Regular TG readers will know how much we love the wonderful guitars of Dean. While Dimebag Darrell’s Razorback and Razorback V guitars rock our world, our favourite Dean of all time is the Cadillac.

Famous Cadillac players include Steve Stevens and Glen Drover of Megadeth. This Cadillac 1980 is the midpriced model, and we’ve found it online selling as low as £399.

We were lucky enough to have a US-made Dean Cadillac in the office to compare the mid-priced 1980 model to. Maybe that’s an unfair comparison - the 1980 is a quarter of the price of the American guitar, after all - but hey, that’s life.

As it happened, the cheaper Cadillac needn’t have worried. For your 500 sheets you get quality hardware, 22 fat frets, gold hardware and a decent pair of gold covered humbuckers. This guitar is so affordable that we’d even consider splashing out on a pair of Bare Knuckle pickups.

Verdict

While we would prefer the US Caddy if we had the cash, the Cadillac 1980 is no booby prize. This guitar plays and sounds great. We’re natural born posers too, so we really dug the fact that strapping on this killer looking guitar made us feel like instant rock stars. Yep, the Caddy 1980 from Dean is the whole package.

5 Stars

Pros: awesome looks, killer playability.
Cons: nothing to see here!

Buy: Dean Cadillac 1980 is currently available from Thomann and PMT Online.

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