Dean DMT Baker Act Humbucker
Dean Guitars deserves every bit of your valuable time when considering pickups. Pat Baker heads up the pickup department over there. If you can make signature pickups for the likes of Michael Schenker and Leslie West, you’re doing something right. The Baker Act humbucker is what happens when you have the skills to satisfy artists like those and then make whatever you want for yourself.
The Baker Act is like taking a classic and well-known archetype and fixing what players want improved and sweetening what they already like. Lots of push and a touch of grind? You got it! A little heavy, but still open? Alright! Some tightness in the lows and presence in the highs? Why not?!
What’s In A Name?
As Dean is based on Florida, I’m gonna go ahead and conjure that the Baker Act is a reference to the Sunshine State’s version of California’s 5150 law. Speaking of 5150, check out how ‘brown’ it can get in this official sample from Dean:
Evaluation
I picked up a Baker Act several years back. It’s been in a few guitars and is definitely a keeper. It has 4-con lead wire and comes in standard and trem spacing. And that’s another thing I dig about Dean’s humbuckers… the baseplates are regular standard dimensions. They just move the poles for trem spacing. No silly 3 holes on each mounting leg. No different silly mounting hole spacing.
It serves up full-bodied rich lead work that cuts through the mix without driving an ice pick into your temples. This pickup is great for harmonics, with lots of definition and dynamics. The Baker Act has a slightly lower capacitance reading, which is no doubt a factor in all these positive traits.
Having a nice balance goes a long way for the Baker Act. One of my tests is how a pickup responds to 80s chugging riffs on a pedal note. We all know there can be some pretty darned well-selling humbuckers that get into a flabby territory here. Not so with the Baker Act, with just enough tightness to pound away without getting brittle.
Demo
How about a video of the Baker Act in action, here in a promo for the Dean Deceiver model guitar:
Specs
Series – 17.890 K
Inductance – 9.494 H
Split N – 8.884 K
Split S – 9.036 K
Parallel – 4.476 K
Magnet – Alnico 5
Conclusion
The Baker Act is great for 80s style hard rock, garage, punk, prog rock, fusion, shred, metal, grunge, heavy rock, blues rock, pop, classic rock, alternative rock, and more. Bobbin colors are black, zebra, and white. You can find them with covers in satin nickel, nickel, gold, and chrome. Pole spacing options include standard and f-space.
As near as I can tell, the Baker Act is a must-have for players that want all the best parts of that 80s high octane Alnico 5 humbucker character. Plus, it’s a little more affordable… and what guitarist doesn’t find that to be music to their ears?!
For reference, this Dean Baker Act humbucker pickup evaluation was conducted with the following: Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. ADA MP-1 Tube Pre-Amp loaded with Tube Amp Doctor ECC83 Premium Selected tubes, using the ADA MC-1 MIDI Controller. Fryette LX II Stereo Tube Power Amplifier. Physical cabs use are Marshall 1960B, Mojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.
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