The roots of the "Dean Machine" or Hondo/Odyssey Paul Dean start with a 1964 Fender Stratocaster Paul got in trade for a Les Paul Jr. that had a broken neck that he fixed up. The guitar was used somewhere about the late sixties/early seventies stock (Scrubbaloe Caine perhaps?) and then smashed whilst "Imitating Pete Townshend".
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Paul was no stranger to building or modifying guitars even at that early time when most people would not dare take a chisel to an instrument as these things were seen as being made of "black magic" at the time. Paul "put humpty back together" using LePage's Bondfast, and it had an amazing resonance effect all of a sudden, but it was not to last. One summer, Paul left the Strat in a hot trunk, the glue melted, and it "went for shit" obviously due to the glue softening from the heat.
This would be around 1973. Paul then rebuilt the body, but scrapped the neck as it was pretty much trashed. The body was reinforced with fir, or pine. Some extra routing was added, too much was removed, so the excess was re-filled using Plastic Wood (DAP I presume). The body was painted red, a Leo Quan Badass bridge was put on in place of the stock Strat bridge, and a new pickguard was fashioned out of Anvil Case material. I have read somewhere that some DIMarsio Strat pickups were put in it at some point, but most likely those are the original 60's Strat pickups in there. Also, the wiring and control positioning was modded to get the volume knob out of Paul's way and get rid of the second tone knob.
The neck was a key element. Paul bought a new Telecaster neck and tried to retrofit it to the Strat. The result had great sustain, but no real tone. He tried everything with that neck - shaving it, putting it in the oven, soaking it in the bath tub, nothing appeased the gods of good tone with that neck so Paul took to making his OWN neck for the guitar - complete with the 10th fret break that supposedly made the original neck sound so good after smashing the guitar the first time. I've never heard him mention headstock tilt or tone channels but it may have those as well.
The end result is the guitar he's seen holding on the back of Loverboy's first record in 1980, and the one he has referred to more recently as his "real favorite guitar". All of the hits in Loverboy were written and recorded on that guitar - Turn Me Loose, The Kid is Hot Tonight, Working for the Weekend. It also was used as an encore guitar at concerts as it was used on those tracks. He also still used it even on Unfinished Business some as well apparently as there's a clip of a promo for that album where Paul is playing the strat. Most recently, Paul released a video lesson on "Working for the Weekend" using this guitar - complete with some GREAT closeups of the neck, pickguard (which looks like the anvil case material was removed or came off).
WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND - The Odyssey guitar
The guitar seen in the Working for the Weekend video, it's unclear what the history on it is, but based on new information I got from Craig E. Jones' book: ODYSSEY Attila Balogh and the Pursuit of the Perfect Guitar, this appears to be a possible result of an early meeting with Odyssey in 1981 or 1982.
Per the book, Paul brought his "Dean Machine" (one of these below I surmise) to Odyssey to have them copy. Attila or someone else on the team basically said the guitar had strange design elements that made it "only playable to Paul himself".
This guitar looks very much like what I'd expect an Attila-involved Odyssey Paul Dean type instrument to be on a more collaborative level. It's sunburst (Attila was a fine craftsman in the woodworking sector and was very much about showing the quality hardwoods on his instruments), it has a 24 fret neck (A Odyssey standard feature not on the regular production Paul Deans), a 3x3 Headstock, and it seems to also have some additional switching (Phase, Series PArallel? Maybe a Coil Split?). Despite the footage in the video being grainy, it does look like it has an Odyssey 3x3 headstock with the brass disc on it (right).
My theory is the guitar in the Working for the Weekend video was a Very Very early pre-release Odyssey build, possibly to try out making a more expensive and flashy and expensive guitar than the actual 50 made, which were designed to be more of a reliable workhorse of the finest degree. The guitar looks chunkier than the usual red/black Dean Machines due to the chunkier body. Also visible in the first shot on the left, one of the prototypes and a custom Les Paul (maybe the 76' he used to record Always on my Mind on the first record?).
THE PROTOTYPES
Paul had 3-4 prototype versions of his "Dean Machine" they were used on various songs on the Get Lucky and Keep it Up Records, and possibly further ahead (I still think Steal the Thunder is one of these). I have given them special "Nicknames" - and things CAN get confusing towards the end of this speculative history as I believe some of these got modified to look consistent with his other guitars at the time.
