www.polaropposites.com/guitar.html






here's a pic from their 70's catalog...




I read somewhere that the company that made the H.C anderson "madcat" was also the same company that cranked out the hohner guitars that prince uses.
Mass production just a different name on the headstock. the guitar pictured below was purchased in the mid to late 70's.....Hmmmmm???


[Edited 2/27/07 21:42pm]

Prince's says "Hohner" on the headstock.

FruitToAttractBears said:

You didnt read the link..

Could be.

Interesting article.

Either way, it appears that Prince modified the pick-up on his. When I saw him in Vegas last month, the pick-up looks like custom work.

I love that there are some real technical Prince fans out there who notice this stuff.

prettymansson said:

I read the link. What's your point?

FruitToAttractBears said:

MY POINT IS .THE LINK IS DISCUSSING HOW H.S. Anderson guitars SOLD THE GUITARS THROUGH THE HOHNER COMPANY & HOHNER SIMPLY SLAPPED A DIFFERENT LABEL ON THEM ....

A lot of speculation about a guitar that costs about the same amount of money as two milk cartons.

novabrkr said:

pretty much. anyways...serious internet.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I thought u were a diehard hohner fan..? this is very important info !!! lots of people are dying to get their hands on the hohner "PRINZ" models and they are in no way made with the same quality as the one's Prince actually uses..(the originals..not the ones made to cash in on prince's fame)

Interesting. Also note that a "TE" prefix is on the Madcat and the Prinz. Of course the TE is supposed to mean TElecaster. But I'll bet a Madcat can be had for much less and be easily made into a pseudo-Hohner.

squirrelgrease said:

agreed !!! but they are MEGA hard to find !!! and they are not shabby guitars at all....I have the hohner prinz model and it aint all that great !!!

prettymansson said:

I've heard that the post-Purple Rain Hohner Prinz' are kinda poopie. But people still want mad money for them.

prettymansson said:

Did the people at Hohner name that guitar "Prinz" after Prince had become famous, or was it always called "Prinz" and Prince bought it because of the name ?

prettymansson said:

I always thought that Prince´s original Hohner was actually a very cheap and shabby sounding guitar equipped with expensive pick-ups ? Other than that, what´s the difference between the old and the post-Purple Rain Hohners ?
And how many does Prince own ? I´ve seen several of them in one picture, but I thought they don´t make them anymore and he also sued them after they started making the guitar again, didn´t he ? Which is strange because I would have expected them to have a good relationship since he´s made that guitar so famous and popular.

Also, a bit off topic but how can Schecter make the symbol guitar when it was actually invented by Auerswald ? And there´s also another dude in Chicago who also claimed to have invented the symbol guitar.

KoolEaze said:

they did it after Purple rain.

prettymansson said:

Ahh, OK, then I can see why he sued them.

KoolEaze said:

Id love to answer your other questions but i need to log off now...I can tell you tho that the guitar that this post is about was Very well made and of excellent quality.....It was made in japan and japanese instruments are normally cheaper to manufacture than USA made stuff...but when this guitar was released many Industry people at the NAMM convention in the late 70's hailed it as one of the best japanese High quality instruments they had ever played...hence all the interest from companies like Hohner and Cort,to repackage them and sell them as their own !

KoolEaze said:

Actually, the Hohner which Prince first adopted was built well and sounded fantastic right out of the box. Prince did try out different pickups, but the guitar was pretty much stock down to the potentiometers.

The post-PR Hohners were completely different, from fretboard to headstock to wood quality and type. Plus they were meant to be mass produced to satisfy the Prince wannabes at a sellable price-point.



Prince did/does have a buttload of the originals, quality Hohners-which I'm sure were not easy to find, in various stages of playability and disrepair.

The TE Prinz moniker was used because Prince would not allow his name to be used in connection with what Hohner wanted to sell. Apparently, Prince followed with a lawsuit even though the name was spelled differently.




Auerswald and Schecter were probably only contracted to build the guitars, while Prince owned the actual blueprints. Just a theory of mine.

squirrelgrease said:

I was at the Alladin (Vegas) recently where a music memorabilia store has on display an original prototype produced by Auerswald. It was supposedly used by Prince in the studio and on stage. It's appearance (poor quality) was pretty shitty compared to the ones I've seen in photos and upclose on stage. That may be the reason he went with Schecter.

AzhnConnectzhn said:

Wow, interesting, because the one I had seen during the Gold era on several occasions when he was on tour was really nice and looked even a bit shinier and overall better than the Schecter ones.

squirrelgrease said:

Thanks for the info !