I've never seen Prince play a Rickenbacker guitar. He's always played his custom guitars, the Hohner Telecaster or Floyd Rose Stratocasters.

It seems like a lot of the women he's worked with play Rickenbackers... namely Wendy and Susanna Hoffs. This is a 60's style jangly sounding guitar, which was made popular by The Beatles. It seems kind of random that they would both play these for rock/pop/funk, since they were more used for indie/alternative music in the 80's (The Smiths, Smithereens).

Was this guitar choice his influence or did they settle on Rickenbacker guitars on their own? They're arguably the most attractive guitars on the market, but soundwise... they're not very versatile. You get one sound out of them and they take distortion very poorly. Usually people who have them, use them as flavor guitars... bringing it out for one or two songs, but rarely make it their #1 guitar, except if they're in a Beatles tribute band.

Seeing as Prince is into state of the art, would he really sacrifice sound over visuals? I've read Wendy used a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 amp (solid state) with a Rickenbacker, and although that's a unique rig and was era-specific to the 80's, it seems odd to me. Did he/they know something we didn't? Such as, her rig would fill a certain frequency and allow his playing to cut through better?

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I just wanted to see if anyone else had wondered why Wendy and Susanna both played Ricks.

Well Susannah Hoffs makes perfect sense since the Bangles were originally a 60's jangle-pop kinda throwback. That whole Paisley Underground they were a part of (or were at least around)

Wendy's choice is more curious alright.

I believe Wendy's Rick was outfitted with EMG single coil pick-ups. So, not really the Rickenbacker sound. I'm basing this on the fact that I saw a Rick that Wendy ownend that was never used on the Purple Rain tour. The body was made of acrylic and was interlaid with (plastic) flowers, and it had the EMGs. I also think I read about Wendy's Rick being modified.

JudasLChrist said:

I believe Wendy's Rick was outfitted with EMG single coil pick-ups. So, not really the Rickenbacker sound. I'm basing this on the fact that I saw a Rick that Wendy ownend that was never used on the Purple Rain tour. The body was made of acrylic and was interlaid with (plastic) flowers, and it had the EMGs. I also think I read about Wendy's Rick being modified.

I remember seeing that guitar for sale in Minneapolis in about 1989. Wow, those were the days.

dsapp said:

JudasLChrist said:

I believe Wendy's Rick was outfitted with EMG single coil pick-ups. So, not really the Rickenbacker sound. I'm basing this on the fact that I saw a Rick that Wendy ownend that was never used on the Purple Rain tour. The body was made of acrylic and was interlaid with (plastic) flowers, and it had the EMGs. I also think I read about Wendy's Rick being modified.

I remember seeing that guitar for sale in Minneapolis in about 1989. Wow, those were the days.

At Knut Koupee, yes!