Prince & His Guitars – Part One

An Introduction

I live in the UK and have been a Prince fan since 1984. In 1986 I started playing the guitar and was fascinated by Prince’s ornate white Cloud guitar. This fascination has lead to a life-long study of Prince and his guitars. I now hand-build replicas of Prince’s Cloud & Symbol guitars based on my years and years of studying. Much of the information below was originally available on my now defunct web page and was also featured in a French guitar magazine. However, I have added to it and I am now presenting it here for everyone to see. I hope it answers a few questions and provides you with an interesting read!

In 2002 I was fortunate enough to attend the Xenophobia Celebration in Minneapolis. During which time I was able to get ‘up close & personal’ with several of my favourite guitars. For me this was the final chapter in my years of study. I saw details that I had never seen before and may never be seen again by us mere mortals! There were several guitars on display: The two original Auerswald Gold Symbols, a purple Shecter (USA) symbol with Floyd Rose, the Auerswald Model ‘C’, the Auerswald ‘Cleo’ bass, two Hohner Telecasters and the Warwick ‘Eye’ Thumb Bass.

The only one missing was a Cloud guitar, although there was a thru-neck Shecter Cloud on display, Plus a bolt-on Cloud in the NPG store (which I won in a raffle on the last night – that’s another story).

The Cloud Guitar.

Originally built by David Rusan of the Knut Koupee Guitar Shop in Minneapolis. This guitar features all maple construction and has a thru-neck. It is built using Gibson’s 24.75” scale length and has 22 medium/jumbo frets with a 12” radius on the fretboard. This guitar is equipped with EMG active pickups (an 81 humbucker at the bridge and an SA single coil in the neck position) and Schaller hardware – a tunomatic style ‘457’ bridge/tailpiece and M6 machine heads. It has one volume control, one tone control and a 3-way switch. The whole guitar is finished in two-pack paint (including the fretboard) and is equipped with Jim Dunlop strap locks and a brass nut. The truss rod cover is also made from brass. All hardware is gold plated.

There have been several different versions of the Cloud. Some models vary slightly in their appearance but they are essentially the same. The different models/colours are listed below:

White Cloud – Purple Rain era – Destroyed at the last Revolution gig. Features ‘spade’ symbol fret markers.

Black Cloud #1 – Parade era – This guitar was the only one to have a natural finished maple fretboard (not painted). Later became the ‘Batman’ guitar (see below).

Peach Cloud – Sign O’ The Times era – Given away as a prize and not seen since.
This Cloud had small black dot makers.

Blue Cloud – Lovesexy Era – Commonly known as the ‘Blue Angel’. Also featured small black dot markers.

Black Cloud #2 – Batman era – All black with bat symbol fret markers.

Yellow Cloud – Diamonds & Pearls era. At this point several Yellow Clouds were built to be sold at the Minneapolis & London NPG shops. These were built by Prince’s guitar tech at the time and each one was numbered. The came with a certificate of authenticity. At the same time several Blue Clouds were given out to various Hard Rock Café’s around the world (as were some Yellow ones). London has a blue one on display. These guitars are easy to recognise as the bridge pickup is further away from the bridge than on Prince’s guitars. The yellow clouds have black symbol fret markers and the blue ones have sterling silver symbol fret markers.

Blue Cloud #2 – Rave era – This guitar has gold plated knobs rather than the black plastic ‘mini JB’ knobs found on earlier guitars. It also has a rounded profile to the body.

Recently you could buy a copy of the Cloud from NPG Music Club (Prince’s official site). These are made by the Korean wing of American guitar company Shecter under the ‘Diamond Series’ label. Two versions were available – one with a thru-neck and the other with a bolt-on neck. They feature Duncan Design pickups and Grover machine heads. The bridge is, I believe, made by Gotoh. These guitars were available in metallic white and metallic blue. They are currently fetching high prices on the auction sites although practically every one seems to have the same fault.
The paint wears away very easily along the top edge of the fretboard. Many guitars were even shipped in this condition.

Later Shecter Clouds also vary from the original as they feature Fender’s 25.5” scale rather than the shorter 24.75” scale. They are also missing the brass nut & truss rod cover.

