CLOUD GUITARS
The Cloud guitar was first seen in Purple Rain. There
were four of these originally built by David Husain, a
luthier at Minneapolis music store Knut Koupee. This
unique-looking instrument caught Prince’s eye as well as
his fans. The original Cloud guitars boasted all-maple,
neck-through construction with Love Symbol inlays at
the fret markers. They had a 24 ¾-inch scale length with
22 medium jumbo frets and a 12-inch radius. They were
loaded with an EMG 81 in the bridge position and an
EMG SA single-coil in the neck position with one volume,
one tone, and a three-way pickup selector. The Cloud
guitars had a brass nut and truss rod cover and Schaller
hardware was gold-plated.
Only four were ever played by Prince throughout the
years, though there are replicas in the some Hard Rock
Cafés around the world. These were built by Prince’s
guitar tech at the time, numbered, and included a
Certificate of Authenticity but were not actually
played by Prince himself. Schecter was also
commissioned to build replicas that
were available only through Prince’s
website and at his live shows. These
were available in bolt-on and
neck-through body types with
Seymour Duncan-designed
pickups
and
Grover
machine heads. Some
later examples of
these had a 25
½-inch scale and
were missing the
brass nut and truss
rod cover.
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TONE TALK //
Dreaming in Paisley: The Royal Gear of Prince Rogers Nelson