"P-90" - P-90 is one of the first three or four Paul Dean prototypes. It appears in the music video for "When It's Over", and all over 1982-1983 Get Lucky tour footage (he pretty much uses it the whole show until the encore where he swaps to the strat). It also has a unique neck in that it has no 21st fret position marker, a boxier headstock, and what looks like a large, round, string tree covering 4 of the six strings (NOTE: This could be that Chaquita Banana sticker - a way Dean points out which guitar is his main perhaps? Looks like his old funky strat wears that sticker now). It's tone is a bit more stinging and trebly than the later humbucker equipped guitars. On a recent discussion with Paul he wishes he still had this one, because it sounded awesome (I concur). I'm pretty sure it saw quite a bit of studio use on Get Lucky and possibly Keep it Up as well.
"GANGS" - three single coil guitar seen in the Loverboy video for "Gangs in the Street", at least, that's what I speculate Gangs to be now based on this newly found photograph of a guitar believed to be the "Gangs in the Street" guitar. The guitar we found may very well be "Gangs" itself, because it has the eggshell pickguard that to my knowledge never appeared on ANY production Paul Dean instrument, and the headstock says "The Dean Machine" in the classic Loverboy courier font and has a peculiarly slimmer and slightly different overall shape to it, a bit more like a Telecaster and less like the Paul Dean headstock shape on most of these other guitars. I have a picture of what we think is Gangs currently and a picture of the guitar with Paul Dean back circa 1981-1982 making this possibly one of the first three or four prototypes for the guitars this page tends to focus on. It is also now speculated this guitar MAY be the one that Paul used on "Take me to the Top" (reference - Guitar Player September 93' - Paul Dean Lead Loverboy) as it seems like a very early one, and can be seen in the music videos for "Lucky Ones" and "Working for the Weekend" sitting on a stand next to the backline, as well as in the video for "Gangs in the Street" hence the name. Also, recently Paul Demystified the wiring on his various 3 pickup guitars - the 3-way switch switches between the neck and bridge pickups or both together like a regular guitar, the tiny switch is for turning the middle pickup on allowing for all three or the classic 2 strat combinations. The only differences I see between the two are the knobs and the bridge. But those could have been easily swapped out at some point. This one may also be 25.5" Scale, it almost appears Paul was trying to replicate some aspects of his "Funky Old Strat" on this one.
"Girls" - Girls is similar to P-90 except she's got 3 singles instead of a pair of humbuckers or P-90's. It's named after the video it appears in. I think "Girls" had the same sort of wiring setup as the above "Gangs" guitar as three single coils are visible in the video. It's considered a different instrument from "Gang's" above because "Girls" has a different pickguard and a different control layout (obviously), and a regular Odyssey style headstock. In the video for "Hot Girls in Love" we never see the controls of "Girls", just the pickguard. It's also a logical assumption this may be the one homebuilt "Dean Machine" that Paul Dean still has since someone else owns the "Gangs" guitar currently, and "Gangs" has a black switch tip, and Dean says the one he still has had a white one.
"Machine" - Machine may be P-90 after some modification. Machine has a headstock label that says "Dean Machine" in cursive on it, and has the large round thing on the headstock seen on P-90. However, the body does look a little more sculpted, it has a haircell plastic pickguard, and 2 DiMarzio Super II humbuckers (early, expoxied units with black plastic covers). I believe this guitar was also one of the ones used on the 1983 Keep It Up tour. The only thing holding me back from thinking this guitar is the P-90 is because of a short few seconds of the "Heaven In Your Eyes" music video, Paul is seen playing a Kramer guitar, and the P-90 prototype is in the background. Machine's headstock can be seen on the cover of "Canadian Musician" - some issue from 1983 or 1984.
"Queen" - Queen Used to be speculated to be the same guitar as "Gangs" was, but this has been confirmed untrue both because Gangs can be seen above in very recent form, and in the guitar section, and to the right to compare the backplates between "Gangs" and "Queen". Queen was possibly another home-built Prototype guitar that Paul Dean equipped with the DiMarzio Super II's, which it seems he started using those in 1983 after the Get Lucky tour ended. Also, Gangs has a different screw setup for the neck bolt pattern, a apparently thinner neck, and the rear cover plate is entirely a different shape. Queen could also be the same one as the Canadian Musician guitar, it's really hard to tell since you only see the FRONT of that one.
This guitar appeared in the "Queen of the Broken Hearts" video hence the name. It's very likely Paul was changing parts out and moving things around and testing out new ideas frequently on these guitars to get the design just right, so just take this as a general guide and not the gospel. For all we know there were multiple variations of "Gangs" built originally before the newer pickguard style started to appear (it seems P-90 was the first to have the actual Official Hondo/Odyssey pickguard shape).
