Dean Guitars Cadillac Select

2009 manufacture date. Made in korea. 22 medium frets. rosewood fingerboard, pearl inlays, very nice flame maple top. Mahogany body and neck. Set neck construction, not bolt on. Nice cherry sunburst finish. Explorer/ Les Paul hybrid body shape. Gold hardware, tone-omatic bridge. Grover tuners. No case but came with truss rod adjusment wrench. Two volume, two tone controls, 3 way pickup selector, two Dean zebra humbuckers.

I am blown away by how nice this guitar is. Sounds, looks, and plays better than a Gibson Les Paul Standard. Actually has more clarity and treble bite than a Les Paul and also maintains a tight bottom end with no mud. Very crisp, fat,rich, mahogany/maple tone. Note definition is fabulous. Great sustain and the body resonates nicely. I actually think the stock pickups are very good. Nice medium/hot output and they produce great tone clean or dirty. I may experiment with Duncans in the future but for now these are just fine. They remind me of Dimarzio super distortions in tone and output, not super hot but hot enough to drive an amp nicely.Dean informed me that they are 14-15k output for the bridge and 10-12k for the neck.That is plenty of output. This guitar will get you a Classic Gibson/ Marshall/ Scorpions tone easily. It sounds killer through my Hughes and Kettner Switchbade Head on Marshall type settings or my Peavey 5150 combo. The guitar is very quiet with no grounding problems or pickup microphonics.

This guitar is built like a tank. Craftsmanship is equal to or better than Gibson. All it needed was a quick tuning out of the box. Intonaton, string height, truss rod and pickups were all set correctly. Plays beautifully. I cannot find a single flaw on this guitar!!!

I will be gigging with this guitar and it will hold up well. Hardware is very sturdy and it has a very tough durable finish. I would use it without a backup.

Not used them yet

I cannot say enough good about this guitar. I have played for 28 years.... all rock and roll. 12 years at Ernie Ball Music man as an assembly/setup/QC tech. I cannot find a single thing to complain about on this instrument. I have checked it out from top to bottom and Compared it to a Gibson Les Paul Standard and My Musicman Van Halen. This guitar Came in second to my Musicman EVH and beat a $2000.00 Gibson Les paul Standard in tone, playability, and build quality. After playing a basswood/maple EVH for all of these years I was looking for a guitar that would give me a Mahogany/Gibson like tone but I also didn't feel like spending $2,000.00 dollars just for a name to get it. I know how a guitar should play and feel and can tell if they are built well just by a quick inspecton and play test. This guitar passed my test. I knew there had to be a well made guitar out there that would give me what I was looking for without having to shell out a lot of cash. This Dean is it. Incredible craftsmanship for the price. It can run with the expensive Name brands easily. Dean should be proud.

Mine is a Korean Tiger Eye. I got it from BRG Music in Perry Iowa. Steve Rocks. This is by far one of the best imports I've ever owned. It is my main axe. I have Dean USA PU"s installed the Baker Act and the Time Capsule. I've installed a Graphite Nut. It's Mahogany with TUne o matic bridge, rosewood fretboard. I disassembled it. It's 2 pieces of Mahogony with a Thick Maple Top. The neck joint is great. This thing is a Les Paul killer.

It is very versatile. The only thing I would change, is to put in a coil tap to get some single coil. I don't really need that type of sound, so I can live with out it. I run it through a Carvin BEl Air with a Dunlop Slash Wah. It sounds great, the pickups are very crisp, and very responsive to the pick attack. Rolling off the volume cleans this puppy up real nice.

There is a minor finish flaw on the V headstock, something underneath the clear coat. I don't care about it. I'll probably make it look worse over the next year or so. It required a minor setup when I received it but that's expected.

I don't gig with the electrics anymore, but it holds up just fine at my home.

I haven't needed to contact Dean as of yet. MY Dealer (BRG More in Perry Iowa) is more than willing to help me with any issues.

This guitar has turned me to Dean. They are making the best import guitars on the market right now. Simply Amazing.

Mine is an orange sunburst top, nice but not perfect bookmatch. Better below the bridge but sort of lacking between the pickups. Top part is an Explorer, bottom is a Les Paul. Gold TunOmatic, stoptail, Grovers (standard), neck is 22 fret rosewood, block inlay. No case, bought used from Ebay. I think it's a 2006 or 07. 2 V/2 T, toggle, H/H config, body/neck is mahogany with a flame maple top.