The Symbol Guitar

The Symbol guitar was originally built by German luthier Jerry Auerswald. The first one was painted gold and was made from antique maple. This guitar has a neck-thru construction with 24 frets. It uses the 24.75” scale length and has the same EMG pickups as the Cloud guitar. Jerry made the bridge for this guitar himself as he makes his own hardware. Again, this guitar is equipped with Schaller M6 machine heads with custom-made tuning buttons.

There were two copies of the Symbol guitar made by one of Prince’s guitar technicians. One was white and the other was black. These were made from mahogany and didn’t last too long! Prince has a nasty habit of throwing his guitar way up in the air and letting them crash onto the stage. If you look closely at pictures of the white Symbol you can see that the lower horn has been snapped off and glued back on. The part of the guitar is very delicate – especially when made from mahogany (a short-grained wood).

Subsequent symbol guitars – namely the purple ‘Habibi’ models were built by the American wing of Shecter Guitar Research. There are two versions – the most recent one having a Floyd Rose vibrato system. This is a first for a Prince guitar. Prince’s guitar tech, Takumi, told me that he stripped down the Auerswald Symbol and sent all the measurements to Shecter. These are the guitars that Prince currently uses on stage.
Shecter have also made a gold version of the Symbol guitar.

The Auerswald Model ‘C’ Guitar

The striking Model ‘C’ guitar was made by German luthier Jerry Auerswald. It is one of his ‘stock’ models. Prince first started playing this guitar publicly in 1988.

The main feature of this guitar is the ‘sustain bow’. This not only adds sustain but also gives the neck added stability. The Model ‘C’ is essentially a headless guitar as the tuning machines are an integral part of the bridge. The strings clamp just behind the nut at the bottom end of the neck.

EMG pickups are fitted to this guitar – once again the SA single coil and the 81 humbucker. Prince used to refer to this guitar as his ‘rock’ guitar, a mantle now passed over to the Symbol. All other hardware is Auerswald’s own. As with the Cloud and Symbol guitars, this is a thru-necked guitar and is painted all over, including the fretboard.

Part Two – Coming Soon…

PEACE N B WiLD!!!

Excellent Post! We gotta save this one for all the "hey, where can I read about the Cloud guitar" posts...

That was really fascinating, thanks Scotty!

Cóóóól.. Great work man!

how much for you to build me a cloud?

THANKS!!!there is a question about his cloud pick-ups some people say it 85 some say its 81 emgs! so WHICH IS IT?

otan said:

shame we aint got one for the 'I cant be arsed to work this song out, you do it!' threads.

babar141 said:

It's an 81 humbucker

Scotty, thanks for orgnoting me! The Cloud Guitar FAQ is now updated! (also added info on the Hohner, the Auerswald and the symbol so maybe I should change the name...)

I ask EMG site people and they said its a 85 humbuker!! how can u know this 4 sure!!

racheltheorgangrinder said:

'cos I got it straight from the horses mouth - Takumi, Prince's guitar tech. I had a long chat with him one night in London.

...just to elaborate a little - the 85 humbucker is normally used in the neck position. It partners-up nicely with the 81 in the bridge position.

The 85 has a fatter, more middly sound and is better suited as a neck-position rhythm pickup. The 81 has a more cutting sound and works beautifully as a lead pickup. I have both types in different guitars (the 81 in my Cloud and the 85 in a Les Paul) and they are both fantastic pickups.

I also have EMG SA's in my Hohner Telecaster. These are great little pickups (there's one in my Cloud too). The kindest thing you could ever do for your Strat or Tele is fit EMG's. They are great for recording too - especially if you use a computer with a CRT monitor. You won't get any of that 'buzz' that you get with normal pickups.

Scotty2funky said:

Hello scotty, is it posiable we can get some sound exaples of your guitars with the Emgs.

babar141 said:

Sure... I can do that... I have a USA strat which is has the original pickups plus a Musicman Silhouette which is fitted with DiMarzios. I can record those against my EMG equipped guitars so you can hear the difference. To be fair though, it's all in playing, if you know what I mean. To hear your guitar played by you with EMG's would be a whole different ball game to me playing mine.

Im saving this thread This was excellent

Scotty2funky said:

Yes Please Scott and Please Do record your Cloud Guitar clean and dirty, with 81 and sa.
Thank you

CherrieMoonKisses said:

Excellent!!