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Dean

Cadillac

A Les Paul bottom, a sharp horn, and a headstock you can read from the back row.

Dean Zelinsky’s first guitars were the pointy ones. Then he drew a single-cut, and by 1979 the top of his line had three humbuckers, gold hardware, and a name: Cadillac. The name outlived the factory.

Introduced
1979
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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Dean Cadillac Select with quilted cherry top and gold hardware
Photo: Ruy Landa / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0Modern Cadillac Select with the Dean wedge headstock.

The short version

  1. 1976

    Evanston

    Zelinsky opens his shop. The first guitar is an unfinished cherry-burst V.

  2. 1977

    V, Z, ML

    The first Deans reach the market, or are unveiled at winter NAMM and ship in 1978. Keep both.

  3. 1978

    The other body

    Later in the year the single-cut outline arrives, set-necked, as the E’lite and the Cadillac.

  4. 1979

    The Cadillac

    The top of the line. Three humbuckers, or an optional two, gold hardware, bound ebony with pearl blocks.

  5. 1980

    Chicago

    The shop moves to Chicago. Dean’s own pages date the shape from this year.

  6. 1984

    The last American Deans

    Imports by 1985. Other dates for the end of the US shop are 1985 and 1986.

  7. 1986

    The name changes hands

    Zelinsky sells the brand in 1986, or 1990, or 1991. Depends who you ask.

  8. 2002

    Signed and numbered

    A 25th Anniversary Cadillac, 100 guitars, each one signed by Zelinsky.

Side A

A1

The 12th or 13th Dean

Kerry Livgren of Kansas stopped at Dean Zelinsky’s booth at a NAMM show. The next day he called and said that, of all the guitars at the show, he liked Zelinsky’s best. Zelinsky shipped him one.

“The 12th or 13th Dean ever made was on tour with the #1 selling band in America,” Zelinsky said later.

That’s the story that gets stuck to the Cadillac, and here’s the trap: it wasn’t a Cadillac. Livgren was looking at the first production run, a V, a Z, or an ML. Zelinsky told it more carefully in 2024. Livgren played an ML, and when the Cadillac came out, he got the first one. Two guitars, not one. And no Kansas song is pinned to either of them, so leave “Carry On Wayward Son” where it is.

A2

The other body

Zelinsky opened his shop in Evanston, Illinois, in 1976. The first guitars were the pointy ones: the Z, the V, the ML. Whether they hit the market in 1977 or were unveiled at that winter’s NAMM and shipped in 1978 depends on who’s telling it.

Then he drew something round. You’ll read that the Cadillac came out in 1977 alongside the first three. The paper mostly points later. Later in 1978 the outline arrives twice: as the E’lite, two exposed DiMarzios and chrome, and as the Cadillac, both set-necked. Maybe not on the same day. By 1979 Cadillac means the top of the line: bound mahogany, bound ebony with pearl blocks, gold hardware, and three humbuckers, with two as an option.

The best description of the body is the plain one. A Les Paul lower bout and an Explorer-ish treble horn. One magazine called it “a Les Paul design with a V headstock,” which gets most of it in seven words.

A3

Too much headstock

The early Dean headstock is a big winged V. It’s the part you can see from the back of the hall, and on the early Zs it was also the part that lost fights with mic stands.

On the Cadillac it looks the most out of scale, and that’s the charm. A round, heavy-looking single-cut with a wedge on the end that says Dean from fifty feet away. You were never going to mistake it for a Les Paul.

Some went further inside. One 1979 example had three DiMarzios, a Super Distortion, a Super II, and a PAF, plus a built-in preamp. That preamp belongs to that guitar. It isn’t on the standard recipe, so don’t expect one in every early Cadillac.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 12th or 13th

    The Dean that went on tour with Kansas. It wasn’t a Cadillac.

  • 3

    Humbuckers on the 1979 Cadillac. Two were an option.

  • 100

    25th Anniversary Cadillacs in 2002, each signed and numbered.

  • $2,999

    The three-pickup anniversary guitar in 2002. Two pickups were $2,899.

Side B

B1

Who owns the name

The American run ended the way it started, with three dates. The last original American-made Deans in 1984, imports by 1985, the US shop closed in 1986. When the name changed hands is another argument: 1986, or 1990, or 1991, and then Armadillo in 1997.

Somewhere in there Cadillac stopped meaning a model and started meaning the body. A 1990s reissue was a through-neck guitar with 24 frets and two humbuckers. A Deluxe followed. The outline stayed, and almost everything underneath it changed.

