The epic story of Prince's 'Cloud Guitar'

Victor wrote to me from Minneapolis: "I ran across this in my own city, and as a Prince fan I thought you would be interested." It's a Yellow 'Cloud Guitar', apparently "made for and used by Prince", selling for $18,750. Then I found this - the 1,700 word 'Cloud Guitar FAQ', which tells you everything you could ever want to know about these things. The first was "built in 1983 by David ~~Husain~~ Rusan, luthier at Knut Koupee music store in Minneapolis", four were built and resprayed various times. It seems that one of them is at the Smithsonian. Then, "During the Diamonds & Pearls era several Yellow Clouds were built to be sold at the Minneapolis & London NPG shops". These are what you'll see at your local Hard Rock Cafe, apparently built by Prince’s guitar tech at the time (I suspect this is what's going for $18k). During the NPG era, Schecter were contracted to build replicas (with dot position markers, rather than symbols) for sale at gigs and through his website. Of course, you can make one yourself, or buy a tiny one, although I can't really understand why anyone would want to...

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

It's a lot of money for a very ugly guitar. What is so special about it?

# posted by

Gavin Lloyd Wilson : 1:02 pm

is that a black-and-white photo of pete doherty in the background?

(no)

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:29 pm

this is a beautiful guitar i mean its has to sound good and he is such a great player. u name a guitar player that jumps on pianos and can still hold a tune i think its a great looking instrment

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:26 pm

Why buy what you can win??

http://prince3121sweeps.com/default.asp?referrerCode=cmsurban

Prince and Schecter are giving away one of the Cloud Guitars.

Persnally, I'd rather have a copy of his Maple Tele.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:31 pm

Yes, one is at the Smithsonian. It's in the Smithsonian Castle (just down from the Hirshhorn); I saw it about two weeks ago. I walked into the room with all the coins on the first floor, and spotted it through the entrance to the next room. I knew what it was instantly.

The room it's in also has an Abe Lincoln life-mask and one of those preposterous huge-front-wheel bicycles. It's a cool room to see.

# posted by

Will : 3:25 am

I think his name is Dave Rusan.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:41 am

Cloud's r beautiful & sound great!

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:50 pm

The luthier who made the original is definately Dave Rusan. What is it with people and just reposting incorrect shit all over the internet?

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:34 am

if you all wanna know what the fuss is about why not read www.princes-guitar.co.uk then you'll all want one. x

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:41 pm

btw thats

prince guitar

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:45 pm

thanks very:)
Eglence Forum Forum, Paylaşım

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:20 pm