“It was the nicest guitar at NAMM”: The Gold Caged Steelcaster is a $15,000, 24-carat T-style inspired by a Cadillac – and it takes James Trussart’s metalwork lutherie to new levels

Also known as the ‘CadillacCaster’ this midas-touched example of James Trussart’s unique luthiery has, like so many guitars, a close connection with automobiles.

When the American car-maker Cadillac launched its electric-powered ‘LYRIQ’ SUV, Trussart designed a guitar that matched its luxurious styling, which appeared in ads for that vehicle.

The lustrous finish that clads this (almost) one-off instrument isn’t a metallic paint but 24-carat gold-plating, which extends even to the 10-46 set of 24-carat Optima strings, lending the CadillacCaster an opulent gleam.

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Tim Lobely, the man behind the Cream T guitar brand and Liverpool-based guitar retailer Sound Affects, where this guitar is currently for sale, spotted the guitar at the last NAMM show in Anaheim and had to have it as a centrepiece of Sound Affects’ wide-ranging stock of premium guitars, he says.

“It was the nicest guitar at NAMM, in my opinion,” Tim says. “I’ve known James Trussart for a number of years, and talked to him about it, and he said that basically he’d made two.

The first one appeared in a Cadillac advert, and he sold that privately without ever going to the market. So he made another one so he could put it to the open market and display it for NAMM. I sort of circled it for a couple of days, but kept going back, and after a bit of haggling I got it for Sound Affects.”

It’s little wonder that Tim found the guitar difficult to walk away from as its hand-crafted features extend well beyond the finish. The fretboard inlays, for example, are polished brass blocks.

“Quite a lot of the customers who come in are quite drawn to the inlays,” comments Sound Affects’ director Paul Bannister. “They do look unique, and they do stand out,” he says.

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Despite the massy connotations of gold, thanks to its lattice ‘cage’ construction, the guitar is surprisingly lightweight at a little over 8lbs (3.6kg) – and the contrasts continue with the grey-stained maple neck, which has a Fender-style 25.5-inch scale length but a profile that’s “not really overly chunky, but it’s not thin either,” Paul says, “It’s probably similar to a Gibson Les Paul neck,” he explains.

The guitar’s wiring for its pair of custom-wound pickups by US maker Arcane, is visible through the lattice-style body of the guitar. The switching options aren’t especially complex, Paul explains, but there is a push-pull pot that operates a coil-split for the neck humbucker. If striking gold appeals to you, there are few guitars more striking than this gleaming pinnacle of Trussart’s metal mastery.

• Find out more at James Trussart Custom Guitars.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.