B2

The one he kept

In 2002 Dean brought the Cadillac back with Zelinsky’s name on it. A 25th Anniversary run, 100 guitars from April, each one signed and numbered by him. Flame maple, abalone, gold, seven plies of binding on the body. $2,899 for two pickups, $2,999 for three.

The company called it the version “never put into production for the general playing public but reserved for Dean’s top Artists.” That’s the press release talking. Keep it at that.

The better story is what Zelinsky held on to. His own collection had an early Cadillac in it, one “that Peter Frampton had for a while.” When Dean later made the USA Time Capsule guitars, Zelinsky said they were taken off guitars in that collection, an early Cadillac among them.

The new one has two pickups, chrome, and a different head. But it started from a guitar he kept.

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1979

    Kerry Livgren

    The first Cadillac, on Zelinsky’s 2024 telling

    Of Kansas, and Dean’s first endorser. His first Dean was an earlier shape. Often seen with a Cadillac. No song is pinned to it.

  • 1979

    Rich Williams

    Dean

    Of Kansas. Listed with the Cadillac from 1979 to 1983. Livgren said they both picked up Deans because they fit the band.

  • Peter Frampton

    An early Cadillac

    Zelinsky kept it in his own collection, an early Cadillac “that Peter Frampton had for a while.” No album is tied to it.

  • 1976

    Dean Zelinsky

    Designer and builder

    Opened the shop in Evanston, drew the shapes, and signed every one of the 100 anniversary Cadillacs in 2002.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

A round lower bout, a sharp upper horn, and Dean’s wedge headstock — the Cadillac, not an ML, and not a Les Paul.

Body
Solid mahogany, Cadillac single-cut. Page prose: single-ply binding. The spec grid leaves binding blank
Neck
Set 3-piece mahogany, V profile. Headstock on this SKU: Series 2
Fingerboard
Ebony, pearl blocks, 22 jumbo nickel. Radius 12" (the page also prints 305 mm). Mix flagged
Scale
24 5/8" (625 mm) on the spec line. The same page’s prose says 24.75'. Mix flagged
Pickups
USA DMT Baker Act (bridge), USA DMT Nostalgia (neck), HH
Hardware
Tune-o-matic with Dean tailpiece; Grover 18:1; chrome; speed knobs
Electronics
Volume / volume / tone / tone, 3-way toggle
Finish
Solid finishes. This SKU does not lock one color
Nut
Graph Tech, 1 11/16". The page also prints 43 mm. Mix flagged
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current production typical = USA Time Capsule Cadillac (deanguitars.com, SKU USA TCCADI, fetched 19 October 2026). List $3,999.00. Unavailable on that cart this pass. Cadillac 1980 — natural and silverburst $699.00, flame $759.00 — is the Classic Series sibling, same outline, not this table, also unavailable. Select quilt Trans Brazilia $1,499.00 was in stock: set-through, Seymour Duncan, Babicz. Cadillac X is a bolt-on Floyd at $579.00, unavailable. One USA pickguard, serial US250050, is listed at $4,599.00. The 1979–85 three-pickup gold USA is not this table. No Gibson SKUs. Do not average 24 5/8", the page’s 24.75', Cadillac 1980’s 24 3/4" (printed 629 mm), a shop-measured 24 1/2", or Wikipedia’s 24.75".

Construction

The job was a single-cut you could pick out from the cheap seats. Round lower bout, sharp treble horn, and the big Dean head. The ML was already the pointed guitar. This is the other body.

The shop is older than the model, and the opening year will not sit still. Zelinsky told Musicians Hotline the Evanston space was 1976, the first guitar an unfinished cherry-burst V, and that Deans hit the market in 1977. Vintage Guitar (April 2004, on a 1978 Z): late 1976 in Evanston, and at the beginning of ’77 the Z, then the V, then the ML. Guitar Gavel has those three unveiled at the 1977 winter NAMM and shipping in 1978. Keep both. Wikipedia’s company page says Chicago 1976 in the prose and 1977 in the infobox. All of that is the V, the Z, and the ML (dean-ml). Not a Cadillac.

Wikipedia’s Cadillac page says the opposite. Period 1977—present, “originally called E'Lite,” “released alongside” the ML, V, and Z. That folds a later name onto the first shapes. Keep the sentence. This plate does not start in 1977.

The outline shows up first as an E'lite. Blue Book: 1978–1985, two exposed DiMarzios, bound rosewood with pearl dots, chrome, tune-o-matic and stop. Guitar Gavel (David Still): later in 1978 Zelinsky introduced the E'lite and the Cadillac, both set-neck with a molded heel, and he is not sure they landed the same day. Golden E'lite, Blue Book 1979–1981 — bound ebony, abalone dots, gold, covered pickups, walnut — is the one shops call a Cadillac when it is not. A Chicago Music Exchange 1980 “Cadillac Elite,” serial 8001721, is that blur: two DiMarzios, pots dated 1979. Vintage Guitar: on these Deans the first two digits of the stamp are the date, so 80 is the year, not a count.

