Hi,
I was wondering how prince obtains that thick sound when he plays a guitar solo. my solo's sound pretty weak yet he can make a single note sound extremely 'fat' (for want of a better word).

for example, the solo on Empty room (guitar studio version)

or on the 'it a'int over' cd when he is jamming with george clinton. The music stops besides princes guitar. Here he plays an asscending series of notes but it sounds like 4 guitars playing!!! is he playing single notes here or more?how does he get that wonderful sound/tonality?

any help/opinions would be appreciated.

thanx

lisa

Don't forget that P uses a LOT of effects, even when playing live. On record tho, he tends to double up the solo by adding a synth with the same melody (Gold, is the first to jump to mind). This gives his sound a bit more "punch". Just play around with some effects and amp settings and see what happens...
I'm sure someone around here could tell you which kit he uses if you want to replicate his sound precisely.

NewFunk said:

thanx. yes i wouldnt mind knowing more about his particular sound.

Don't have those tracks here, but some effects with which P fattens up his sound are:
- Octave (i.e. When Doves Cry)
- Flanger (i.e. Let's Go Crazy)
- Chorus (i.e. Purple Rain)
- Delay (almost every solo he does)

The best recipe imho for a Prince-like sound is quite a bit of distortion, some kind of modulation (phaser, flanger, chorus) and lots of delay, and possibly for the older sound some octave.

Oh edit:
He also uses strings from 10. or even 11. (big difference in tone!)
[This message was edited Mon Feb 10 1:35:46 PST 2003 by hectim]

howcomeudontcallme said:

His active EMG humbucker pickup helps a lot, that gives a very fat sound. And he uses very piercing distortion (e.g. Boss Metalzone) along with digital delay and flanger / chorus effects.

Also, on record I'm sure he has double-tracked some of the guitar pieces from time to time... Prince does that a lot with bass too, for example.

Getcha one of these

http://www.frankaxtell.co...lBoard.htm

im pretty sure prince uses two different types of distortion together to get that mashed up noise in between notes.
what i reaaally wanna know is how to chain effects up to get that aquatic noise he gets, as heard a lot on the "undertaker" project??

I could tell you what prince has as pedals but i can save you money by telling you to put your money on a flextone II and above models this will give you the sound and even more

rg770 said:

IN MY OPINION, The Flextone II sounds like a loud AM radio. No balls. I flipflopped over a tube amp or a flextone for over a year... I'd go into the store, plug into the flextone, play play play, try all their different amps, and then I'd go plug into a fender tube amp and play play.

The Fender amp is just un-reproducable via digital machinery. The Flextone amp just can't produce a good tone in a live setting. In a bedroom or a garage, I suppose it'll give you the drive/overdrive without having to crank the volume, but when you're playing live, the final eq that the Flextone produces just falls at your feet... and I WANTED one of those amps so BADLY.

The idea of dialing in 24 different amps, and effects built in, bypassing the need for 27 pedals, etc, is a GREAT concept, but I felt the Flextone II fell short, unless you want a wall of distortion ONLY. For some reason, and again, don't get me wrong, I don't know WHAT it was, but the output just sounded spongy, or something.

But then again, my application for the amp was in a room full of loud people (bar gigs, where there IS no real stage, you're just right in front of the people). The Flextone didn't cut through. Results may be completely different if you've got a PA and a soundman tweaking the output.

The riff you refer to, as best I can tell, is a 'unison note' type of rif: Bend up a tone on the G-string, then hit the same note, two frets back, on the B-string, and repeat.

With buckets of distortion, it does sound like four guitars. I'ts one of his favorite rifs. Consider:

"America" video
"Let's Go Crazy" from Lovesexy Concert video
And several places on the "It Ain't Over" CD.

There's a variation on this rif, too: one pluck of the G-string bend, then three on the B-string, repeat.

Hope this helps

Can anyone confirm my guess at the riff in question?

P.S. The Korg "Pandora" (PX-2) multi effects box has some nice approximations of Prince guitar sounds.