What guitars did Prince use?
Prince's most famous guitar is the Hohner HG-490 (commonly referred to as the "Mad Cat"), a Tele-style guitar with a natural finish. Prince acquired this guitar in 1980 and became his preferred guitar in the studio. It was also used on many of his concert tours. Prince also had a number of Sadowsky copies of the Hohner. Other famous guitars include the Dave Rusan Cloud Guitar (seen in the Purple Rain film), Auerswald Symbol and Model C guitars, a series of custom Fender Stratocasters and Epiphone Emperor Thinline and Ibanez GB-12 "George Benson" archtop guitars.
Prince's acoustic guitars include the Sigma SE-19, Gibson Chet Atkins SST and a Taylor 612CE.
For a full list of guitars, please see our Prince's Guitars page. To find out the guitars used on a specific album or tour, please see our Browse by Era page.
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Browse By Era
View the equipment used by Prince live and in the studio for each era. Also view the equipment used by his band live.Read more about Browse By Era -
Prince's Guitars
Browse all electric and acoustic guitars used by Prince live, in the studio and from his personal collection at Paisley Park.Read more about Prince's Guitars