The name Cadillac, when it is its own model, is the top of that line. Blue Book: manufactured 1979–1985. Bound mahogany, mahogany neck, 22-fret bound ebony with pearl blocks, gold, three-per-side tuners, tune-o-matic and stop, three humbuckers, two volumes and two tones, a 3-way. Optional two humbuckers, so a pair does not by itself prove an E'lite. Finishes there: Braziliaburst, Caine White, Cherry, Cherryburst, Opaque Black, Walnut. Guitar Gavel’s 1979 example is tighter than that recipe: multi-ply binding, mother-of-pearl blocks, DiMarzio Super Distortion, Super II, and PAF, and a built-in preamp. The preamp is that guitar. It is not on the Blue Book line. Dean’s living pages call the shape a staple “since 1980.” This plate starts in 1979. Keep 1980.

Blue Book’s picture of the body is the one to keep: a Les Paul lower bout and an Explorer-ish treble horn. Not a Les Paul (gibson-les-paul-standard). Not a 1958 korina Explorer (gibson-explorer-1958-korina). Not an ML. Not a Hamer Standard. The Cadillac bass is the outline with four strings. Not this table. No Gibson SKUs.

The head is why it still reads as a Dean from the back row. Vintage Guitar, on the early Z: a large winged V, and the weak point — many of them lost a fight with a mic stand. Guitar Gavel: that giant head looks most out of scale on the Cadillac and the E'lite. That is the wedge. The USA Time Capsule and the Cadillac 1980 both spec a Series 2 head. That is the head on the living guitar. It is not the early winged V, and the page does not print a size against the old one.

The end of the American run is split the same way the start is. Vintage Guitar: the last original American-made Deans in 1984, imports by ’85. Blue Book still prints this model through 1985, moves the shop to Chicago in 1980, and closes the USA shop in 1986. Keep 1984, 1985, and 1986. Who bought the name is a third argument. Guitar Gavel: Zelinsky sold it in 1986. Blue Book: sold to Oscar Medeiros in 1990. Wikipedia: Medeiros from 1991 until Elliott Rubinson’s Armadillo Enterprises in 1997. None of those is a unit count.

Then Cadillac means the body. Blue Book says it flat: three pickups against the E'lite’s two, at first; now the name is the style. The 1992–94 reissue on that list is another build — figured maple, through-neck, 24 frets, two covered humbuckers. A Deluxe follows in 1996–97. The signed return is 2002. Dean’s 1 February 2002 announcement, on the 2007 capture of the old site: 25th Anniversary, winter NAMM, 100 guitars from April, Zelinsky to sign and number each. Flame maple, abalone, 24-karat gold, 7-ply body, 5-ply head, a 25th emblem. $2,899 for two pickups, $2,999 for three, case and certificate. Dean’s claim was that this was the version “never put into production for the general playing public but reserved for Dean's top Artists.” 2002 money. Zelinsky told Musicians Hotline the later USA Time Capsules were taken off guitars in his own collection, including an early Cadillac. That guitar is not the one in the table.

Classic against current: a 1979–85 USA Cadillac — three humbuckers or the optional pair, gold, pearl blocks, the winged V — against a 2026 USA Time Capsule with two DMT humbuckers, chrome, a Series 2 head, and a spec line that will not settle on one scale. The $699 Cadillac 1980 is the other silhouette you were supposed to be able to order. The Select that was actually in stock is a third. None of them is the gold three-pickup.

Players

Do not hang the ML on this plate. Dimebag Darrell’s Dean is that guitar. Do not hang “Carry On Wayward Son” or “Dust in the Wind” here. Both are 1976–77, and Livgren’s first Dean is a different instrument. The furry ZZ Top guitars are Dean Zs (Guitar.com, Justin Beckner, 17 April 2024). The 2002 press only compares the anniversary guitar’s quality to customs for Billy Gibbons, Elliot Easton, Nancy Wilson, Sammy Hagar, and John McFee. Quality is not a model.

