Dean shreds the price tag, but not the feature set, with affordable new Kerry King Signature V
Cut-price version of the company's limited-edition Kerry King model offers maple top and EMG pickups
NAMM 2021 isn't taking place in the physical realm this year, but you'll find all the hottest January gear launches in our guide to the biggest guitar, amp and pedal releases of 2021 so far.
Back in April, Dean guitars teased a more affordable version of its USA Kerry King V Limited Edition model, which came with a whopping $8,666 price tag.
Now that new electric guitar, the Dean Kerry King Signature V, is here. Like its older, more expensive brother, the V model boasts a mahogany body and maple top, but in place of neck-through construction the new KK sports a three-piece maple set neck.
There’s also an EMG 85 pickup at the neck in place of a Sustainiac, while the bridge pickup remains an EMG 81 with a PA2 Preamp Booster. The guitar also swaps in a Kahler Hybrid system in place of a Kahler KFK Kerry King signature tremolo.
Other features on the Kerry King Signature V include an ebony fretboard with a flat 12″ radius, 24 jumbo frets and custom “crossed nail” inlays, a 24.75″ scale length and a Black Satin finish (sorry – no Gloss Red Cross graphic this time around).
It’s still, of course, a more-than-impressive metal beast of a guitar, and it now comes with a much-less aggressive price tag: just $1,399.
For more information, head to Dean Guitars.
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Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
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