Dean Zelinsky Private Label Guitars

Bought a Dellatera guitar (telecaster type) online. Was a «refurb» with some «finish issues» so it was discounted. DZ makes a Dellatera «Standard» and a Dellatera «Custom», the difference being the «Custom» has a flamed maple cap and is offered in burst finishes. This particular
guitar must have had flaws with original finish that were not cost effective to correct, so it
was painted over in a solid black finish and sold as a standard. No one offered up that information before I committed to buying the guitar. Not cool.
So the guitar shows up. I play it a little. The 6^th string wants to jump off the fret ends as
soon as you touch it. Investigation showed that the ends had been tapered in way too much.
The screw holes for mounting the neck to the body were so crooked you could see an angle
between the side of the plate and the edge of the body where it mounts, and one corner of
the plate was almost hanging over the edge of the body.
The nut was a mess! 4^th string cut so deep it was like there was a ramp up to the third when
you put your finger across the two to do a basic level check. Unbelieveable.
I sent them pictures and they told me to «yank upward on the neck and then tighten the
screws…it probably happened during shipping… the nut looks like it was cut properly»
So I knew right then and there it would be useless to send it back for an «evaluation»
Should have returned it during 30 day period, but have a sick need to «fix» things and
have taken the guitar on as a project.
I think, chalk the whole thing up to offshore manufacturing. Dean’s designs are pretty good.
Some of the hardware is not top notch, but the thing that will keep him from having any
real success is the shoddy workmanship at the factory in India.
I will not be doing any business with him in the future.
My advice… BUY AMERICAN!