Reviewer: Robert Pelletier
e-mail: ropel@percuweb.ca
Date submitted: Sept. 18, 2006
Purchase Price: $1,500
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Sound & Tone
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Rating:
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8
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Comments:
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Sounds great troughout the entire range. Great results with soft mallets. May project a bit less than Musser but it never bothered me at all.The tuning is still very good after around forty years. Some noise from the bars when using the damper though, never could get rid of this minor annoyment, even with a new felt.
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Design & Construction
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Rating:
| 9
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Comments:
| The ideal gigging vibes. I always let the bars on the frame for transport. I have pickups installed and I've reinforced the diagonal support rail of the large bars side permitting to rock the vibe over on this side, then remove the pedal and fold the legs. I'm doing this almost every week for fifteen years now and the frame is still very strong. I've also made the motor retractable, making the instrument a bit less heavy. Having pickups I only bring the resonators and motor for classical style gigs. I've also cut the arched resonators and paint these in black. Looks very good to me. I'm not very found of the arched resonators style and there is less noise this way when I use them. The damper was replaced with a Vanderplas felt. The rod is replaced with a steel cable. The original casters are still there but should be replaced.
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Appearance
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Rating:
| 6
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Comments:
| With the resonators cutted and painted black, it looks more modern and somewhat more "modest" than the original.
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Customer Support
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Rating:
| no opinion
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Comments:
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Overall Rating
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Rating:
| 9
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Comments:
| I've played several other great vibraphones but my old Deagan still my working axe. The main thing is that I'm used to move around this instrument and I'd be very puzzled to bring on the gig any other vibe that I actually know... While I use it usually through digital effects processors it sounds also very good with microphones or in a concert hall. I've play with it in modern and traditional jazz, chamber music and orchestra concerts. I'm proud of this vibraphone! I'd recommend any model 592 in good condition to everyone.
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Reviewer: David Fahrner
e-mail: fahrner@montereybay.com
Date submitted: Dec. 4, 2002
Purchase Price: $2500 (used)
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Sound & Tone
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Rating:
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8
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Comments:
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Like other wide-bar Deagans, the Commander has a brighter, more complex tone than the more common Musser instruments. It sounds very good across the full three octave range, and is still well in tune after 30 years (although it may have been retuned during restoration). It may not sound quite as spectacular as an Aurora, but the difference is not in the bars, because if you swap them with an Aurora, the sound stays with the Aurora (due to resonators and frame?). It’s very easy to produce a good sound. Deagans seems
to have a wider dynamic range than Mussers, particularly when played with relatively soft, heavy yarn-wound mallets; cord mallets may be a little too bright. Deagans are not as loud as Mussers but the brighter tone seems to project the sound equally well.
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Design & Construction
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Rating:
| 8
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Comments:
| The Commander was Deagan’s equivalent of the Musser Pro - a more portable version of their top-of-the-line Aurora. It has the same (removable) graduated bars (1/2” thick, 1 1/2” to 2” wide) on a frame with folding legs. The frame is pretty solid for a 30 year old instrument, even with only the spring-loaded attachment of two diagonal braces and the pedal bar to stabilize it. The heavy steel legs probably contribute to the stability, although they (and the permanently attached motor) make the frame a little heavy to move. The long pedal bar gives access to the damper all along the instrument, although the attachment to the damper pull rod is on the outer (foot) edge of the pedal and makes it kind of sensitive. The motor and variable speed control (4 to 8 RPM according to specification, but I rewired mine and it can run slower) are quiet; the motor switch is on the speed control, so you have to turn the speed down as you turn the motor off. Design details are a little less elegant than on the Aurora: for example, the rails that hold the resonator tubes are flat pieces of aluminum, rather than extrusions. But everything works well, and setup and teardown are very fast. All of the pieces are fairly big, but it all fits easily into a Honda Civic hatchback.
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Appearance
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Rating:
| 9
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Comments:
| The Commander has perhaps a slightly dated look, with curved legs and rounded corners, but vibraphones with folding legs look pretty much the same, anyway. Mine had been restored by Century Mallet, with the
frame and resonators repainted (black and silver, respectively) and the bars polished to bare aluminum. I had the bars and other aluminum bits gold anodized, and painted the resonators and steel parts gold to match. It came out looking great, and is probably the only black-and-gold Commander in existence.
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Customer Support
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Rating:
| 6
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Comments:
| Deagan has been out of business for a long time, but service is still available through Century Mallet Instrument Service, located at the former Deagan factory building in Chicago. It is run by Gilberto Serna, a former Deagan employee. Some parts are still available.
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Overall Rating
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Rating:
| 9
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Comments:
| The Commander is a great instrument for small-group jazz gigs, good sounding, good looking, and (relatively) easy to move. It’s probably not the best instrument for a school, being pretty old and Deagan
being long out of business. It’s perfect for me since I also own an Aurora that I leave set up at home; the Commander stays disassembled in a closet, ready to load into the car for gigs, and I don’t even have to set it up when I get home to have something to play.
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Reviewer: Fred Morgenstern
e-mail: fred@fredmorgenstern.com
Date submitted: Dec. 2, 2002
Purchase Price: $1,200 "used"
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Sound & Tone
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Rating:
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8
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Comments:
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This is a beautiful sounding instrument. It has the classic Deagan vibraphone characteristics--long sustain, sweet tone, and more sparkle than weight. The even-ness of tone throughout the range is superb.
I don't think there's a better instrument out there, only different.
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Design & Construction
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Rating:
| 4
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Comments:
| I bought my instrument used, and it has of course deteriorated since, but it does have certain flaws inherent in most portable vibraphones. I replaced the damper pad with one from Nico Vanderplas, replaced the casters with total lock casters (which made a tremendous difference), and generally keep working on tightening up the frame, but it's an ongoing process.
It's not fair for me to judge a portable instrument based on characteristics of concert instruments, I know, but I just can't help it!
The keybed is made of good, sturdy wood. I have no chipping problems like owners of newer Musser instruments seem to have.
My instrument has the long pedal, which I prefer.
The bars are graduated.
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Appearance
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Rating:
| 5
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Comments:
| It's more industrial than beautiful, but I like the look of the instrument.
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Customer Support
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Rating:
| 7
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Comments:
| The source for all things Deagan in Gilberto Serna at Century Mallet in Chicago. He's very good, but I do worry about what I'm going to do when he's no longer around.
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Overall Rating
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Rating:
| 8
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Comments:
| The Commander is a classic, top-of-the-line-for-its-type instrument. I wouldn't be embarassed to use it in any circumstance, be it a jazz gig or a concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic.
By the way, the $1,200 price was paid in the early 1980's, and it was a steal then!
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