The Guitar Plugged · Guitarist Index
Prince
Solo / The Revolution
1978–2016
Funk/R&B · Rock · Blues
The most underrated great guitarist of the modern era, hidden behind everything else he could do.
Main guitar
The Hohner Madcat Telecaster copy and the 'Cloud' guitar
Signature sound
Thin, biting funk clean tone and a searing, sustaining lead voice
Era
1978–2016
Influence
92 / 100
Genre
Funk/R&B / Rock / Blues
Why they matter
The most underrated great guitarist of the modern era, hidden behind everything else he could do.
Because Prince wrote, produced, sang and played every instrument on his records, the guitar playing was treated as a footnote for decades. It should not have been. His rhythm playing is Nile Rodgers-level in precision, and his lead playing sits somewhere between Hendrix and Santana with a phrasing sense entirely his own.
'Purple Rain' contains one of the most emotionally complete solos ever recorded on a pop single, and his 2004 Rock Hall performance of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' is the clip guitarists send each other to end arguments.
He also understood tone as arrangement — the razor-thin funk parts on 'Kiss' work because there is almost no bass in the mix for them to fight.
The sound
Thin, biting funk clean tone and a searing, sustaining lead voice
Purple Rain
Sustaining, mid-heavy lead with a long delay tail — clean enough to hear every bend land.
Kiss
Almost comically thin, compressed funk tone that only works because of the empty mix around it.
When Doves Cry
Hard-panned lead with heavy processing over an arrangement with no bass line at all.
Recreate the sound
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Style & technique
How you recognise the playing
Funk rhythm precision
Muted sixteenth-note chord scratching with immaculate time and dynamic control.
Blues-rock lead phrasing
Hendrix-derived bends and vibrato with gospel-influenced melodic resolution.
Arrangement-aware tone
Guitar parts voiced to fit the space left by his own production choices.
Showmanship as phrasing
Physical performance built into the timing of the notes.
The rig
Instruments, amplification and effects
- Hohner MadCat Telecaster
- The 'Cloud' guitar
- Symbol guitar
- Fender Stratocaster
- Mesa/Boogie Mark series
- Fender Twin
- Marshall (later live)
- Boss and MXR chorus
- Wah
- Digital delay
- Heavy compression on rhythm parts
- Single-coils almost exclusively
Essential listening
Where to start
- 011984
Purple Rain
Prince · Purple Rain
- 021984
Let's Go Crazy
Prince · Purple Rain
- 031986
Kiss
Prince · Parade
- 042004
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Prince (live) · Rock Hall induction
Career landmarks
The moments that mattered
Purple Rain
A film, an album and a guitar solo that made him a global figure.
2004
Rock Hall 2004
Three minutes of lead guitar that permanently ended the debate about whether he could play.
The legacy
Lineage
Influenced by
Influenced
Adjacent players
More from the archive
The player who turned amplifier noise into a musical language.
The virtuoso who rewrote the vocabulary of rock guitar.
Session-hardened producer who built rock guitar as an architecture, not a solo.
The player who translated Chicago blues into British rock volume.
The restless technician who kept reinventing what an electric guitar could be.
The master of the long note — space, sustain and perfect note choice.