Kerry Livgren (Kansas). The name that gets stuck to this shape, and the trap. Zelinsky, Musicians Hotline: Livgren stopped at the NAMM booth, called the next day, and said that of all the guitars at the show he liked Zelinsky’s best. Zelinsky shipped that guitar. “The 12th or 13th Dean ever made was on tour with the #1 selling band in America.” He is explicit that Livgren was looking at the first production run — a V, a Z, or an ML. On his own show (15 May 2024) he separates them: Livgren played an ML, and when the Cadillac came out he got the first one. Keep both. They are not one guitar. Livgren, Guitar International (24 December 2010): first Dean endorser, met at NAMM, still an endorser, and in the Kansas years also on a Gibson ES-335. MusicPlayers (17 July 2017): often seen with a Cadillac, “a Les Paul design with a V headstock,” plus Vendettas and Hardtails. Wikipedia pairs him with Rich Williams, 1979 to 1983. No song on that page is pinned to this model.

Rich Williams. Same Wikipedia sentence. Livgren, in a 2007 booth clip, said the two of them picked up Deans because the guitars fit the band. A purchase is not a session log.

John McFee (Doobie Brothers). Wikipedia names him. Zelinsky’s endorser list includes the band and does not name a model. A 1980 Dean ad puts McFee on the page; the line a seller transcribes does not say Cadillac.

Peter Frampton. Zelinsky, same interview, on what he kept: an early Cadillac “that Peter Frampton had for a while.” One guitar in that collection. No album on it.

Glen Drover. Wikipedia lists him off a Megadeth page that does not survive. A Reverb listing of a 2011 USA Cadillac Custom — Floyd Rose, Seymour Duncan SH-6 and SH-1 — says he ordered it and used it on tours and recordings. The seller’s account of a later USA guitar. Not a 1979 hardtail, and not a comp.

Also known stays short. Wikipedia also names Rob Barrett, Eric Peterson (live), Sascha Gerstner, Jack Kilcoyne, and Jesse Penny. No songs. None invented.

Rarity

You can still buy the outline. On 19 October the Select quilt was in stock. The $3,999.00 USA Time Capsule was not, and neither was the Cadillac 1980. A shelf is not a 1979 census.

Dean has not published Cadillac totals. None invented. One Reverb ask says much less than 50 fully loaded originals were made. That is the seller talking. The 100 guitars in 2002 are one signed batch, not a seventies total. Vintage Guitar’s serial rule is why a first-year count stays unknown: the first two digits are the date. 8001721 is a 1980 stamp on 1979 pots. The number does not count the year.

What is actually thin is the early USA guitar the name first meant. Three humbuckers, gold, pearl blocks, sometimes the preamp, the winged V, before “Cadillac” was any guitar of this drawing. E'lites share the outline and are not this count. Later imports are not it either. Livgren’s first Cadillac, if the 2024 telling holds, and the Frampton guitar Zelinsky kept, are single objects. They are not a vintage Cadillac.

Value

Informal estimate, 19 October 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask is not sold. Celebrity guitars are not comps. No invented medians. No original 1979 list price turned up in the sources read this pass, so none is printed. $2,899 and $2,999 are 2002 money.

New street. Factory list, 19 October 2026. USA Time Capsule $3,999.00, unavailable. One pickguard, serial US250050, $4,599.00. Select quilt $1,499.00, in stock. Cadillac 1980 natural and silverburst $699.00, flame $759.00, unavailable. Cadillac X $579.00, unavailable. A new flame on Reverb was asked at $759.99. Don’t average a Select with an X, or a USA shop guitar with the Classic Series.

Used modern. Reverb’s guide for the Cadillac 1980, Good to Mint, 149 orders: $386–$820. Typical new on that page: $699. Named solds, not a second midpoint: 2 October 2026, Good, $680; 29 June 2026, Mint, $539.99; 18 June 2026, Excellent, $350; 29 May 2026, Good, $500; 22 April 2026, Very Good, $650; 18 April 2026, Very Good, $700. That guide is the reissue. One dealer listing of a new natural labels the factory Dean/HMI India. Dean’s page does not print a country. Don’t move India onto a 1979 guitar.

Vintage / collectible. No sold band for a 1979–85 USA Cadillac in this pass. Flag: thin sold-comp access. Named ask, not a hammer: a 1980 three-pickup with gold hardware and an active preamp, $14,995. A 1979 left-handed USA with two DiMarzios sold; the hammer did not print. A 25th Anniversary, #12/100, ended at a posted $2,199 — not a confirmed sale. Do not average those with the reissue guide. Frampton’s Cadillac and Drover’s 2011 Floyd are single objects. Not comps.

See also

  • dean-ml — 1977 V-plus-Explorer on the same wedge headstock; not this single-cut
  • gibson-les-paul-standard — the single-cut this horn is not
  • gibson-explorer-1958-korina — 1958 korina Explorer; not a Dean Cadillac

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.