This guitar is going to give the other guitarist in my bands Les Paul a run for it's money. In my opinion, it sounds as good. I'm mainly running into a Flextone III for this project but I also have run it through my Carvin XT112 into a 4X12" and it sounds fabulous! Guitar is for the most part quiet and has a nice chunky, thick sound. Also has a pretty nice clean tone.

No clue about a factory set up but this axe stays pretty well in tune no matter how hard it's played. As mentioned before, the top is a good match but not perfect (is there one, I mean... really? either way, hence the '9' rating). This is an amazingly high quality guitar for the price. Over the past couple of years, the Korean factorys have been really putting out better and better quality machines.

Yea, it'll hold up. Everything seems to be pointing to a well made guitar that will stand up to daily playing. I would use it without a backup (except string issues of course) without hesitation.

This is actually my second Caddy. The first one I had was a flat top Elite that was cherry red and was a screamer. This one seems to be better balanced than my last one as it was tuner heavy. Still, it was a good enough Korean made item that I went for another one without hesitation. I approached Dean at NAMM 2004 and they were courteous and as helpful as they could be.

Been playing for 35 years, this is the umpteenth guitar I have owned but I will hold onto this one for a while. If it were lost or stolen I would definitely replace it since I've loved Deans since the 70's. The body style to me is still fresh and unique while still being a solid playable guitar. I've had at least 4 Deans over the past few years and I'm still pissed off at myself for selling them all, especially the Z select I had a few years ago. DUMB DUMB DUMB (won't be with this one).

I got my 2005 Caddy Select in Tiger's Eye finish, which is by far one of the nicest-looking finishes around. The neck is the perfect size, not too small, but not too large like some Les Paul's are. It's a really comfortable guitar to play, although it is fairly heavy (It weighs about the same as three Dean Vendetta's from what I've been able to tell). The stock pickups actually have a pretty good sound for metal. I've contemplated upgrading them, but overall I'm getting enough out of these to last me for now. The only thing that this guitar is lacking is a Floyd Rose, but it's such a great guitar that you won't care.

The guitar can honestly fit any style you want... I play in a progressive metal band where I mostly use it for shredding and playing quick rythm riffs, and I also play in a heavy metal band where I use it for grindingly heavy, slow, jam out riffs. On the flip side, I've used this guitar for praise and worship at my church, and it has a great blues tone if you're willing to play around with the settings.
Basically this isn't one of those guitars where you're almost limited to a certain tone, you can more or less get any sound you want from it.
I currently play it through a mic'ed Marshall MG250DFX for my metal bands and a Fender Princeton 112 when I want clean or crunchy tones. I don't really use effects with it often, but I do run it through a Digitech RP300A sometimes.
If you love using tap and pinch harmonics, you'll really love the sound, you can get the Caddy Select to scream like Dimebag were still alive, and the tap harmonics can mimick Zakk Wylde any day.

I never had to set this guitar up or change anything in it. I bought it from a local music shop, took it home, plugged in, and have been shredding ever since. The action is very low, but not too low. Playing feels almost effortless the majority of the time, and you certainly won't have any complaints regarding the feel of the action.
One thing to look out for, though, is fret buzz. Lower end and mid range Dean models seem to have this epidemic where one or two frets will be dead upon arrival. I played another one prior to this one in which the F note of the open high E was this way, and I bought a Dean Vendetta 4.0 online which arrived with its G# and A# notes on the open high A dead. It's not a big issue - it's not difficult to change yourself, although if you don't know what you're doing I wouldn't reccomend that you do it... It doesn't cost much to have a guitar professionally set up.

I've played this particular guitar probably an average of three hours a day over nearly two years now, and it isn't at all deteriorating. It more or less is in the same condition as it was when I bought it - Still plays great, still sounds great, still is great.
The gold harware is still shiny and new-looking. I take good care of my guitars, but even if you were slightly clumsy or negligent, you wouldn't have tow orry too much.
I'd certainly use this at a gig without a backup... In fact, I've done that a few times without any worries. Usually I bring my PRS and my other two Deans along to use for a song a piece (Basically to be a jerk and show that I have lots of guitars...) but I really don't like gigging with anything else because the Cadillac gives me everything I need.

