Dean Guitars and Full Sail University Announce Student Contest: Design a Custom Guitar

All Full Sail University students are invited to participate in an exclusive product-development challenge designed by Dean Guitars.

In a three-phase, 13-week competition, student teams will each create a video of intent, a product pitch and a product development proposal to support their design of a custom guitar for Dean Guitars. The winning design will be manufactured by Dean Guitars and available for purchase. Some of the proceeds from the sale of the custom guitar will return to Full Sail in the form of a student scholarship.

The winners of the grand prize will be selected by Dean Guitars at the end of phase 3; the team will receive one guitar per group member along with a tour of Dean Guitars’ facility in Tampa, Florida.

The competition kicks off 5:15 p.m. June 20 in Room 3F-111. Online students can participate through Wimba via the EB/MB Guest Speaker Virtual Classroom. Representatives from Dean Guitars will be at this information session to answer questions about the contest.

An internationally respected guitar maker, Dean Guitars has produced custom instruments for rock icons like Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, the late Dimebag Darrell, Eric Bass of Shinedown, Sevendust’s John Connolly and Vinnie Hornsby, Bret Michaels of Poison and ZZ Top.

“Based on the work I have seen during my tours of the Full Sail facility and the students’ work there, I am expecting to see some mind-blowing creativity with originality that challenges our manufacturing ability,” says Dean Guitars Director of Marketing Curse Mackey. “This is going to be a lot of fun and a very challenging project.”

Mackey says this is the first time Dean Guitars has worked with a university on a project of this kind.

“The scale of this project, being that it begins with design concepts and goes all the way through the entire process of developing and manufacturing a high-quality guitar that will be available for purchase, generating money for Full Sail’s scholarship fund along the way, is a groundbreaking concept between a university and an instrument manufacturer.”