Vox HDC-77

The Vox HDC-77 is a guitar used by Prince from 2013-2015 when performing with 3rd Eye Girl. He first became aware of the guitar through Ida Nielsen. After recommending it to Donna Grantis, he started playing one himself, eventually ordering six of the guitars. The guitar fit his aesthetic for 3rd Eye Girl, who had a psychedelic blues rock sound.

The guitars have a semi-hollow mahogany body, which Prince used to generate feedback. Prince kept all the guitars in their stock configuration, retaining Vox’s CoAxe pickups, which combined a single coil, P-90 and humbucker into a single pickup. The guitar included switches for changing the mode of each pickup as well as typical tone, volume and pickup selection controls. At least two guitars were given a custom finish, using a sticker affixed to the body.

Two of these guitars have since been sold at auction. In 2019 one with a custom finish was auctioned for $59,375. This had been left behind at a recording studio in Switzerland in lieu of payment following a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 2024 one of the “blackburst” models was auctioned for around $180,000 from Donna Grantis’ private collection.