ODYSSEY GUITARS
In 1981, Paul Dean went to Odyssey guitars of Vancouver, B.C., to commission 50 instruments for around $30,000. What he wanted was a guitar with a chambered neck, straight string pull, 10 degree headstock tilt (or 17 degree - accounts vary), and it came with a Leo Quan Badass bridge, "Anti-Scratch" pickguard treatment, and dual DiMarzio DP104 Super II Epoxy case humbuckers. It was a radical departure for Odyssey being essentially a Fender-style design with a bolt-on neck using off-the-shelf-hardware (other Odyssey guitars, including the guitar from the Working for the Weekend video featured hand-made brass hardware made in-house by Odyssey). Apparently this was toward the end of Odyssey guitars time, and around the same time a Flying V I showed on this page was built (utilizing a few familiar features of the Paul Dean guitars).
Odyssey was in a tough spot at the time, and Paul Dean, freshly successful with Loverboy with already 2 albums out, Juno Awards, and a third one on the way, was trying to help Attila/Odyssey, put out a accessible, roadworthy guitar that was reliable. The undertone in a 1983 article where he was talking to a Vancouver paper in between takes for "Keep it Up" (aforementioned third album), was basically similar to Kurt Cobain's sentiment about the Fender Jag-Stang (another favorite of mine) in Frontline almost 10 years later, that he wanted a guitar with no preconceived notions attached to it. Many people call it a Loverboy guitar, I call it "The Jag-Stang of the 80's", because not much unlike Kurt's Jag-Stang, it's a highly underrated guitar with some capabilities well beyond what it's designer is best known for.
Paul kept one or two for himself (those used on the 1983 world tour), gave four or five to friends/family (two of those friends likely being ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Journey's Neal Schon - crazy in my mind because I got into Loverboy, ZZ Top, and Journey at around the same time in the late 90's in high school), and the remainder were split in half - one half going to giveaways/charities/raffles, and the other half going to local Vancouver B.C. music shops. Paul apparently gave the last one away sometime in the early 2000's at a Loverboy concert charity raffle. Paul still owns one of these based on photos on Odyssey Guitar's facebook page, and man it's got some mojo.
Accounts on the manufacturing of these guitars can be quite interesting. Such as the neck profile per Paul himself is that he left a prototype with them on the wall as he had to go off on tour. The necks of the newly built guitars were described as being like "Baseball Bats". Much later on, while working with Jean Larivee while working with him on what became his Kramer model (which Larivee exclusively built), he had the necks on the remaining 25 shaved down to spec.
My own sightings and hearings of these guitars vary wildly in small changes such as body shape or wood figure, and reportedly I've read someone the one Dean still has had 3 single coils instead of humbuckers (maybe it's Gangs?). The one above for example has a slightly different body shape from the Hondo guitars below, but the Odyssey in the Hondo Ad from 1983 has almost an identical shape to the Hondo model. Some have the round brass "O" on the headstock, some have the same script as the Odyssey Paul Dean in the and the one in the picture above.
HONDO GUITARS
In the human story that follows Odyssey. Paul Dean was one of the last famous guys to get guitars made by Attila Balogh and his crew. Odyssey was in a dire financial state as a recession was affecting instrument sales in Canada and the United States at the time, and a "perfect storm" of sorts put the company in a tight spot that lead to it's closing.
So shortly after the article, as Odyssey closed it's doors, Loverboy must have been touring with ZZ Top at the time (hehe, Wild Turkey Bite), and multiple accounts say Billy Gibbons might have had some to do with Paul Dean getting in touch with Hondo. At the time, ZZ Top were working on/touring Eliminator, and on that record, they used Erlewine guitars, the Erlewine Lazer to be exact. And Erlewine also had a travel guitar called the "Chaquita". The Chaquita and at least one other Erlewine guitar was recreated for Hondo's "Designer Series". So Paul flew to Texas to talk to Hondo, and worked with them to put out a guitar.
A source really close to the subject read my site and said my surmise was pretty close to on point. Basically, a few pre-release builds were made of varying quality, including the typical Hondo pawn shop dreck quality. They said he wanted it cheap, but over a short time, they got it right, and man did they NAIL it.