I've never had to deal with customer support so I can't really say much here.

I've been playing guitar for nearly seven years now, and teaching for over three. In addition to this guitar, I currently own a Dean Vendetta 4.0, a Dean icon Select, a Paul Reed Smith Santana SE, a Yamaha SA500, and a mid-range Fender Stratocaster (Or at least those are my electrics anyway). I honestly prefer my Cadillac over all of those for any occasion, except jazz, when I'll usually choose my Yamaha, then.
If this guitar were stolen... I'd hunt whoever stole it down and destroy them. I honestly couldn't go without this guitar.. I loaned it to a fellow band member for a few weeks and I was losing my mind without it.
Before playing this guitar I had narrowed my 4 month search for a new metal guitar down to the Epiphone Zakk Wylde model Les Paul, an ESP EC1000, and a B.C. Rich Platnium Warlock. I had played all of these guitars when I decided to check out Deans, which I had never played before... I went in, picked a Cadillac Select up... And I left to drive to the bank to get cash, and I bought it that day.
If you're looking for an affordable but good-quality guitar, go ahead and buy a Dean. You won't be disappointed.

2006 Dean Cadillac Select. Features were covered in my first review. It's a stock guitar. All my plans for pick-up and bridge changing went out the door because this guitar has proven to be just right the way it is.

The 9 rating in versatility is just due to the fact it doesn't have a 5-way pick-up selector, although the 3-way withthe pus-pull tones works great for me.

This guitar is one of the best sounding guitars I've ever owned/played - period!

My set up got a bit facier than when I first wrote my initial review. I added a Scholz Power Soak to my Laney LC30, had a DHA Twin Valve overdrive/distortion pedal built and added to the rig and my new pedalboard is finally completed, with the addition of a BBE SOnic Stomp at the end, just before the amp's input.

I can get almost any tone I want out of this guitar - seriously. For blues, hard blues, classic rock, hard rock and heavy metal, it simply shines and puts to shame my other guitars, especially for the rice I paid for it.

The bridge pick-up is powerful and clear. Just a bit nasaly sounding, but nothing overpowering like a PRS Custom 22. The Neck pick-up is as fat and thick as you can get anywhere. And the combination of both pick-ups with either in series or split is just awesome. When split, with a dab of overdrive and the fat boost on, think SRV with an edge.



A highly recommended instrument for any guitarrist serious about their music.

Still has the factory .009 strings, no adjustments to intonation were done, no pick-up changes and no bridge exchange for the Kahler 2200 I still have sitting in my closet. Again, a great instrument!

So far so good. My only addition has been Schaller Starp Locks, as the position of them was an accident waiting to happen. Other than that, it's been very solid.

The Dean Forum is great. Even if Dean doesn't answer e-mails (I've sent about 4 asking different qustions, with no response), I could get the answers I was after fast and easy through the forum.

Fantastic value for the money. One of the best guitars, soud, feel and tone wise out there. I'm getting myself another one this year. It will be a time capsule 1980 wth two pick ups and black finish. All mahogany body and neck. I'll add the Kahler to that one...

2006 Dean Cadillac Select made in Korea.

Arched Figured Maple Top,Tiger Eye Finish
Mahogany Body
24-3/4" Scale & 1-11/16" Nut
Grover Tuners
Gold Hardware
Zebra Pickups
Tune-O-Matic Bridge
Set Mahogany Neck
Rosewood Fingerboard
Block Inlays
22 Frets

I gave it a 10 because this is a well made guitar for the price!

I guess my style has always been more on the bluesy side,I've also have played alot of country style stuff but I don't consider myself a country picker by no means!The reason I bought this guitar is because I've always loved the shape of a Caddy and I was getting kinda tired of playing Strats & Teles. To tell you the truth I haven't got to really try out my guitar that much since I got it a week ago.At the moment I don't have an amp so I tried it out at a friends that has a Fender Twin and it sounded great. Like I said I'm more of a blues, rock type of guy and this guitar didn't let me down.This is the first time I ever used a guitar with push,pull knobs and I really like the variety of sounds, the pickups seem to sound good to me so NO I'm not going to change them out!LOL

The guitar was set up at Ed Romans just before they shipped it to me.The action was set low and that is the way I like it, the neck feels great and no buzzing. The finish is flawless,it is really a beautiful instrument and everybody that sees it says it also.

