I am thinking of picking up a replica guitar.

Leaning towards the Hohner "Artist" - but then came across this site:

http://www.edroman.com/gu...uitars.htm

Anyone try the cloud or symbol guitar from Ed Roman's?

vman4639 said:

If i were you i would steer away from these guitars as they horribly inaccurate

right now if you look on ebay there are some better replicas for sale. Also i have a cloud guitar for sale but have someone interested right now if he doesn't work out and you are interested let me know but as far as the ed roman i wouldn't go that route.

Depends on what you want out of the guitar. Will you play it? Occasionally? A lot? Do you want it for collector's reasons? What style do you prefer - looks and sound-wise?

There are many avenues you could take with this and much research should be done.

I think Ed Roman has a good rep. I've heard other Orgers say good things about his work. But do you own research, because my info is all second-hand.

Good luck!

Watch your back on Ed Roman. Other popular guitar sites and You Tube talk about him not too kindly. But if you have the $$ and want one then go for it.

Thanks for all the feedback. I am also talking to Don Bell - I saw this link from June:

http://prince.org/msg/7/312282?pr

Any thoughts on Don Bell? He seems like a good guy.

And yes - I would play it and would want it to be as close to the original as possible (design and sound). The following site indicates that there are some real differences between the original and what the NPG store offered.

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

I do not mind paying more to have it custom / hand made if it is as close to the original as possible.

two design questions:

1. Color. I am leaning towards white. I generally do not like white guitars but think it is the classic Prince Cloud look. Thoughts?

2. Fret markers. In Purple Rain, the fret markers where just normal circles. But since the movie I have seen the Cloud with symbol fret markers. I am leaning towards symbol markers just to push the design a little bit. Thoughts?

Also - for fun, more of a poll question - if you were getting a Prince guitar replica, Cloud of Hohner? don't consider cost, just which would you 'want' more.

I actually have a Hohner Artist-and love it. Superb to play-I swear its the thinnest neck ever-and a really funky natural sound-and of course-pretty stunning to look at. I did try the Elite too-but thought the diff in price wasn't worthy when considering just how good I found the Artist

i also have a US Fender Tele cuastom which cost me a small fortune-and I prefer the Hohner now
[Edited 1/3/10 9:24am]

polkadotbliss said:

I visited your site - are you playing the Hohner on "Hot Stuff"?

btw - you're pretty damn good

SPYZFAN1 said:

Ahhh, good information.

vman4639 said:

Since you will be playing it, I think the custom Don Bell is a good choice. While it's collectibility won't be the same as an official NPGMC Schecter, in the long run, the better hardware and custom build quality of the Don Bell will probably suit your needs much better.

Prince's Clouds have had dots for fret markers as well as bat shapes, the simplistic male/female Symbol and the more stylized name change Symbol. The red "Most Beautiful Girl In The World" prototype Cloud actually had gold Symbol fret markers on the top neck edge versus on the fret board itself. The first black Cloud had a non-painted rosewood fretboard. Early NPGMC Schecters had Symbols on the fret board and later ones had dots. The sky's the limit on your model.

I have a blue Schecter Cloud with the Symbol fret inlays. If they offered a peach Cloud at the time, that would have been the one for me. It's all up to personal taste. If you want the look of the Knut Koupee original, then white paint, black dot fret markers, EMG active pickups, gold hardware and black six-point potentiometer knobs would be the way to go.

Note that Cloud guitars specifically built for Prince had the longer headstock "horn" than NPGMC retail Clouds. This is one of Prince's:



Shot of neck edge Symbol fret markers:





Paisley Park phone number:





Close-up of potentiometer knobs:

thanks-and yeah-Hot Stuff-and all the clean guitars are the Hohner through a Fender Twin-and the dirty guitars are all the Hohner through a Messa Rectifier

polkadotbliss said:

Though, P's used 5150 heads and on rare occasions Orange heads and cabs for live one-offs.

But the Planet Earth set-up was this:

SPYZFAN1 said:

Yep. Over the years, I have also heard many bad reviews of Ed Roman.

You can get the model C from auerswald in Germany. Its $2400.00 however. So really its a money thing with Prince guitars. The Anderson Madcat and the artist elite, or the model C would be my pics.