Hi, All! Could you help me out with a fact check? I'm reviewing a book that talks about Prince using a whammy bar at a time that I think is far earlier than he actually did. I'm not a guitarist, and I'm also not super attentive to these kinds of tech things, but if I notice this, then more expert readers are sure to jump on it.

I thought he didn't have a whammy until the mid-90s (Symbol guitar), but maybe he had one earlier?

EDIT: The author goes on to state that he's assuming Prince was using one of two guitars he was heavily photographed with at the time: Les Paul Studio or the Hohner Tele. Again, I'm pretty sure neither was retrofitted with a whammy, but it's not something that has been my main focus before this paragraph in the book!

Thanks!

[Edited 9/15/25 21:04pm]

Really hard to say definitively.

First recorded use? Maybe it is something earlyish like Private Joy, as jimino1 said.

First stage use? Not sure - his stage guitars tended to be what we call "hard-tail" instruments (i.e. no trem, fixed bridge only) until maybe the mid or late 90s. But even then he was mostly using digital effects (Digitech Whammy pedal etc) for signature divebombs rather than using trem, I didn't really notice vibrola as being a core part of his playing style until the 2000s with his Floyd Rose strats, he really started to lean into trem use more and it kinda unlocked some new expressiveness in his playing.

As for early trem-based guitars of his... I think there was a yellow Andy Beech cloud replica which had a Floyd, and also the purple Schecter symbol copy "Habibi". But of course, he'd been photographed with regular strats at various points throughout his career as well.

Not aware of him ever using a LP Studio btw.

[Edited 9/16/25 12:18pm]

LittleProfessor said:

Hi, All! Could you help me out with a fact check? I'm reviewing a book that talks about Prince using a whammy bar at a time that I think is far earlier than he actually did. I'm not a guitarist, and I'm also not super attentive to these kinds of tech things, but if I notice this, then more expert readers are sure to jump on it.

I thought he didn't have a whammy until the mid-90s (Symbol guitar), but maybe he had one earlier?

EDIT: The author goes on to state that he's assuming Prince was using one of two guitars he was heavily photographed with at the time: Les Paul Studio or the Hohner Tele. Again, I'm pretty sure neither was retrofitted with a whammy, but it's not something that has been my main focus before this paragraph in the book!

Thanks!

[Edited 9/15/25 21:04pm]

He used a Fender strat with a whammy bar on For You. The end solo on Private Joy/Orgasm uses a guitar with a whammy bar as you can clearly hear

The dive goes so low on "Private Joy", that's it really hard to tell.

Could be a varispeed trick on the multitrack recorder, slowing the reel by hand, or plain detuning the E string with the peg. It's fair to assume that the larsen/high note blending and transitioning into "Ronnie" is a second guitar track.

In fact, the whole "solo" could be very well be an astute montage (aaah, the tape cutting days...).

[Edited 9/17/25 15:25pm]

Could well be!
Yeah I think the one thing we can all agree on is that whammy bar use wasn't a core part of his playing until the 2000s. Personally I really enjoyed that aspect of his later guitar work, it was so expressive.

Thanks so much! I'm a wind player, not a guitarist, so my ears aren't fine-tuned for this kind of thing! I'd love to hear any further discussion (I peeked at other threads, but they don't really seem to reveal much about the 70s).

BTW, the recording the author references is the album version of "Bambi". Far too early for digital, and certainly earlier than his regular live use of whammy (I could be wrong, but I thought that started mid-90s with the Symbol guitars - again, not a guitarist, so not necessarily the first thing I look or listen for!)

I also don't know a whole lot about pedals and what would have been available in the late 70s, so thanks for the tips! I'm in the Twin Cities, so maybe I'll ask around in the guitar shops. Knut Koupée is long gone, but people are still around, and the TC is the world's largest small town!

LittleProfessor said:

Thanks so much! I'm a wind player, not a guitarist, so my ears aren't fine-tuned for this kind of thing! I'd love to hear any further discussion (I peeked at other threads, but they don't really seem to reveal much about the 70s).

BTW, the recording the author references is the album version of "Bambi". Far too early for digital, and certainly earlier than his regular live use of whammy (I could be wrong, but I thought that started mid-90s with the Symbol guitars - again, not a guitarist, so not necessarily the first thing I look or listen for!)

I also don't know a whole lot about pedals and what would have been available in the late 70s, so thanks for the tips! I'm in the Twin Cities, so maybe I'll ask around in the guitar shops. Knut Koupée is long gone, but people are still around, and the TC is the world's largest small town!

It's possible I guess. Prince played with all kinds of music gear throughtout his career.

At first I didn't hear anything in Bambi which strongly suggests use of whammy bar - i.e. there are no flutters or dives. But then... possibly some of the vibrato during the solo? Somebody with better ears might know for sure, around 3:41 to 3:45, there's some typical Prince fast & wide vibrato but it sounds like it would be easier to play on a strat with trem, and it also sort of sounds like the vibrato is lowering the note only (across multiple strings) which is what you'd get with whammy bar. So I think it's definitely possible but with all the gain it's a little hard to tell for certain.

As for pedals, could be anything really - it just sounds like a cranked amp with maybe some stacked drive pedals in the front. Could be a Boss DS1, with a Fuzz Face or a Rat? All available in that era. I definitely hear fuzz anyway. I can get pretty similar to the original just using a Rat.

Bottom line, I don't think much is known about such early career recordings, but there's no reason to assume Prince wouldn't have had access to this or that. If it sounds like something was used, it probably was used.

[Edited 9/23/25 7:29am]

Prince was a master with vibratos and glissandos, and I don't think he was ever in need of a whammy bar, in particular on Bambi, or before the latter years.

Don't forget this is a dude who would do this kind of crazy bends: