I saw Prince's guitar rig detailled in Guitar Player magazine and it was a mind boggling array of pedals, effects, racks etc. I got as far as buying the Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion! Does anyone have any tips for recreating his classic distorted sound with a few pedals and a decent valve amp?

fender said:

Best way to do it on the cheap is to go put on one of his records. HA!

I can tell you that he uses a flange with the feedback cranked for the whooshing stuff (at end of Lets go Crazy) and there's mad delay all over the place, and there's uhh, aww screw it - go blow $70 for the Zoom ZFX707 multi doodad... delays, flange, etc.

With just a boss compressor, distortion and delay and a crybaby wah wah I get pretty darn close at times. (noise gate recommended!)

Thanks hectim. What kind of settings do have them at?

fender said:

Ehm lemme think... It goes (leaving the noise gate out to keep things simple) guitar->compressor->wah->distortion->delay->amp

The compressor I set with sustain three quarters, tone just over half, attack two thirds.

The distortion I with tone on a quarter and distortion full

The delay level is down around one quarter, as is the feedback/repeats and the delay time is halfway on the longest setting.

The wah I often leave set in a position, this gives some very princey tones with boosted mids or midlows, depending on the position...

Hope this helps!