while i was watching las vegas dvd,
i noticed many pedals in the rack,i haven;t seen any guitar processor.
so i was wondering what equipment prince use.
what do you think is prince making his guitar sounds or someone else do that for him.
i heaRD prince have 2 turbo boss distortions turned in the same time.

Of course he has digital processors for his guitar sound (there's tons of reverb and you can't place it on a mere pedal box before the distortion stage). They are usually attached to the FX loop of the preamp / poweramp -system (or between) in his rack, so they are not handled necessarily by Prince. However, it's most likely that he has a footswitch on stage to control the preset programs himself.

And yes, he uses mostly BOSS pedals. Don't know why exactly, because they're usually of quite compromised quality and in his position he could afford much better.

From the cloud guitar FAQ, compiled by the visitors of this forum:
Q: What strings, effects etc. does Prince use?
A: We know Prince uses HR Highbeam strings. The gauge is subject for discussion, anything from .8 tot .11 has been mentioned. He probably uses light to medium, regular shape picks. His current amps are Mesa Heartbreaker Guitar Amps with 4x12 and 2x12 Cabinets. As for effects, Prince seems to own almost the entire Boss range of pedals, including Turbo Distortion, Octave, Delay, Flanger, Chorus and Blues Driver. He also uses a Digitech Whammy pedal, a Zoom effects unit and a wah-wah. Prince sprays his strings with Finger Ease string lubricant.

According to Guitar Player Magazine:
Rack Gear Digital Music MX-8, Roland GP-16, Zoom 9030, Rane ME30, Behringer Denoiser, Furman PL-8, Furman PL-Pro, Furman AR-117.

Stompboxes Boss DS-2 Turbo Overdrive, Boss VB-2 Vibrato, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, Boss FL-2 Flanger, Boss OC-2 Octave, Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, Dunlop CryBaby wah, Dunlop Rotovibe.

As to why he uses Boss effects: he's been using them at least since purple rain and pedals like the boss octave (when doves cry), flanger (darling nikki), chorus (purple rain) and delay (everywhere from Let's go crazy to the delay-heavy SOTT/Lovesexy era) have become his signature sounds.

And, as I posted in an earlier fx thread:

In the past, I've used Ibanez, MXR, DOD, Dallas Arbiter and Jim Dunlop stompboxes and Zoom and DOD multi-effects. The Ibanez (couple of wah's, delay, tube screamer) and DOD (phaser, multi-effect), Dalas arbiter fuzz face and MXR compressor ALL broke down on me in one way or the other: they got noisy, switches became unreliable or they simply stopped working properly (and I'm very careful with my equipment). I also wore out a Dunlop Hendrix wah. Anyway, non-second hand Boss gear never let me down in my 18+ years of playing and that's one important reason I use it.

Somehow many amateur musicians seem to think Boss gear is inferior, whereas professionals (frusciante, satriani, cobain) use it all the time. I really wouldn't know the reason for that, save for the lack of true bypass, which is something I don't care about (and REAL true bypass is rare on boutique brand pedals, too) Their stereo chorus and delay pedals are really unmatched in sonic quality. As for the overdrives/distortions: there's a reason Boss has a shitload of different models for these. Whether a distortion box sounds good to you is a matter of guitar, pickups, amp, amp settings, other effects, strings, pick etc. I've heard a ds-1 distortion sound lame on a tube amp and kick ass on a transistor amp! Whereas a Tube Screamer needs a tube amp to do anything etc.

Then there's another point: I find that Boss pedals retain the original character of my guitar sound better than others and that Boss sounds cut through the mix better (I've had GREAT fuzz and phase sounds with other gear that completely disappeared as soon as the hammond and horns kicked in! NOT a nice experience!)

Obsessed with effects? Me?

hectim said:

I wouldn't really know myself, since I haven't dallied with them on a guitar since my teenage years. However, my recent experiences come from being involved in the industrial genre, where you attach stompboxes to drummachines and synths(vox too), and used that way it's very easy to hear why so many think they are total crap. Of course that's not how they are intended to be used, so basically my opinion on that matter is really second to nothing. I admit.

Then again, professionals like Frusciante & Satriani can afford proper amplifiers as well, so sure even a tranny distortion BOSS distortion box is going to sound awesome coming out of a three million bucks worth of all-tube pre- & poweramplifier stages.



It's only human.

I've been there myself - until I realized all FX boxes are ridiculously overpriced and downloaded all the free VST plug-ins from www.kvraudio.com.

Novabreaker said:

I agree that especially overdrive boxes (Boss, but also tubescreamers) can really eat up your lows, especially on a synth bass. So what I used to do was (on a mono sound) to put the left out through the stomp box and the right out straight into the board and mix those two.



You mean those guys think: hey I just spent 8000 bucks on an amp, now let's put any old shitty pedal in front of it? I do agree that any pedal is just one link in a chain. However, I wouldn't advocate using a pedal to improve an amp sound you're unhappy with. A good guitar/amp sound comes first, effects are just the icing on the cake.


Can't see myself using those onstage in a nightclub though!

hectim said:

[/quote]
Dudeman! There are laptop computers with audio interfaces too! Altough it's probably far more convenient to step on a proper stompbox than have the laptop keyboard lying on the floor and step on it instead - now that I think about it.

I can see myself having to reboot in the middle of a set!

There's an interesting issue of Guitar Player in which all Prince's gear is listed, plus how it's configured, and how and what he records with.
Anologue reel2 reel is the starting point with Rec.
Man if there's one thing about Prince's guitar tone, personally, it's the wonderful usage of the turbo distortion delay wah flanger etc... effects, which put your head in a swirl.
BOSS pedals, who said what!!! All there is as far as I'm concerned. Are there any other's ? Actually I had a Korg pedal board which kicked and wailed delightfully . BOSS is BOSS is how it is. If anyone is into Anime,(japanese "Art" animation) or Japanese guitarists, they all have a similar sound tonaly effectwise ;to Prince in my opinion.
hectim is way into all this, so I'm sure He's got it right; and Guitar Player is a great source for this stuff thebanishedone

just wondering if any of u guyz/girlz have made any of your own effects pedals/boxes??

dudemyster said:

Yeah. But all that came out of it was an ice hockey match.