The Hondo Paul Dean II was a 24.75" (Gibson Scale) guitar with a chambered maple neck, 10 degree headstock tilt, 1" nut width, and came standard with Samick X-14 humbucker pickups. DiMarzios were available as an upgrade for $60 (most likely DiMarzio K-10s). I have heard of 2 types of DiMarzio being used, one set being the actual Epoxy case Super II DP104 humbuckers, and the others being a set of special DiMarzio designed humbuckers that went by a different model designation (K10) but likely were close in spec. These models only ever seemed to come in the Cherry Finish - under the model designation PD2-CH on later runs.
The Hondo Paul Dean II and Paul Dean III were introduced in early 1983 in their catalogs available for $379.99 each, with or without hard-shell case, chipboard case, or gig bag at additional cost. The price was later reduced to around $100 less.
The Paul Dean III was introduced at the same time and has rarely been shown in the Hondo Catalogs, let alone is a very rare version of this guitar. It differs from the Paul Dean II in that it's more of a standard Stratocaster with a couple extra pickup selection options via a push-pull tone pot. Talking with Paul he was not aware they made this model, which I speculate means Hondo may have been making this version to make wider use of the bodies. It differs in having 3 Hondo X-14 single coils, standard Stratocaster type wiring with aforementioned push-pull switch (quite ahead of it's time TBH). It also is regular Fender scale (25.5" scale), has regular PVC pickguard material (single ply white is all I've ever seen), and seems to have mostly been sold in an interesting "Tiger Stripe" red/white or red/black paintjob the most, and also a tobacco sunburst version above that has a flame-maple veneer top. I also have seen a few of these may have left the factory with Grover Rotomatic tuners standard (maybe the Dean II's did). There was no pickup upgrade option on the III.
The Paul Dean II was the longer lasting model. Introduced for the same price as the Paul Dean III, available with a custom-order option for DiMarzio Super II pickups in both positions (explaining why you don't see too many Paul Dean II's with DiMarzios installed - it's very very rare - somewhere I read it was a $60.00 Upcharge for them). The Paul Dean II seem to have only came in "Cherry Red" transparent - and later the model designation became the PD2-CH model number when ordering - but a reader from Facebook showed me his 1985 model - probably one of the last guitars ever made - that had a BLACK finish, and it had a non-tilt, regular headstock shape - AND factory Super II's, making it probably one of the rarest of the rare Paul Deans I've ever seen. These models had a black plastic "anti-scratch" pickguard made of haircell plastic, and standard came with a pair of Hondo ceramic humbuckers measuring in at around 7.8K ohms on average, and a Leo Quan Badass style bridge. The necks on these only ever had maple fretboards, and the bodies are almost always 2 piece, non-bookmatched, Sen Ash, to simulate the density of the maple bodies on the Canadian Odyssey originals for sonic reasons. The Paul Dean II appeared last in the 1984 Christmas catalog and probably continued to ship up into Spring of 1985 - which was about the time Paul was revealing his new endorsement deal with Kramer.
Both Models were available with the HPD-129 Economy Case for $30.00 and the HC-1186 Hardshell Case for $86 - with these cases following the Paul Dean II through it's entire production run.
Finally, the headstock logo changed over course of production. Early examples have the "Script" logo similar to the one used on the original Odyssey guitars - it says "Hondo Paul Dean II" or "Hondo PAul Dean III" in large black and yellow script. The later guitars have what I call the "H-coin" logo - used on Hondo II guitars and so fourth. This logo was most likely used on 1984 and later instruments, also has "(H) Paul Dean II/III" in script next to the H coin logo but the font is smaller. This differentiates on production period.
Eventually though, Paul would leave Hondo for the premier 80's guitar manufacturer, Kramer, whom had everyone as an endorsee at the time from Billy Squier, Gene Simmons (Kiss), Ritchie Sambora (Bon Jovi), to Edward Van-Halen most notably, and he would take only the body design with him to create a strikingly different instrument in the late 80's vein starting around 1984.
However, despite his Kramer endorsement starting, Hondo tried to use up bodies and necks, I suspect by late 84' or sometime in 1985, they ran out of regular Paul Dean necks and opted to use the necks used on their Explorer and Flying V copies (24.75" scale necks with the default Hondo Headstock) as they would fit the body to try and appease demand for the remaining orders on this model. Interestingly I surmise that what happened production-wise is the earlier models were made at Tokai, Matsamoku, or Kasuga, and then later the remaining parts were sent to Korea for Samick to build. It was kind of fitting though, occasionally one would still see the older Dean Machines sharing the stage with the Kramer guitars, such as in the music video for "Heaven In Your Eyes" (you can see Paul Dean playing a Kramer and there's an older Odyssey hanging around in the backline).
