I was looking for a good guitar in this price range and had narrowed it down between the Ibanez AEL10EBK and the Dean Performer E Acoustic Electric Guitar. They seemed pretty equivalent from their description. Originally I had decided on the Ibanez because it had an established name (I never heard of Dean) and the pickup it used was an established brand ( a Fishman Sonicore). By contrast the Dean had it's own pickup which I knew nothing about. I was about to buy the Ibanez but I wanted to hear it first. I went to a local music store and took it down to try out. To my surprise it sounded very shallow, wooden, and muddy. There was very little resonance to the instrument. It sounded almost like a solid body guitar. When you strum all the strings at the same time it sounds muddled. I plugged in the Ibanez and found it sounded the same way. It was muddled. You didn't hear the individual strings. Just an overall "blahhh". As it happens, another music store down the street had the Dean Performer E so just for kicks I went there to try it out. I was shocked by how beautiful it sounded for such an inexpensive guitar. The instrument resonated. You could hear each string brightly and clearly. When plugged into an amp the sound was bright, and full. I also found that the Dean had an "on-board" tuner with a graphic LED output that allowed you to tune the guitar instantly. This tuner is actually one of the best I have ever used. It tells you exactly when the string is in tune. It doesn't bounce around all over the place like other tuners I've used. I found from this experience that "name" isn't everything. Sometimes products from an established and well known company can under-perform newcommers. In this case that is exactly what I found. Needless to say I bought the Dean and have been very happy with it since.