Back in August, the estate of late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell (Darrell Abbot) announced that it was suing Dean Guitars.
Rita Haney – Abbot's longtime girlfriend and the trustee of his estate – announced the estate's lawsuit in an Instagram post, in which she also detailed why she chose to end Dean's relationship with the legendary electric guitar player, which initially ran from 1990 – 1994 before being re-established in 2004, shortly before Abbot's tragic murder at a Columbus, Ohio nightclub.
In a recent interview with Wall of Sound, Zakk Wylde – frontman of Black Label Society, longtime six-string sideman to Ozzy Osbourne and a close friend of Abbot's – was asked about the future of Abbot's successful line of signature guitars, and whether he'd be open to producing it himself via his Wylde Audio guitar company.
Notably, Wylde didn't say no, but emphasized that any such move would only be made after consulting with, and getting the seal of approval from, Haney and Abbot's estate.
“I remember when that first came out, but I didn’t know the whole skinny on that," Wylde said of the lawsuit. "But I mean, Dime's always been associated with them. I mean, actually, he brought them back into business when they were out of business. He brought them back into business just because of his popularity, and him playing that guitar.
"But, if we were to ever do something like that, you know, obviously we'd talk with Rita and [ask] whatever she wanted to do.”
Though no statements on the future of Abbot's signature models have been made by either Dean or the Dimebag Darrell estate since August 2021, Dean Guitars Australia announced in a Facebook post last month that it would be receiving the "last shipment" of Dean Dimebag models in February.
In response to comments on the post asking if they truly were the last Dean Dimebag models for the time being, the company replied that the guitars are "not being made anymore."
In the meantime, we'll be sure to update you with any new information on the lawsuit – and the future of Dimebag Darrell's signature guitar line – as soon as we get ahold of it.
Wylde Audio, meanwhile, has a number of new, non-theoretical models set for release in the coming months. "The next one is going to be The Raider, then we got the Vulture and The Condor – those are a couple of other ones that'll be out soon," Wylde recently told Ultimate Guitar of his company's 2022 plans. "Then we got the Thorax out now.
"We used the prototypes out on the road last year. We just need to dial them in a little bit more and get some more access up on the higher frets. But yeah, those will be the next models coming out."
