although I loved the symbol guitar from supernowl and iconic white purple rain white cloud/blue angle guitar for me i just love when he played the leopard brown old school tele like he did for RR hall of fame!He had 122 guitars what's your favorite that you loved to see him play?

[Edited 7/18/20 13:32pm]

Any of the clouds.

It's gotta be the Madcat.

Also I dug the big Ibanez GB12 jazz-box for some reason. I guess anything that inspired him to play more rhythm chops.

Later career, it was cool to see him enjoying the strats so much and learning to be more expressive with trem.

Give his small stature I'm surprised we didn't see him try an SG - it was just that one video I think (Guitar?). Maybe the wider nut width just didn't suit his Hendrix thumb-over-top thing.

ian said:

The humble Hohner...

purplethunder3121 said:

The humble Hohner...

As much as a Blue Angel zealot I am, I would have to agree.
He was the Telecaster God.
It's hard to believe "When U Were Mine"
and "Purple Rain" come from the same axe.

ian said:

It's gotta be the Madcat.

Also I dug the big Ibanez GB12 jazz-box for some reason. I guess anything that inspired him to play more rhythm chops.

Later career, it was cool to see him enjoying the strats so much and learning to be more expressive with trem.

Give his small stature I'm surprised we didn't see him try an SG - it was just that one video I think (Guitar?). Maybe the wider nut width just didn't suit his Hendrix thumb-over-top thing.

yes nice whats the weird all in 1 white guitar he played around 1990 nude tour with no tuning pegs called with all that sustain?

funkman88 said:

ian said:

It's gotta be the Madcat.

Also I dug the big Ibanez GB12 jazz-box for some reason. I guess anything that inspired him to play more rhythm chops.

Later career, it was cool to see him enjoying the strats so much and learning to be more expressive with trem.

Give his small stature I'm surprised we didn't see him try an SG - it was just that one video I think (Guitar?). Maybe the wider nut width just didn't suit his Hendrix thumb-over-top thing.

yes nice whats the weird all in 1 white guitar he played around 1990 nude tour with no tuning pegs called with all that sustain?

The Auerswald Model C.

[Edited 7/18/20 17:47pm]

The Hohner.

Hohner is an easy go to, but I agree with stuff like "Ronnie Talk 2 Russia" had the same guitar as "Purple Rain."

BUT, my favorite, easily...

bonatoc said:

The Auerswald Model C.

I hated the look & sound of that thing. It just never felt right.

What I wish I'd seen him play was the cloud bass.

RJOrion said:

ian said:

It's gotta be the Madcat.

Also I dug the big Ibanez GB12 jazz-box for some reason. I guess anything that inspired him to play more rhythm chops.

Later career, it was cool to see him enjoying the strats so much and learning to be more expressive with trem.

Give his small stature I'm surprised we didn't see him try an SG - it was just that one video I think (Guitar?). Maybe the wider nut width just didn't suit his Hendrix thumb-over-top thing.

i know he used to play a Gibson LS6 arounnd Dirty Mind to Controversy era

If you mean the L6-S which he eventually "enhanced" by sawing off the lower horn and covering in leopard-print furry material and fairy lights, I think that was earlier in his career - late 70s era.

ian said:

bonatoc said:

funkman88 said:

yes nice whats the weird all in 1 white guitar he played around 1990 nude tour with no tuning pegs called with all that sustain?

The Auerswald Model C.

[Edited 7/18/20 17:47pm]

yes thats it...that thing sustained for days but seems like it fell out of favor with him after 1991 never saw it again publicly

ian said:

It's gotta be the Madcat.

Also I dug the big Ibanez GB12 jazz-box for some reason. I guess anything that inspired him to play more rhythm chops.

Later career, it was cool to see him enjoying the strats so much and learning to be more expressive with trem.

Give his small stature I'm surprised we didn't see him try an SG - it was just that one video I think (Guitar?). Maybe the wider nut width just didn't suit his Hendrix thumb-over-top thing.

yes that ibanez was sweet i agree!

funkman88 said:

bonatoc said:

The Auerswald Model C.

[Edited 7/18/20 17:47pm]

yes thats it...that thing sustained for days but seems like it fell out of favor with him after 1991 never saw it again publicly

He did play it again after a couple of decades but I don´t remember the exact date. I think it was during those Welcome 2 America shows where he could also be seen on the poster holding the black Model C bass guitar. The sustain was great but I didn´t like that guitar that much. Maybe it has to do with the person who gave him that guitar because I can´t stand that woman ( Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis....she was in many TV shows in the 80s and was kind of an "it" girl back then but she´s turned into a hardcore rightwing Christian zealot and works with Stephen Bannon these days and said some borderline racist stuff. She still likes Prince though.)

