2012 Small Jazz Guitars – Dean

Dean has been making the Palomino guitar from some time. The basic guitar is reminiscent of the iconic Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster guitars from the 1950s (shown at left). The Gibson’s were 17″ wide body guitars with three P90s and later three humbuckers.

The Dean Palomino series are smaller guitars with a 16″ width –  and thus meet my criteria for inclusion in the small guitar series. They all have a 24 3/4″ scale length and are all made from maple (top, back and sides and neck). They have a metal adjustable bridge (tuneamatic like). The nut width is 1 11/16″. They all have Florentine cutaways instead of the Venetian cutaways shown on the Gibson ES-5s.

The differences are in the pickup configurations.

Palomino

The Palomino is the basic three P90 model. The guitar has three finish options: Vintage Sunburst, Sea Green and Gloss Natural. The estimated online price is currently about $500. ¹

The Palomino Solo and the Palomino Trifecta are more difficult to find. The two images shown here link to product pages on Amazon. The differences are that the Solo (on left) has a single floating humbucker while the Trifecta (on right) has three humbuckers like the later models of the ES-5 switchmaster. Both are priced at about $600 online (April 2012). The Solo comes in Gloss Natural and Antique Natural finishes while the Trifecta comes only in the antique natural finish.

1. Prices are as of publication date. The price may have changed.