1986 Kramer Paul Dean in Harvest Yellow
see the KramerForumz.net for those
FINAL BITS ON THESE GUITARS
The Odyssey Paul Dean guitars, being so limited, hardly ever were mentioned or turned up much since the early 80's. During the rare 80's-hateful drought slog of the 1990's, if you asked about the guitar, even if you got a reply, answers were either "Fender Lead III" which is a similiar guitar in a line endorsed by The Cars Elliot Easton around the same time (another band I am very into). Others said "Rickenbacker", and others are like "it's just a regular ole Superstrat". Never occured to anyone they were a hand-built custom Canadian guitar.
The Hondo Paul Deans, like many of Hondo's better models in the Designer Series, Deluxe Series, and Fame Series, were forgotten to the sands of time for many decades. Meanwhile, Hondo was sold out to a series of different Asian companies who had lower quality "pawn shop fodder" that built a nasty reputation for Hondo and it's instruments. Only in recent years are people beginning to catch on that Hondo made some excellent instruments. Another Famous Hondo is Marty McFly's Designer Series Chaquita travel guitar in the opening to Back to the Future.
One of the last sightings of these guitars was during the Lovin Every Minute of it Era where either one of Paul's stored away charity Odyssey's or maybe even an early Hondo like mine was given away on the Canadian music program Good Rockin' Tonite in 1985 or 1986.
I just recently found another picture of the guitar with another musician indicating that indeed the guitar in the video was likely one of the giveaway guitars.
I only ever started to see them with any regularity online after I bought mine and posted it, and did a huge write-up on vintaxe forums, which triggered my eventual creation of this site.
Paul apparently kept at least one Odyssey into the 2000's which is pictured to the right and is being played by a lucky fan on stage. According to current mentions, he still has one with the logo removed from the headstock and a white switch tip and 3 single coils.
SIMILAR GUITARS IN DESIGN
Seems some Luthiers have been carrying on the body design, unauthorized even. The most notable of these design-wise were the Larrivee models that used this body shape, albeit somewhat altered.
Larrivee RS-Series (right) - Sometime around 1985 or 1986, Larrivee released the "RS Series", which were a series of Superstrats using what looks like Paul Dean style bodies with the cutaways deepened and the horns slimmed down.
So let's talk about the Kramer Paul Dean for a moment. In 1984 or 1985, Paul got in touch with Larrivee, another highly esteemed Canadian luthier, to build guitars of his design. This guitar would go on to be the Kramer Paul Dean model, and was also apparently used as somewhat of a trial run for Kramer using Larrivee as their primary outsourced manufacturer of their higher end models of guitar. The earliest Paul Deans were made by Larrivee and can be told by the serial number being stamped at...I think the 22nd fret.
Apparently, based on a forum post, Kramer screwed over Larrivee and went with ESP instead. So later Kramer Paul Deans his name on the truss rod cover were made by ESP. This was also around the time Kramer started getting sloppy with royalties that lead to their demise in 1990.
So somewhere in that period, the Larrivee RS-series superstrats came out, and one cannot deny it looks pretty much like a Kramer Paul Dean with slimmer horns. Whether this was to use up Paul Dean bodies/necks that were originally intended for Kramer ala Fender's Maverick/Custom and Arrow/Swinger/Musiclander guitars of the late 1960's, or just an attempt to cash-in on a similiar shape has yet to be known for sure.
Larrivee Langcaster - Later on, sometime in the 2000's and 2010's came another Paul-Dean-Like model called the "Langcaster". This design is strikingly similiar to the later Sweetheart guitars in some ways.
It seems Larrivee adopted the bulbous horns for their own guitars in the mid 1980's for the RS series, and later revived it in the 00's for their "Langcaster" model (pictured above). As of recent, Odyssey guitars in Vancouver (yes, they're back) got a hold of an actual Larrivee "Paul Dean" model....extremely odd because it's red and black, has the same switching mechanics as Paul's strat/Gangs/current handful of home-built/modified strats he uses in Loverboy. Apparently according to this Facebook Post - Paul's design has been copied by at least 3 other makers without giving anything back in return.
