Deimel Bluestar # 024, Dot Blonde

While Deimels aren't necessarily known for having a traditional aesthetic, this "Dot Blonde" pulls in some inspiration from the vintage ES world while still showing us what makes it distinctive and unique.

The Deimel Bluestar is in some ways an extension of the Firestar, pulling inspiration from classic offset designs and expanding on those themes with a more expansive, modern-day approach to guitar building and design. This model marries some of our favorite concepts of electric guitar into one instrument, all while exuding its own powerful personality that is anything but derivative.

This time around, we wanted to slim down the feature set and focus on the core elements of Frank & Co.'s build style, sensibility, and craftsmanship. Bluestar # 024 still has a few tricks up its sleeve, such as a pushbutton kill switch and body piezo, but the overarching design of this build has more of a back-to-basics identity. The Figured Maple top is particularly stunning, with a light amber finish reminiscent of those worn in Natural ES models from the late 50s and early 60s. Match that up with a beautiful straight grained Mahogany body, and you've got this great blend of semi-hollow, archtop, and LP tonality all rolled into a super comfortable pseudo-offset body. Familiar where it counts, but even more refreshing a design that doesn't wear its inspiration right on its sleeve. It's worth reiterating just how great Frank's designs are- his ability to blend old with new is remarkable.

The Mahogany neck features a nice full 59 carve topped with a beautiful Ebony fingerboard and pearl block inlays. The 6100 fretwire and a 9.5-12" compound radius feels amazing in-hand, with unfettered playability in any position.

While we can't ignore the incredible aesthetic of this Bluestar, Deimel's Blendbuckers are the true focal point in this build. Fully clockwise on the Blend knob yields a rich, fat, and articulate humbucker tone aimed at achieving some of the early PAF response, i.e. "tele on steroids". As you back the Blend knob down, the humbucker coil is phased out of the mix, eventually out of the circuit with said knob full counter-clockwise. The result is astounding, honestly. You have full access to a suite of humbucker and single coil tones with all shades in between. This is not a gimmick, folks. It's an incredibly well-designed pickup that offers a level of versatility we don't encounter every day.

We're so impressed with this Bluestar that it has quickly become a template for further builds of this model. Cheers to Deimel for knocking another one out of the park!