Dean Guitars

The Seventh Sign

Just when you think you've seen it all, here comes the Avalanche 7 from Dean. On the surface, it looks like another electric seven-string and, indeed, it does have all the accouterments of its brethren: seven-string bridge and nut, an extra tuning head, and those weird-looking pickups with seven pole pieces. But when you put it in your hands, you're going to say, "Whoa... what's this?" That's because of the neck. Believe me, it's not your typical seven-string neck. Then again, if you think I'm going to give away the Avalanche 7's secrets this soon in the review, you're dreaming, pal. Its price will blow your mind, too. Read on.

Resonant Thoughts

The basics on the Avalanche are that it's a fairly normal Korean-made solidbody with a basswood body, a pair of humbuckers, three-way pickup selector, master tone and volume, grainy rosewood fingerboard with 24 frets and abalone inlays, Grover tuners, and metallic finish. Now on to its many idiosyncrasies.

For starters, the pickups are direct-mounted onto the body, la Eddie Van Halen's guitars. Eddie once told me that he likes his pickups bolted onto the body because he feels it gives greater resonance than "floating" pickups, and he may have a point. The strings are also fed through the body like a Telecaster - another design trait used to generate resonance (i.e., string vibration gets transmitted directly to the body, and this is meant to generate a bigger, fatter tone). Clearly, the designers of the Avalanche 7 want its low B string to deliver all the low-end goods.

Okay, on to the neck (sorry to keep you waiting). What's really going to knock your socks off here is its girth. I've played numerous other seven-strings and certainly noticed that they were larger that typical six-strings. This Dean, however, shoots all that to hell. The neck on this beast is mammoth compared to that of regular electrics. When I grabbed it, I instantly thought I was playing a six-string bass because of the neck's immense width. It has a nut width of 1 7/8", which may not seem like a lot, but if you figure that a typical electric's width at the nut is 1 5/8", you'll see how much wider this fingerboard is (in guitar terms, 1/4" makes a huge difference).

Fortunately, bigger doesn't mean unplayable. Just the opposite, actually. This guitar is probably the easiest seven-string I've ever played. To counter the width of the neck and fingerboard, the Dean folks have nicely flattened the back of the neck to accommodate your fretting hand. And the action on the Avalanche 7 is super-shred low, too, perhaps to a fault (I'd suggest raising the bridge a little if your low B string starts to rattle, as it did on my test model). In any case, this type of neck profile is far more common in the bass world, which shows how creatively these two worlds are coming together.

Listed Specs

Basswood body, grainy rosewood fingerboard with 24 frets and abalone inlays

Mammoth nut width of 1 7/8"

Grover tuning machines

24 frets and super-low action

Through-the-body string ferrules, which increase resonance and add a decorative-yet-functional appeal to the Avalanche 7

Three-way pickup selector, master tone and volume

A pair of humbuckers bolted right into the basswood body for increased resonance

Sounding Off

How does it play and sound? Well, if you're new to seven-strings, this low B string will give you some new ideas in a jiffy. I used to find seven-strings off-putting, but it takes just a little mental re-engineering to get it together. The best thing to do is stop thinking of your guitar as being in the key of E or A. So many guitar songs are in those keys because that's what the bottom two strings are. Now, with a guitar like the Avalanche 7, your musical world is reoriented to the key of B, since you have that badass bass string on the bottom now.

To try out some new grooves, I concocted the Stevie Ray-style power-chord vamp on page 44. The resulting sound was unusual, but compelling. Picture a SRV riff with more of a Metallica bottom end and you'll get the picture (Texas twang with a thrashy thump). No question, there are all sorts of ways you can add innovation to your playing with this guitar. Think about your normal vocabulary of chords and add new bass notes on the B string. Add another level of notes on your favorite pentatonic and modal scales. Develop new tunings to take your playing into another dimension. The possibilities are limitless.

The Dean Avalanche 7 rocks, too. With those direct-mounted humbuckers and a decent amp (preferably a half-stack, thank you), you'll have the walls shaking in no time. It's a cleverly designed and good-sounding instrument, especially at this price. Oh, didn't I mention that before? YouÕd better sit down first; it's only $399 list. You heard me right and, no, the low-end crunch of this guitar has not jiggled my brains loose. At $399, it's one of the best bargains in the entire seven-string universe. If you don't have a seven-string, now is your chance to try one out for not a lot of cashola. And if you do have a seven-string and want a backup for live work, you can't go wrong. For such an affordable axe, there's a lot of innovation packed in here. In short, the Avalanche 7 is definitely worth a test drive.

Also available is the Dean Avalanche Ultra 7 with a Floyd Rose Tremolo.

January 2000 - Guitar One

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