I've searched the FAQ's and the other advisories and this is the only place I can think of to post this. Apologies if it's the wrong spot. Have a heart, cause I am new here. The information below is verified in several Prince biographies and by several people who knew the person in this post:

In 1985 I got an invitation to shoot a short film about a guitar craftsman named Charles Orr, who had a small shop on 42nd Street in Minneapolis.
When I got there I learned that I was in the shop of a unique artist who hand built one of a kind instruments, and that one of his first customers was none other than Prince.
I learned that Prince spent some of his formative years hanging out and jamming in Charley Orr's back room.
An autographed 8 X 10 glossy headshot, the first ever signed by Prince, hung on the wall with the words "To Chuck Orr, the greatest guitar maker in the world"
Prince had spent part of his formative years hanging out and jamming in the back room of Charley Orr's tiny shop.
The short documentary made its way through a small number of cable public access stations in the 1980's and then sat on the shelf until today, twenty-two years later.
Turns out that Charley Orr went on to make guitars for the members of K.I.S.S., Peter Paul and Mary and several dozen more luminaries in the musical field.
Charley Orr is gone now, he passed away in April, 2005, but I think it would be an even bigger tragedy if his contribution to the Twin Cities music scene was forgotten.
I've posted a short clip from the documentary here:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...0NnwNOKgmA

and a shot of Prince's autographed glossy here:

http://deepfreezevideo.com/princeL.png

The documentary will be expanded with new HD interviews with Orr guitar owners, freshened and updated this summer and presented on the festival circuit.
I am hoping to get as many well known artists as possible to participate in some small way to honor the man who built the instruments that they love so well. I realize that getting a nod from Prince is most likely a longshot, but I have to try.

Although a crude and quickly thrown together effort for the time
being, the website about the film is at:

http://deepfreezevideo.com/orr.html

A Yahoo Group for the this upcoming film is here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/g...orrguitars

Charley Orr was the Stradivarius of his day, quietly revolutionizing the craft of the luthier the way that Prince revolutionized music itself.
He deserves some recognition other than as an anonymous forgotten footnote on a 3 x 5 card in the Smithsonian next to the Yellow Cloud guitar.

Sincerely,
Jeffery Haas
Deep Freeze Video
Mansfield TX

Hello there!
I heard about his shop (being in MPLS) and I think it's wonderful that you want to help keep Charlie's memory alive!


LP

Thank you for this great information!

To date since I posted to YouTube I've received well over a hundred positive responses to my production company email alone and numerous phone calls, all from people who knew/worked with Chuck, or owned one or more of his unique and richly crafted instruments.

I read about a radio engineer in a Twin Cities public radio outlet who Chuck bestowed his very first guitar, how Chuck refused to take a dime for another axe because he felt his first work contained mistakes.

I talked to a member of a regional band in Minneapolis who after twenty years still gets offers upwards of five thousand for a beat up Orr bass and turns the offers down flat.

I stared in amazement when I learned that the "machine gun" guitar in the video I shot in 1985 ended up being sold to former wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura.

I listened as one former owner broke down and cried as he told of getting his Orr axe stolen at a gig; fourteen years later and the tears still come.

But Minnesota and the Twin Cities music and arts community have yet to shed a tear in remembrance of this gruff yet gentle craftsman.

Someone has to step up and remember that once upon a time, for a couple of fleeting decades, the very greatest musicians in the world got the very greatest guitars handmade one at a time from a man who measured them both physically and musically before he made a single instrument for them.
Chuck took life as it came and asked no quarter and gave no complaint.
I ask that whoever can connect with the brightest luminaries in the industry will try to help cherish this man's musical legacy, which is at least equal to or better than anything offered by Orville Gibson, Les Paul or Leo Fender.

This film won't be a student lark filmed on some handycam. I own motion picture quality JVC HD gear, the kind of cameras used in recent Oscar winning documentaries, seen on The Discovery Channel and HBO.
I'm an eighteen year L.A. veteran shooter and editor, I've shot and cut music videos for major labels. I'm a former musician and resident of the Twin Cities blues scene in the late 1970's and 80's. Although I live in Texas now, Minneapolis is still the hometown I adopted when I moved there, and I still feel the pangs of homesickness whenever I think about that beautiful city.
I might be a recovering analog dinosaur making his way in a digital world but I still have the chops to shoot and edit a touching feature. Help me prove that Chuck is worthy of some kindness and warmth from the people he gave his gifts to.
I can raise the money to go anywhere to shoot, that's the easy part.
The hard part is getting access to the folks who knew Chuck the best and who carried his blessed wood and metal to the stages of the world to thrill millions.
Help me finish this celluloid symphony by appealing to the people who mattered most. Help me reach Prince.
[Edited 7/17/07 0:05am]

I just received an email from Charley's first apprentice, Marty Reynolds which clears up the rumors quite a bit.
*****
Being Chuck's first apprentice I can clear up a few things for you.

1. Prince, Andre and Dez used to drop by Chuck's shop on 1st ave in
Downtown to try out guitars and jam. This was his first location.This
was on 1st one block south of Butler Sq. He then moved to his Lake St.
location until they tore the building down to put up a Wendy's.

2. The guitar Chuck and I made for Prince was NOT the guitar used in
Purple Rain. We made a matching guitar and bass for Prince, both in
white but by the time he did the movie he had stopped using
them.Prince's guitar was 1 of 4 we did at that time, 1 white(Prince), 2
natural maple(Mark & Pigpen), 1 Blueburst(mine). These guitars were made
in Chuck's Richfield shop on Cedar ave & 66th st.

Marty Reynolds
*****

A further note.
Charley and the infamous 1st Avenue shop where Prince used to hang out is mentioned in Jon Bream's book "Prince, Inside the Purple Reign".
I've made numerous attempts to contact Bream with no success so far.

.
[Edited 7/26/07 8:13am]

deepfreezevideo said:

I need some clarity here.
What matching guitar and bass did he make 4 Prince?
Who made the Cloud Guitar in 'Purple Rain'?
The only matching guitar and bass I remember Prince having were the ones that had the funny side brace thing parallel 2 the neck.

Giovanni777 said:

http://www.angelfire.com/...d_faq.html