So, here's the shcoop. I got me a tele, and I'm playing through a 1975 Fender Deluxe Reverb. Honestly, this is the most awesome amp I've EVER played thru. It's better than the twin, the super, the vibrolux, my old tube marshall.

This amp, quite simply, is The Shit.

So, at a gig tonight, when I was makin peoples heads bob, eyes squint and lips pucker, I was wondering, what kind of amp was Prince using back when he was a common, everyday kind of musician - using the old Tele. I'm sure now he's running through some rackmount hoopty. But does anybody know what he used on stuff like Head? When you were mine, Do Me baby - really the albums up TO Purple Rain.

What y'all know? Help a boy out now.

By the way, I was frickin AWESOME tonight. Lola gave me a solo, I just held my funky chord and chucka chucka. Tell me that ain't boss.

Oh...u know there's a pic circulating out there; he looks barely 18...in a room alone with only an amp. Where's that pic?

He may have been playing through Boogie Coliseum III heads. I guess it's best to check the old photos. Or maybe send Dez an e-mail to his new label and ask if he wouldn't mind talking about guitar gear from those days.

the loudest kind

That's great to hear about the 75 Fender Deluxe.

Eric Johnson actually favors those over the Twins for his clean tones.

I'm going to take a highly uneducated guess on the Prince stuff here.

Dirty Mind was probably recorded with The Horner/Honer/Homer? straight to the board since I think Prince had a makeshift home studio at the time.

It seems like for Controversy/The Time/Vanity 6/ He had more variety of tones and used more chorus and flanger on some stuff and different reverbs.

And I think from the purple to nude stuff he used the Boogies.

What's weird is Prince had a nice Les Paul Jr. (I think) from the period of the 2nd album that nobody mentions. It's seen on some of this years issues of UPTOWN.

Boogie MKIIIs for Purple Rain+era... then the Soldano 100 for the late 80s. Then who knows. On the ONA Tour, his rack was plugged into a Fender Bassman. I don't know if it was vintage or reissue. But it sounded pretty big.

Funny thing is, he uses so many effects, he still sounds like himself no matter how the gear changes.

TedW said:

I notice that happens with lots of players - Santana, Hendrix, SRV - these guys make the tone with their fingers more than the effects/amps/guitars. Prince too - I'm sure he's gone through a dozen or five different amp/guitar/signal combos, and you can pretty much tell it's him.

I never considered that he was running direct on those albums! All's I got here at work from that era is Sexy Dancer - and yeah, it might as well be running direct. But on "When you were mine" - that's got some beef to it... and Controversy - those are the tunes that I'm wondering about.

Definitely gotta be a Deluxe Reverb. Definitely.
[This message was edited Wed Aug 13 14:40:43 PDT 2003 by otan]