Gear of the Month 2012
December: Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott's Washburn Dime 3 Crown Royal
Dime’s signature drink—a shot of Crown Royal whiskey topped with a splash of Coke—was coined the Black Tooth Grin, which was a nod to a lyric in Megadeth’s “Sweating Bullets” off Countdown to Extinction. Washburn USA built this custom, one-off Dime 3 model as a gift for their red-bearded endorsee. (Sandwiched in between two different endorsements with Dean Guitars, Abbott played Washburns from 1994 to early 2004.) This purple-sparkle axe features gold binding and 24-karat-gold hardware in tribute to Abbott’s favorite whiskey. The guitar even came with a purple drawstring gig bag mimicking Crown Royal’s top-shelf packaging, and each inlay on this axe is a detailed gold crown. It’s loaded with a Seymour Duncan SH-1 humbucker in the neck and a Bill Lawrence L500 pickup in the bridge. This Dime 3 features a mahogany body, a mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, and a 24.75" scale length.