I don't play live much,just more at home playing or with friends. This is a well made guitar,I've had alot of guitars in all of my years of playing and this one is by far the best looking & playing.
I will be buying more Dean Guitars in the future.

Just got the guitar so I don't know, I go to the Dean Forum alot and you can get alot of help & support thare.

I've been playing for over 30 yrs. now and played alot of different guitars but I was really excited when my Dean Cadillac came in. For a import made guitar it is well made and you can't beat the price,I would get another one if it was lost or stolen. It's Dean Guitars for me from now on, I'm hooked!

I usually don't do a review until at least 6 months with a piece of gear, but this time I'll make an exception.

I just received my brand new Dean Cadillac Select today and have been playing for the past 2 hours non stop,which is something I had forgotten how it felt for a very long time...

I bought this guitar sight unseen, based only on my desire to own a Dean Cadillac ever since they first came out and the reviews here. I can tell you I am so far not disappointed at all - on the contrary, I'm extremely satisfied!

Features:
Dean cadillac Select 2006, mahogany body and neck, highly figured quilted venner carved maple top in trans amber burst, rosewood fretboard with abalone block inlays, tune-o-matic bridge, grover tuners, 2 Dean high output humbuckers, 2 volumes, 2 tones (push-pull) and 3-way pick-up selector and 24-3/4 scale length.

I find this gutar to be very versatile due to the push-pull tones. I'm used to play 5-way selector equipped guitars and never really cared for a 3-way selector, but with the push-pulls it adds many different sound possibilities, better than a 5-way, at least to my ears.

For the price, it's a tremendous guitar - fantastic cost/benefit ratio.

Before anything, sound and tone are very particular things...so the opinions below are based on my personal preferences, of course. That being said, I've been playing some pretty great gear for the past 30+ years and know good tone and sound.

I play mostly hard blues, classic rock and hard rock. This guitar suits me perfectly. I play through a Laney LC30 and a THD BiValve and I believe it's capable of just about any tone I'm in the mood for, as it performed pretty wel for its first test drive.

I originally had plans to upgrade th pick-ups to Duncans JB and 59, but the stock ones sound pretty good, so I can wait or not even bother.

I also purchased a Kahler 2200 tremolo bridge, as I prefer tremolo equipped guitars, however, after playing this Caddy for a couple of hours, I'm having second thoughts about it. It sounds trully amazing just the way it is.

Both pick-ups are very hot and powerfull. I played this guitar throught the Laney and the high input was a bit much with these pick-ups when I use the drive channel. I had to plug it into the low, otherwise the tone would moosh a bit (this is actually a tip in the Laney's manual when using very hot pick-ups on the drive channel...).

The bridge is loud and stinging, great for over the top solos. The neck pck up has one of the fattest tones I've ever heard, reminiscent of the solo on "Silence is broken" (Damn Yankees). Tapping the coils and selecting both pick-ups I found a great blues tone both for rhythm and solos. This is no tele, but the tone of the bridge pick-up tapped comes pretty closed to it.

All in all, it simply sounds great, even compared with top priced pro guitars - I can compare it to my Tom Anderson Drop Top T and PRS Custom 22 and this one is right up there.

This guitar came with a great set up job from the store (inclded in the price), so the action was perfect right out of the box. The finish is flawless, except for a very thin spot missing in one of the control cavities in the back. Other than this, perfect!

Aside from the little spot mentioned above, these guitars come with .009 gauge strings and, for a 24-3/4" scale length, they are too slinky - I play .009's on all my other guitars, but they're all 25-1/2" scale, which suits it fine. That being said, even though the strings feel slinky, I kinda enjoyed, at first, the feel of this gauge for this scale length. The playing was effortless and bends a breaze...

The neck is pretty flat. I'm not sure about its radius (I'm trying to get more specifics on the Dean Forum), but it's probably a 13" or 14" radius from what I can tell (let's see if I'm right :)

Looks and feels pretty solid. Not as heavy as a Les Paul, but seems to hold its own quite well. I don;t gig, just play at home as a hobby, so I don't think it will be a problem...

I sent Dean an e-mail once, but it was never answered. They have, though, a great forum on their web site and the info I want to find out is either there already or I can ask a question and one of the members gives me arepply within a day or so.