Looks like he had at least two of them in white.

My personal favorite and quintessential Prince guitar is the MadCat/Hohner , followed by the Cloud guitar.

I didn´t like to see him with those Fender Stratocasters because as good as they sounded , they looked to plain and boring. The same goes for the Vox guitars he played during his HitNRun tours with 3rd Eye Girl though I do prefer the Vox ones over the Fenders.

Thanks for that piece of info Kool...I didn't know about the "it" girl giving that guitar to him. I read online somewhere that he had to have major work done on that guitar to make it playable (action/electronics/set-up, etc). I also remember seeing Charlie Singleton (guitarist from Cameo) playing one of those back in the 80's.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Thanks for that piece of info Kool...I didn't know about the "it" girl giving that guitar to him. I read online somewhere that he had to have major work done on that guitar to make it playable (action/electronics/set-up, etc). I also remember seeing Charlie Singleton (guitarist from Cameo) playing one of those back in the 80's.

You´re welcome.

Charlie Singleton´s guitar looks a lot like Prince´s Model C but to me it looks like a Roland CR 700, which has a similar look and is not really a guitar but a synth guitar but I am no musician. Here´s a link to a page that explains it much better than I could:

http://www.vintagesynth.c.../gr700.php

Here´s some info on the Model C guitar:

https://www.metmuseum.org...%80%9389).

The info is not very accurate and contains a few errors regarding the years he actually played it on tour.

[Edited 7/19/20 19:09pm]

Yup. I've seen him with the Roland, but I also saw him play an all white one too (that looked a lot like P's guitar). I thought he might have "borrowed" from him.

billymeade said:

The black symbol was always my favorite

didnt know there was a black one? what years?

The one that "came" at the end of Purple Rain the movie.

funkman88 said:

billymeade said:

The black symbol was always my favorite

didnt know there was a black one? what years?

He did in 1994 when he played "Peach" at the MTV Euro awards. And in 1996, on Today right at the end of Chaos and Disorder but before Emancipation. Sonny was still in the band, but Kat Dyson was, too, I think. It was an odd moment of cross pollenation of projects and band members.

He either had a 2nd one or had it painted, because by the time the Emancipation concert happened later in 1996, it was white (as it was on Rosie and Oprah).

TrivialPursuit said:

Hohner is an easy go to, but I agree with stuff like "Ronnie Talk 2 Russia" had the same guitar as "Purple Rain."

BUT, my favorite, easily...

Yep! Along with the other different colors of this one....

Any ones that he used for great guitar solos, Jimi Hendrix covers and whatnot...

It's a cross between the Clouds and the Madcat "Telecaster".

From a purely visual standpoint, the Cloud guitars were iconic to PRINCE. You see that guitar, you think Prince immediately, even when photographed in silhouette. And, the fact that Prince re-invented his look with corresponding Cloud guitars to match . . . first white, then black, peach, blue, black again, yellow, blue again, unused orange, etc. Surprised he never had a red one, that would have fit him very well during Musicology.

But, there's something about the Hohner Madcat that is just pure rock and roll. I think I first saw it in the Controversy video as a kid (didn't think too much of it then) but then really loved the photo of him holding it in the 1999 album sleeve and every appearance of the guitar afterward. There's a video of Prince performing Purple Rain live in Italy (I believe 2010) on the Madcat and it's amazing.

I always wonder why he abandoned the Cloud?

Se7en said:

It's a cross between the Clouds and the Madcat "Telecaster".

From a purely visual standpoint, the Cloud guitars were iconic to PRINCE. You see that guitar, you think Prince immediately, even when photographed in silhouette. And, the fact that Prince re-invented his look with corresponding Cloud guitars to match . . . first white, then black, peach, blue, black again, yellow, blue again, unused orange, etc. Surprised he never had a red one, that would have fit him very well during Musicology.

But, there's something about the Hohner Madcat that is just pure rock and roll. I think I first saw it in the Controversy video as a kid (didn't think too much of it then) but then really loved the photo of him holding it in the 1999 album sleeve and every appearance of the guitar afterward. There's a video of Prince performing Purple Rain live in Italy (I believe 2010) on the Madcat and it's amazing.

I always wonder why he abandoned the Cloud?

i totally agree with you...maybe he abandoned clouds because they were so synonomous with Purple Rain era??i think the madcat tele is like your 1st girlfriend in high school that you never forget.