Donegan started playing guitar as a teen and eventually formed a group called Vandal, that has been an ’80s-style hair band. He also played with a number of the members of Vandal in a different group that was called Loudmouth. Donegan is pursuing a side project group, Fight or Flight in collaboration with Disturbed group member Mike Wengren.
Donegan had really long hair through the first days of Brawl and Disturbed. He was required to cut his hair because of it, but instead preferred to put on a wig to deceive his father and keep his long hair. It worked, and his father eventually let him keep his long hair.[4] Donegan includes a daughter named Maya as well as a son named Justin. He uses one handed and two handed tap in a lot of his solos, with pulloffs, legatos and hammer-ons, also occasionally using the “show off” technique, as used in the solo for the song “Indestructible”, as well as in others too. His heavy riffs and sweep picking are seen in several music videos. He uses his DigiTech Dan Donegan, “The Weapon” for a lot of effects in and from his solo work. He also joins arpeggios with finger tap and a number of other techniques. He’s famous for shredding in a few tunes and uses finger vibrato on occasion. He uses the whammy bar in lots of tunes to give it a particular sound effect. In the video “The Making of Indestructible”, he says he favors “tasteful” solos, compared to shredding solos that rely mainly on speed. Disturbed’s frontman David Draiman says “he [Donegan] can tear with the best of them”. David also says “He Is [Donegan] in my opinion you realize among the most effective in existence, and he does not give himself enough credit”. Subsequently, he changed to play a few Paul Reed Smith models, the Tremonti Model as well as a PRS Singlecut. In 2005, Washburn Guitars constructed Donegan his own signature version known as the Maya, named after his daughter. For 2010, Dan constructed a trademark guitar with Schecter guitars, that’s according to the ultra classic version (his being the ultra DD). Donegan is a lover of GHS Boomer guitar strings and uses the 12-52 gauge establish. He also uses Seymour Duncan pick-ups in his guitars. He’s now signed to Schecter Guitars.