i wanna know what he is using to get that sound of distortion like used in small club, in the lovesexy period some live performace in 84 and the sott era too..

The small club tone has been much debated here at the org. I for one believe that it has much to do with the Auerswald guitar he was using during that period (this guitar is also from the lovesexy period). As for the 1984/SOTT tone, my guess is it's the cloud's emg pickups combined with a lot of effects, probably including: boss ds-1 distortion, (I'm not sure whenn he switched to the DS-2) boss compressor/sustainer, boss delay, boss chorus and a boss flanger for the outros. I understand he uses a Colorsound wah. I also think P probably was either not using an amp or using a very clean transistor amp for these tones, as there seems to be no tube sweetness at all in it, rather a transistor nastiness. For the influence of the guitar and pickups on the tone, I suggest you listen to Purple Rain from the Prince and the Revolution live video (also known as the Syracuse concert) P switches from the hohner to the first cloud within that song and you can hear the tone change completely. O b.t.w. on this video, P is also seen using an autowah! (which I always thought was 'not done' )

hectim said:

Interesting, tho i have seen him play the hohner with the small club tone

Hmmm I'm reffering to the "just my imagination" lead sound. The Hohner tends to have less sustain and a certain single coil "bite" as opposed to the EMG pickups's flatter, smoother sound. I'd say the rainbow children on ONA live is a typical latter-day hohner sound.

babar141 said:

hectim said:

IM even getting to think he miight have added somthing exra with the Pickups or he my b using a guitar sound effect module.....what u think

I don't know about that - I'm sure I've heard an autowah on some songs - nothing's coming to mind right away, but I KNOW I've heard it.