andyman91 said:

I think First Circle, Secret Story or The Way Up are great, especially as far as the composition thing is concerned....






...

paligap said:

Yeah. I've always felt that a guitar solo, depending on the song, SHOULD enhance and embelish the song. Although it is a key to unlocking some magical doors and the green light to taking your listener to another place. The right solo SHOULD evoke images and emotions in the listener. It SHOULD hold the listener captive untill you're READY to let them loose.

This thread is the org at its best - mature, OBJECTIVE discussion about P and music (especially guitars ) in general. Orgers, take a bow!

This is hands down the most interesting thread I have ever read on this board.
Blackguitaristz.....
I salute you!
Honourable mention to theAudience and Paligap!

blackguitarist...u never answered my question...

nikkhendrix said:

Wow.... Damn....what can I say....thank u.

JesseDezz said:

Thank u, J.D.

WaterUdrink said:

I'm sorry, Water. Yeah, I Do think P has his own sound. Always had. But I think it's more in P's playing than his actual tone. It's P's style, his natuaral vibrato, his runs, etc. Just take the intro solo to When Doves Cry. Although it has always reminded of Jimmy Page as far as the effect pedal he's using (I believe it's a DOD OctoPlus), the lick is ALL Prince. I can always tell P's lead playing by just the way he phrases his licks. Just like I KNEW that it was P playing lead on "777-9311" or "Get It Up".

are Prince & Mani really seperated?????
OMGD!!!!






















ha ha ha....
sorry...

4Real said:

Aaahhh, very clever!

Prince does have a distinct lead tone


Prince does not use the whammy bar awkardly


Prince is very concerned with tone


Some people can't hear Prince, the same way they can't hear Jimi


The problem with Prince is he is not running off at the mouth about technique, gear, etc

You can get that gear, etc and you will still not sound like Prince

that is tone folks
that is unique

I have nothing to add to this thread other than to say you guys rock.

blackguitaristz said:

That's why it trips me out when I read the "I never knew he could actually play" posts that I've been reading on the Fender message board, et. al. "777-9311" and "Get It Up" contain some fierce playing. They're (those kinds of posts) are just as annoying as the "P is the greatest guitar player EVER!!!" posts over at housequake and on some of the P threads here. One thing about those P-loving posters, though - at least they recognize the fact that he CAN play his a** off.

workingupahiyellasweat said:

Well, I can agree with most of your post. I think its more about his note choices & pharasing and not his gear that make his playing unique. Just as Blackguitarist posted earlier. Your point about his concern for actual guitar tone is debatable. So he's not known for really talking about his guitar or bass playing period, not even within the context of his tunes, So Again he should steer clear of the guitar rags if he's not going to offer anything new of interest.

Trying to sound of play like someone is pretty pointless, unless it's a step toward develping your own thing. That being said phrasing and tone is esentially your voice on the electric guitar.

-KSTRAT-
[Edited 2/14/06 11:24am]

kstrat said:

What KSTRAT said.

JesseDezz said:

Yep.

Romera said:

Thank u!

kstrat said:

I imagine Prince like most guitarist sitting up all day tweaking knobs for a certain tone

plus it does not hurt that he has the money to own more than one axe

like that new Acoustic Taylor

workingupahiyellasweat said:

I remember how he wouldn't give away his settings because he wanted us to "find your own sound!"

Like he was somehow threatened that someone might sound like him just by using the same equipment!

I kind of agree with him in spirit, but it's basically impossible to imitate a modern superstar's rig unless you have 10's of thousands of dollars.

andyman91 said:

Andy, P rapped about that in Guitar Player when he was on the cover holding that ugly ass blue guitar. He talked about how he used to dig Brian May(huge influence on me) in the same article. But yeah, he got hella defensive and shit about finding your own sound. I was like "Don't worry homeboy, ain't nobody going to be trying to take your sound. Trust me." The only folks I can see trying to bite off of P's sound, i.e, amps, the same actual axe and all that shit would be young kids or some female who's wanting to play cuz she adores P.

blackguitaristz said:

That's funny. Not too many people are brave enough to imitate Prince's style of anything. And you're right, his guitar tone is not exactly David Gilmour or Stevie Ray Vaughn.

P also mentioned that Tony Maiden(Rufus), Freddie Stone, and Jimmy Nolen were big rhythm influences...


...

paligap said:

Yeah, Freddie's and Nolen's influence is hella obvious. Tony's a little more obscure, but it's there. Cats don't give Ray Parker's studio playing enough praise. Very underrated brother. Folks get caught up in "Ghostbusters" and silly shit like that, but Ray threw down on lead axe on Wonder's "Maybe Your Baby" and writing "You've Got The Love" for Chaka.

workingupahiyellasweat said:

blackguitaristz said:

In an earlier article in Guitar Player didn't he mention Peter Conte & Bozz Scaggs as guitar influences as well? (I don't have the mag handy @ the moment)

I found that his actual contributions to these articles are pretty meager.
For all the trouble the writers have to go through just to hold court with his-highness I wonder why they even bother. I will admit that I found the more recent article a tad better. Like I mentioned earlier aside from a bit of tech info in regard to live rig there is very little meat to them.Especially when compared to other guitarist usually featured in the magazine. Oh the article that was in Bass player a few years ago was pretty sad too. I think he just views his coverage in the guitar press as just another P.R. opportunity.

The article that was in guitar world around 94' was pretty good but I thought that the musical examples they examined were pretty weak.

kstrat said:

I agree. P has said that he's always wanted to be known as a guitarist, but then when a guitar mag wants to get with him for an interview, he's still on that silly secretive shit. Cats that read these magazines don't give a fuck about the kind of clothes P wears or what hair style P's sportin'. They want to see where he's coming from as a guitarist.

I was checkin' out his performance at the Brit Awards earlier and noticed the one thing about Prince, for all his instrumental ability - he will never be known for having a good overall CONSISTENT guitar sound. Maybe I'm the only one, but I've never been a fan of the Hohner sound when he plays lead (it's great for rhythm). Just doesn't seem to be strong enough. But then again, I loved his lead playing with the Hohner on "Push and Pull" on the Las Vegas DVD. That's what I mean about the consistency of his sound.

Imho, the clouds at least gave him a distinctive sound. My favorite is the way he sounded on "Purple Rain" during his first Arsenio Hall appearance.

*A little anecdote: Nowadays, the hohner isn't one of my P faves, but back in the day, I traded away a Fender Strat for a cheap HOHNER copy, just 'cause it looked like P's. It sounded like crap and it conked out on me during a public performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" but I totally loved that hunk of junk...

The Hohner has a distinctive sound, and it can be used for whatever a person sees fit for.

Several players do not have a CONSISTENT guitar sound becasue wood is a living thing. Hell, Jimi was never consistent.

The Hohner has a distinct tone. Each one of his axes have a clear distint tone.

Prince has a distint tone, just becasue you don't like it or not does not make it undistinct.

LOL

JesseDezz said:

workingupahiyellasweat said:

Dude, put a sock (or whatever you desire) in it - don't use my post to put up a Prince defense. And if u don't play guitar, please don't try to engage in a debate about sounds, tones, etc. Just worship at your P throne and leave it at that.

JesseDezz has spoken.

blackguitaristz said:

yup..

And don't forget his early Raydio stuff too...

Hot Stuff

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Just to name a few....