DEAN GUITARS, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, 1983

This unique furry bass and its accompanying matching guitar, created for Dusty Hill and Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top, was used in the music video for the band's single 'Legs', from ZZ Top's 1983 album Eliminator. Dean Zelinsky, who built the instruments, recalled that One night, I received a 3am phone call...it's Gibbons. He was on tour in the UK and had the guys from Def Leppard with him. He wanted to hook them up with some Dean Guitars. A little disoriented from the late night call, I spent about a half an hour on the phone working out the details...then at the very end of the conversation Billy drops the line, "I'm sending you some sheepskins I purchased while in Scotland, I want you to put them on some guitars." Weeks later, the sheepskins showed up and I got to work. I made a matching pair of Dean Z guitar and bass, painted them white including the fingerboards, painted the Eliminator logo down the necks and applied the sheepskins. I cleared a path down the center with electric horse sheers to accept the pickups, tailpiece and strings. I remember we were still gluing the fur on the tuning keys when the FedEx driver showed up to pick up the guitars. He waited while we boxed them up, they had to make it to the video shoot the very next day. The video, directed by Tim Newman, was shot in February 1984 on location in Valencia (now Santa Clarita) and Panorama City, California. The single and video were released in May 1984 and won the inaugural MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video.