of kids today don’t really know the history. A lot of them don’t understand that the guitars that we’re doing now are made by Dean Zelinsky, who formed Dean Guitars. They don’t know why this collaboration is happening.
Dean, how do you reflect on the history between yourself and Dime, leading up to the release of the latest Culprit?
Zelinsky: I’ve got pictures of him with braces on his teeth playing a guitar I designed – my original guitar, the Dean ML [one of which Dimebag won in a competition in 1981]. That’s how we connected. He just loved my guitars.
It’s been a rollercoaster for me, because I left the business for a while. I took nine years off. Darrell became famous, and then he ended up at Washburn. Then we finally put it back together at Dean Guitars during a short stint when I went back to my old company.
Darrell died three weeks after we signed the contract. We’re finally doing what we planned to do… I’m as excited as hell about doing it. And I’m doing it for Darrell.
What’s the history behind the Culprit shape?
Haney: The funny thing is that people immediately go, “It looks like a bottle opener!” That’s what inspired him to design the curve on the bottom. He was a big fan of Coors Light. It was a joke – but it was the inspiration for that design. It actually predated his Stealth design, and it was the first thing he did when he was at Washburn. There was only a very limited run of those guitars.
What makes the updated Culprit unique?
Haney: I want to say one thing: Darrell was an innovator. Always was. You get purists who say things like, “He didn’t ever use this.” Well, at that time it didn’t exist! But I know Darrell would continue to move on and innovate – and the one person he looked up to when it came to building guitars is Dean.
If he were here today, I know he’d be gladly playing the Z-Glide neck. That thing floats. It’s amazing the way it feels. But even just the innovation of the cutout on the back of the Culprit, and being able to reach a little farther – he was known for that pinky stretch.
I think you feel the power of Dime through it. It’s a vibe
Rita Haney
Zelinsky: Dime Guitarz is taking Darrell’s designs and bringing them into the future. He was an original.
Was there anything in Dime’s notes that pointed you towards the Dimebooster?
Zelinsky: That was my thing. The cool thing is that there’s no battery. You’ve got this USB-C on one end, and the other end is a regular quarter-inch jack. You plug your guitar in, and in about 30 seconds you get 20 hours of playing time with the booster. It’s a lot of extra power; I’m sure Darrell would have loved it.
Haney: He was all about high gain, from his pickups to his amps.
Rita, you were showing off some of these guitars at Zakk Wylde’s Bezerkus fest in the summer. What was it like?
Haney: It was really cool – we were set up right next to the smaller stage where Zakk Sabbath played, so any time the bands were on you couldn’t hear anything. But as soon as it broke between bands, the Warhead amp was fired up and the fans were on it. I think you feel the power of Dime through it. It’s a vibe.
What’s your favorite colorway option for the Culprit?
Zelinsky: The Blacktooth; the purple one.
Haney: I would say the Snakeskin – the tobacco burst with a snakeskin look. It’s really pretty. I just love the texture of that thing. Each one is slightly different.
Zelinsky: The Dimebolt that we’re doing here actually has a laser engraving in it, so it’s both laser-engraved and painted.
Is there a story behind the headstock silhouette of Dime raising his guitar?
Haney: In our hallway at the fortress [their in South Arlington, Texas] we have several of his favorite pictures hanging up. That’s from a live photo of him and Vinnie Paul during the Reinventing the Steel tour.
It had that whole backline with the meat racks and all the chrome Warheads – that look was so tough. He’s facing Vinnie and he’s bent over backwards. He traced that out himself.
You’re incorporating the Z-Glide neck and the Dimebooster, but what what about classic parts you didn’t want to mess with?
Zelinsky: It’s kind of simple – it’s a Floyd Rose trem; it’s a [Seymour Duncan] Dimebucker and a ’59 humbucker. We put on locking tuners.We’re not going off the rails with this; we’re just putting some cool stuff on top.
It’s a travesty of justice – and justice delayed, by the way, is justice denied
Dean Zelinksy
Dime Guitarz has obviously faced some setbacks with the court ruling.
Haney: Definitely. We’ve appealed, but Armadillo have gone into some bankruptcy thing to try to keep from paying the people that they owe. All I want is his property back. Just give us our toys so we can go play with them, you know?
What’s the most important reason for bringing the Stealth and the Razorback under the Dime Guitarz brand?
Haney: Well, he designed them! They were his. He was very proud of those shapes.
Zelinsky: It’s part of his legacy, and Rita wants to see it live on. I was around when the contract was put together, and it was very clear that when it ended, Darrell could take his ball and go home. It happened to be two balls: the Stealth and the Razorback.
That didn’t happen. It’s a travesty of justice – and justice delayed, by the way, is justice denied. It’s been five years.
Rita, is there anything you can say about the five other guitar designs you’re currently hanging onto?
Haney: I can say that I want his legacy to continue for 100 years, and I want Dime Guitarz to be known for pointy guitars. It’s for any style of music you want to look tough with, not just heavy metal.
- Find out more at Dime Guitarz.