I've been playing for about 30 years. I've own many guitars, but only one of them is still with me. I am simply amazed that Dean can make such a high quality instrument for this price and would recommed everyone looking for a great guitar to at least check one out - I thin you will not be disappointed.

In fact, I was on the process of selling my Tom Anderson anyway and will probably get another one of these (I'll install the Kahler on that one).

If it were lost or stolen, I'd get a new one.

To me, if it had a floyd or Kahler from factory it woul dmake it complete, but it's fantastic as is, especially for the price paid.

Most other reviews have covered this to the detail. Mine is the same (stock). I am really starting to like the push-pull pot's.

Suits my music style just fine. I will replace the pick ups with a set of Duncan black backs from Ed Roman, however I can't believe how much better this guitar sounds over my other one (Jackson soloist). This might be because I was stuck in a metal/thrash mode for the past few years and am finally opening up a little. The Jackson was fine for that. Over all I am still like a kid in a candy store when I get ready to plug this one in!! I think it is a bit on the bright side, but still messing around with the push/pull pots. The afore mentioned Black backs might cure this too.

It was set up perfectly by Ed Roman's guitars and I can't find a flaw worthy of mentioning for a guitar under $540 (with shipping and set up). Well worth the long wait to get it (1 month) I think this guitar is so much more amazing looking than my soloist. The binding is flawless and the finish is virtually flawless. Beautiful Amberburst Quilt!!!

Only had it 2 days but have heard many good things. I don't gig, but have three kids and a big dog... if it can last a year in this house it can withstand a nuke blast!

See above... Haven't had to call yet. I met Dean Zielinski's wife at a grocery store in Highland Park, Illinois a few years back, and she seemed nice, maybe customer support is the same...

Been playing for about four years. I'm glad I made this purchase and would replace with another if lost/stolen. Very impressed with the product considering the price I paid. I have a three week old daughter and have held this guitar more in the past two days than I have her!!

this is a late 2005/early 2006 model that came with a unique classic white finish and multi-ply black & white binding around the body and headstock. It is a set-neck (mahogany body & neck with carved maple top and rosewood fingerboard), 24 3/4" scale, two gold-covered humbuckers (samshin?), and gold Grover's and tune-o-matic style bridge & tailpiece. A truss rod wrench was included. This guitar has push-pull coil-taps in the two tone controls.

The guitar has a sound that is very-METAL and hard-rock, and the clean sound is wonderous, with either or both pickups. Sustain is excellent on this guitar. The coil-taps work fine. The pots's don't crackle. The pickups have a lot of noise in single-coil mode, less noise in HB mode, and the least noise when both p'up's are on. Using this guitar with no effects through my 50 watt Randall RH50T tube head and a 2x12 cab, I pretty much rule the universe using the overdrive channel on "classic high-gain" setting. I play death/thrash/black/prog/industrial metal mostly. This Dean is great for this music, but can also do blues, jazz, and all forms of overplayed-I've-heard-it-all-before-classic-rock. The "9" would've been a 10 if the pickups were less noisy.

Low action, strung with .010-.046 Daddario strings, and it was either set-up at the factory, or by the dealer. Perfect intonation. No buzzing or high frets. This is the first guitar I've ever bought that was THIS GOOD out-of-the-box. Flaws? A tiny discolored spot on the neck (tiny blue dot). I think it's gone now 'cause I think I wore it off last night playing for two hours.

Can't tell you about the reliability or durability, since I just got this axe a couple days ago, but it sure seems as solid as any Dean I've ever played and owned. My 2003 Dean ZX is still rippin'.

Never had to deal with Dean in this respect. The Dean folks are friendly and helpful, but I knew this a long time ago. I expect little if no-trouble-at-all.

Been playing since the late 1970's, mostly cheaper bolt-on neck guitars. This set-neck guitar is a breath of fresh air. If it were lost or stolen, I'd definitely get another one just like it, after making sure the party that stole or lost it was properly incinerated.
Black hardware instead of the gold-plated type would've been preferred, but I'll not pick nits about that. I can get the "proper hardware" anyway.

A quick update of my previous review, just like to add a bit with the features. The tone pots are also coil tapped for single coil sounds too, as stated in other reviews. I have just discovered these, and to my joy, the guitar has taken on a whole new level of versatility! Highly Recommended!