Unfortunately the picture is so small it's hard to tell. But if that is the picture of the guitar up for auction, I'd have to agree that it's not authentic. The strap lock for the neck of the guitar appears to be on the underside of the upper, scrolling horn on the guitar, and I belive Prince's Clouds all had them on the back, right at the neck joint. They need better pictures.

OMG, lol, I'm so embarrased! What I saw was a small dot on my screen. Oops.

I agree though, it just feels suspect. Heritage Auctions is pretty reputable though.

[Edited 5/15/16 5:19am]

Its fake because all you guys at one time ewither owned it, played , made it or sold it to Prince

http://prince.org/msg/7/424741

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Feel free to reach out to the luthier who created the guitars for Prince to validate/invalidate the auction.

I mean, does it still look fake to you?

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[img:$uid]http://www.dhaitreguitars.com/uploads/images/Gallery/shuffled/Prince-Cloud-10-.jpg[/img:$uid]

suomynona said:

suomynona said:

http://prince.org/msg/7/424741

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Feel free to reach out to the luthier who created the guitars for Prince to validate/invalidate the auction.

exactly, not the expert witrnesses we have here; hilarious

Se7en said:

suomynona said:

I mean, does it still look fake to you?

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[img:$uid]http://www.dhaitreguitars.com/uploads/images/Gallery/shuffled/Prince-Cloud-10-.jpg[/img:$uid]

The one in your picture doesn't, but it's not the one in the link I posted. Bridge is different, no whammy bar, and pickup hardware jack is in the correct location in your picture. Also, the hardware on the headstock (where the necklace meets the headstock) is quite different. The one in your photo looks correct, the one being auctioned off looks like a hack job.

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The one in the photo that I posted isn't finished -- almost all of the photos on his site are works in progress. I posted a link to the luthier's website -- and he can confirm/deny whether it is fake or not.

Se7en said:

MIRvmn said:

Se7en said:

https://www.google.com/am...nt=safari# At first glance this looks like a pristine Yellow Cloud (even mentions a certificate of authenticity from a guitar tech and a documented broken neck in France). But a few things jump out at me as a "fake". The first obvious one is the whammy bar. Prince wasn't using them at that time. The next one, noticeable but not obvious, is the amp plugin. It's usually in the bottom swirly part of the main body. Side by side photo comparisons, all of Prince's Clouds have the plugin hardware in the same spot. This one doesn't have it. Thoughts? If it's believed to be a fake, is there any way to alert the auction house?

yes it looks fake

What is the guy the guitar police,, its none oof your business, ,you act like auction houses cant discern real form fake.

they made a few to sell... so it may be one of those it is NOT one of the ones Prince played




EDIT: well this story is all over the place so I am super skeptical but it may well be one he used.

[Edited 5/15/16 9:34am]

i don't know about y'all, but i am *much* more interested in the original WB demo tape that is part of this same auction. we've all got the tracks, but having the actual tape would be amazing.

Asked D'Haitre Guitars if it was the work of Andy Beech, the luthier who made many of Prince's guitars, or a replica. The reply was "Andy does not believe this is one of his. He started building them in the mid 90's. Andy has no way to know if this is a replica or authentic unfortunately."

https://twitter.com/poiso...873154560

if it is fake they are going to get busted this is all over the news, it made the local news with several teasers to keep people watching ... I knew what it was and did not care....sadly my love (despite me saying "Oh yeah they are selling one of his guitars for 30K") still woke me up when the story came on.

Well the WHITE one was at Paisley in the recording studio, we saw it during the tour a few months back. I didnt see the HONER, one of my faves

That's a Floyd Rose bridge. I don't think he started using them until the 2000s, not during the D&P era though. Also the yellow cloud had black knobs instead of gold, but I guess these things could've been changed over the years.

Here is an article I just received about the auction. Heritage is a pretty reliable auction house. Looks like other Prince memoriblia will be on sale as well. Some of the comments about his guitar are inaccurate though

http://tinyurl.com/hhwlcu2

for Marta.

I imagine the creator of the original cloud guitar knows about auctions like this when they come up. If it was a fake, he or she would've notified the auction house. It's not like ebay. Person who previously owned it has to show proof of some kind. Otherwise the auction house risks damaging their reputation.