Seeking a mellow-sounding instrument to give me more tone possibilities, I was off in search of a moderately priced archtop. I played many, but ultimately bought the Dean Palomino. It is a hybrid with 3 P-90 single coil pickups. Based on a couple of great vintage guitars, namely the Epiphone Broadway from the 1950's, and the Gibson ES-175, it is a nice player with great tone. I have strung it up with jazz strings (.014-.54's) as well as normal guage round wound strings. I have played it through a Peavey DB210 Delta Blues, a Mesa Boogie combo amp, a 68 Fender Bassman and a Marshall half stack. The neat thing is the versatility. On the front pickup, through the Mesa, I used a Boss reverb pedal and digital delay. The result was a nice smooth jazz tone that would impress tone snobs everywhere. On the overdrive channel, I could get Strat-like leads on the bridge pickup, though not as cutting as a Strat. The tone seems to always have a nice roundness due to the depth of the arched top.Overall, if you are looking for a nice, reasonably priced archtop on a budget, this Dean can be found in the $450-600 (US) range all over the internet. Great for jazz, blues, rockabilly and garage rock, you can't do much better for the money.
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