He was a grand musician but his one big flaw was guitar on record. Much of it being very subtle and muted. He never just went wild like Led Zeppelin did or Black Sabbath or any rock band. Nothing really that complex. Even on 3 Chains of Gold, that is a cop of Bohemian Rhapsody. His rock stuff is nice but not anywhere near Metallica or Zep level. There, I'm done.

I have a diff take on this....simple, had he mixed his guitars high and loud, it would be a diff story. The bands you mention have their guitar tracks at 10...he had it down at 5 and sometimes at 1 (Strange But True...for example)

TrevorAyer said:

Thanks for getting this off your chest hope you feel better now.

You haven't heard everything...

VAVOOM

Then there is, yeah, bad...

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

LoveGalore said:

Prince just didn't make that kind of music? If you're referencing LZ and especially Metallica. That's like comparing, well... Prince and Metallica THE UNDERTAKER is awesome though. That whole album is great and I used to watch a VHS copy of that laserdisc all the time to watch Prince play. That's my go-to when I want to hear some Prince virtuoso guitar playing. The soundboard recordings of some of those HIT N RUN shows are also cool for the heavier guitar versions of songs that P played along with 3rd Eye.

RJOrion said:

prince couldnt do EVERYthing, or rather didn't WANT to do everything

its ok if he didnt wanna play speed metal or thrash or whatever

im sure he COULD if he was so inclined

its not like he didnt have the chops

he just didnt like that stuff

on record he also wanted to strike a balance between rock and rnb and pop really, he didnt wanna be that hard or extreme sounding. the guy was by and large, a pop artist ultimately, whatever genre he was playing.

he could rock hard and fast though. check out the song da bang from crystal ball (1998) for example.

LoveGalore said:

I ain't ever seen Megadeth do a song like Musicology or Kiss. Where are their funk chops?

Yeah, it's a weird comparison. It's like saying 'Gary Oldman's a great actor and all, but he doesn't have Stallone's biceps.'

eyewishuheaven said:

eyewishuheaven said:

LoveGalore said:

I ain't ever seen Megadeth do a song like Musicology or Kiss. Where are their funk chops?

Yeah, it's a weird comparison. It's like saying 'Gary Oldman's a great actor and all, but he doesn't have Stallone's biceps.'

LoveGalore said:

TrevorAyer said:

rawk guitar sound was strait trash .. everything from the pedals nothing from the amps .. 3

Huh?

his rock guitar tone .. the one he plays his rock songs with .. is derived from his pedals moreso than from an amp and therefor the tone (if you are into that sort of thing) is very limited and cheap sounding .. he gets great clean tones but his distortion 'sound' is lacking and is likely the reason the rock guitar is often burried in the mix .. more rock guitar based bands derive their distortion tones from a great amp .. which sounds much more full .. and is why their guitars are mixed front and center ... its like comparing the tones you get from ear buds to the tones from a 100 watt stereo speaker system .. the pedal itself has very limited range .. its like the difference between a cheap plastic keyboard and a full grand piano .. the distorted high gain rock metal tones in an amp are fuller and not a digital recreation .. prince rock guitar tones worked fine with his style of music .. it was more about the notes he played than the tones ... if you don't play guitar thru an amp at home in some capacity this is probably makes no sense to you .. I just never thought much of the "sound" of his distorted metal rock guitar tones he used .. within his drum heavy mix style it sounded fine and is barely noticeable because the guitar is burried often .. he metal tones did sound a little better in the 90's but not much

Ummm... How 'bout 'Lotusflow3r'? There's more guitar on that album than 10 Prince albums.

TrevorAyer said:

Giovanni777 said:

LoveGalore said:

So you are expecting Prince to sound metal?

um ... noooooo

I am saying that when it comes to his rock metal particular tone I have never thougth ... ooh he is getting such a nice tone .. how does he do it .. I want that set up .. it must be some rare vintage amp from a particular year with certain tubes .. how does he fucking do it? ... no .. instead I think I could probably go to a guitar store plug in a couple cheap pedals and get the same exact sound .. if you cant hear the difference between carlos santana or jimi hendrix or jimmy page guitar tones and those of prince than you probobly don't get what I am discussing .. nobody wants prince to sound like metallica or megadeth .. prince often chose convenince over "tone" .. especially later ... can you tell the difference between the beautiful grand piano tones on power fantastic and the cheap electric keyboard he used on his piano and mic tour? ..

as for why p had less guitar pyro on his albums I think earlier he was more willing to take chance and really go off on his guitar solos and production in general .. its less precise or tight but more inspired and sounds alive ... later he was just so ocd about perfection in the studio that it sucked a lot of life out of his guitar work on record and it was pretty tame in general .. this is why his live solos at hall of fame and otherwise were more fun than his studio output at the time ... he didn't care as much and was having fun so he sounded great

p has the guitar skillz .. he just didn't let it rip as much .. and no .. I am not a fan of his distorted tones .. clean funk tones where always great .. not complaining either just discussing guitar in anal detail .. which is not for everyone i suppose

TrevorAyer said:

RJOrion said: