I'd just like to say that Darrell Lance Abbott DID play DEAN MLs for quite a long while before he became led astray by Washburn.
Story has it he won a nice ML in a guitar contest when he was 16 years old,, (he was about 38 when he passed), but his father had saved up for quite some time to buy his son a nice guitar for his birthday. The guitar he won was nicer than the 1 his father bought him, but he didn't want to hurt his dad, so he sold it.
Years later, a local luthier was supposed to build him a nice flying V, but time went on & it never got built. He went to go see what was up with it, & the guy gave him the ML(dean from hell) with this awesome new lightning bolt graphic painted on it, & said "here, it was yours to begin with anyways".
That is the story of how he came to own "the dean from hell",,, TWICE.
I have a pic of him with James Hetfield of Metallica from WAY back,, about 1985 or so... They are both holding Darrell's MLs equipped with floyds.
Pic #1 is of Darrell when he first got well known in Pantera('Cowboys From Hell' days circa 1992 or so).. he was doing ads for Dean as he was endorsing their guitars, & more importantly HIS signature line.
Note: that is NOT Darrells original "Dean From Hell" ML, but rather a BRAND NEW SIGNATURE DEAN with Lightning Bolt Graphic.
Pic #2 is of James Hetfield(metallica) & Darrell WAY BACk in the day,, I mentioned it above. This is roughly from at least the 'Ride The Lightning' albums tour,, circa 1983-85.
Pic #3 is a promo B&W glossy of pantera in the 'early days'.
Note: they are all wearing makeup,, this is from 1985(you can see in the upper right near Vinnie Pauls signature the #85.
This goes to show how little you claim to know about Darrell "before his untimely death".
Also, Deans are very ok guitars & underated to a fault sometimes. but not bad. I ABSOLUTELY HATE THE OLD V HEADSTOCK! But actually kind of like the newer Hardtail-style headstock & honestly beileve if they changed ALL their headstocks to that, then their company wouldn't be so ABHORED by so many as a "STRICTLY-METAL-GUITAR".
I figure if people from DEAN might read this, cause of the street team kid, then they ought to know the truth about their product.
peace