Dean Guitars has unveiled a triple-humbucker addition to its Cadillac Series. The Cadi Select 3 takes the distinctive cutaway format of its electric guitar siblings, sits three Seymour Duncan humbuckers in the driving seat and promises a wealth of classic tones.
Clearly, someone at the Dean R&D department has being playing fast and loose with the pickup budget, endowing this classy solidbody with two Seymour Duncan APH-1 Custom humbuckers in the middle and neck positions, and an SH-5 Custom at the bridge.
These are interesting choices. The APH-1 'buckers feature Alnico II magnets and are voiced for jazz, blues and pretty much any vintage low-gain scenario you can imagine. The SH-5 Custom is a little hotter, offering a PAF-a-like humbucker response for those huge end of the 50s tones.
The sharp-eyed among you might have noticed that the pickups have sandblasted pole pieces. The pickups are controlled with a five-way rotary knob, and audio taper pots for volume and tone.
Build-wise, the Cadi Select 3 is a familiar slab mahogany body with flat maple top, finished with 5-ply black-and-white binding. It has a set-through three-piece mahogany neck, a 24.75" scale, ebony fingerboard with 22 jumbo frets and pearloid block inlay.
Elsewhere, there are grover tuners, a tune-o-matic bridge and a black plastic nut. In true classic car fashion, you can have the Cadi Select 3 in any colour so long as it is black.
The Cadi Select 3 is priced $949 street. See Dean for more details.