Luthier of Bullock guitars made a somewhat modernized update of Paul's "Dean Machine" design in 2011. This version features a opaque Loverboy red paintjob, regular black 3 ply pickguard, the pickup selector located on the upper treble side horn, and adds a 22nd Fret, and has Sprezel Locking tuners. They did a GREAT job on this replica of capturing the original vibe. Note Bullock guitars does NOT sell these replicas. I have added their website to "Links" so you can see the picture gallery of this guitar and look at some of thee other cool things they have made. It appears Paul uses or used some of their guitars as well - who knows - maybe this was made for Paul to use in the studio, I dunno.
2021 - 2022 - Odyssey Sweetheart Series Guitars
In 2021, Odyssey guitars, now revived and better known making hot-rod guitars for Joe Keithley of the Canadian punk band DOA, somehow got together with Paul Dean and started designing a new version of this guitar. They originally were proposed to have 2 versions: The Paul Dean, and Paul Dean Pro. These models were scrapped and resold under a new name - the "Odyssey Sweetheart" - with 2 versions, the "Black Bar S" version which had a black piece of gorilla tape with superglue over the logo specially placed to rip the "player's" name off the guitar if you remove it. The second had a brass logo on the headstock with the "Custom x/of 10" on it where the logo would have been.
Starting around mid 2023, we started to see a variety of these "Black Bar S" guitars being released on Reverb.com with the following statement....
"The story behind the “Sweetheart Black Bar Player series”: Odyssey fans will recognize this guitar. For over a year I worked with a known Canadian musician (hereby referred to as the “Player”) getting an offshore replica created. As a result, these guitars have 2 hollow channels running parallel to the trussrod to create a unique neck tone. The iconic shape has also been produced as a 1980’s Larrivee Super Strat, a Kramer signature model and some unauthorized Hondo’s. The player and I agreed to sell the guitars but to remove his name from the headstock. It's not he doesnt like them, he just wants a major manufacturer to produce his design and having these with his name on might upset or confuse any potential deal for him. And I support that desicion. The Players name is under that “black bar”. But the black bar tape is Krazy glued to the finish. So if you tried to remove it, the finish and Players name will also be pulled off. It was a compromise and I appreciate the Player allowing me to sell them. I really do respect the Player, he's one of the nicest people Ive had the pleasure of working with and he has a real passion for the search of tone. I treasure our times together but it just didn't work out."
While THREE guitars were mentioned, it seems there were FIVE of these. It's anyone's guess why the association ended, but I believe it was mostly because Odyssey is a smaller manufacturer, and to get something even the same level as the original Hondos for a small manufacturer is a VERY difficult thing to pull off. Especially with such a specialized neck design. Right before these were posted, we got a picture of one of the three "Player" guitars put out on Instagram stating "sometimes things just don't work out" underneath. The guitar shown had a 2-point import tremolo (later upgraded to a Gotoh Floyd Rose), and a proper Odyssey neck with 22 frets instead of a very strange "23" (BTW, to the OP of that guitar, there was ONE line of guitars that had 23 frets in the 80's and they kinda' shared some lines with the Paul Dean as well - the Peavey Patriot (the old "Super Ferrite" version).
The guitars listed included
Two or Three Opaque Red Black Bar S guitars with a single Tone Rider Generator pickup, Diamondback Tuners, 1 volume, 1 tone, Leo Quan Badass style bridge. These were selling for around $250 bucks each. It seems Loverboy had a few of these with their band logo under the bridge. It seems Paul Dean has kept one as well which he used at the Rock Walk show in 2024.
A "Prototype" I assume with a single Tone Rider Generator in the bridget hat looks like it was relocated, a Leo Quan badass bridge, some kind of neck position Hot Rail or Susstainer pickup, rotary switching, and a pair of googley eyes on the pickguard. This was going for around $247
A dark metallic red "import" guitar with a Gotoh Floyd Rose, dual Tone Rider pickups, upgraded neck. This was going for around $550 when it was first listed, but seemed it got snatched up when it dropped around $300-something on Reverb.
The Pro builds were re-branded as the "Sweetheart Customs" with the logo routed out and replaced with a brass plate giving the series# of the 10.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Since 2023 Paul has been playing that, what I presume is the same Odyssey prototype guitar, though for a brief time he was seen playing a custom Godin in the same design series as Honeymoon Suite's guitarist Derry Grahean. Not much is known how much - if any - lineage to the Dean Machine that guitar has in it's DNA.
But in 2025 Dean has been seen playing either the same, or another Odyssey prototype style guitar with an SSH configuration. Either way, they sound mean. Who knows what comes next.
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