The DVD of Prince's "Rave un2 the year 2000" conce

[Blazer]

I just bought that one today. Sad to say there were no Hohner Teles used on the entire thing, he played his Dave Russon "Cloud" guitar and his symbol shaped Jerry Auerwald guitars. So much for the bad news.

The good news is that this show was slamming, having a killer band (with the legendary Larry Graham on bass) and an even more impressive array of guests, Lenny Kravits, Jerry Martinez and Cynthia Robinson of Sly and the Family stone, Maceo Parker and his old buddies The Time.

And that last band got the place seariously swinging. Morris Day proving that age is no factor in being able to bring the house down. Heck when they started doing "Jungle love" I just couldn't remain in my seat, I had to get up and "Bust a move"

I think I'll be watching this one more often since it makes me feel so good.

[Mark Davis]

Prince is one of the worlds most underappreciated guitar players. I like everything Prince has done especially the live stuff this guy can play sing and dance and all at once.

[Stencil]

I love the American Woman sequence where Prince and Lenny Kravitz trade riffs.

The sound and image on this DVD are fantastic, it's just a shame that it's in 4/3 format rather than 16/9 (widescreen.)

Cheers,

D°

[pc]

I've got to get that one.

I have the Live in Las Vegas from a couple years later, and it's also really good. There's a bunch of the Hohner Tele in it, although frankly his tone pretty choked-off on most of the DVD. Great funky rhythm playing and wailing leads of course. The cover of "Whole Lotta Love" is pretty wild.

[nic'o'caster]

Yeah, I like the Live in Las Vegas too. Great playing and his Hohner Tele sounds pretty good for funk rythum ! I tried to find some info about this rig (stock guitar or heavily customized ? amp or mix amp/DI ?) but found nothing on the net. Can someone help ?

I'll check the Rave un2... Seems interestingely phonky ! Thanx.

[pc]

Nic,

According to the Guitar Player interview that came out around the same time, he's a total gear hound.

The Hohner Tele is pretty much stock. It then goes through a pedalboard that you can see periodically in the Las Vegas DVD--lots of pedals, mostly Boss. Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, OD, Distortion, Delay, Wah, Whammy (Digitech), etc. It then goes through an even more complex pile of rack gear and then gets split to several amps. One part goes to a stereo power amp and into 2 cabs that are in isolation boxes and miked, which feed the house mix in stereo. Another part of the signal goes to a different amp with a cab that faces out onto the stage so he can monitor himself through a guitar cab in addition to the monitor mix.

It's pretty complex, and seemed a little silly when I read about it. Lots of processing for a guy that likes a pretty basic rhythm tone.

However... to me it looks like the Las Vegas setup might have been scaled down. I saw what looked like either a Bassman, or maybe just a similar style cabinet off to stage left that was miked--maybe it fed the mains and the monitor mix, since they were all using in-ear monitors there.

[lenny]

someone posted here that he uses "vintage noiseless" pups in the hohner tele, not sure how current or accurate that info is though...

[pc]

I dunno. Not in the Las Vegas video. The neck pup on that Tele was an exposed single-coil (like a Strat pup I mean) which is what the Hohners came with IIRC.

[Jon C]

If so I saw it on Pay Per View and it SMOKED!

I've seen Prince live in '97 ('98?) and this past August and he was simply incredible both times as a singer, dancer, and guitarist.... still the best live act I think I've seen.

Cheers,
Jon

[Twang]

<--------Imma BIG Prince fan.

I saw him for the first time in 1982 on his "1999 Tour" (Pine Bluff, AR) along with The Time and Vanity 6. I was never right again.

I'd be surprised if soon there isn't a high quality DVD released from the Musicology Tour...especially since he did all the "hits".

[nic'o'caster]

PC, thanks for the info !

With the Hohner his rythm tone is pretty basic but very good, cutting and punchy, and I guess he uses all that s*** for the solo parts (not to mention he's become a ring modulator freak).

I've read somewhere he had his tech work hard to make the guitar sound good... and also it's loaded with Kinman pups... Hu well... I guess it's part of the legend !

[Twang]

I haven't seen anything about his rig or his Tele in a long time....this is all I could find.

From Guitar World 1994:

In his early days, Prince was essentially a Telecaster man. He dug both the original Fender and Hohner's version of this classic instrument, and for that matter, he still does. "When he wants that twangly clean sound, he'll still grab for a Tele," says Zeke Clark, Prince's guitar tech extraordinaire. "He's probably got about 65-70 guitars in all. Anything from vintage Teles to vintage Gibsons to the Cloud guitars. He's got a piece of everything".

Onstage, and frequently in the studio, Prince plugs into a custom rack system designed by Zeke. The system strikes an ideal balance between simplicity and power.

First the guitar signal goes through a chain of BOSS stomp boxes that he has used from time immemorial. His main pedalboard features, from left to right, a Metal Zone; the latest addition to his collection, Vibrato, Digital Delay, Octave, Flanger and Turbo Distortion. Also within easy reach of Prince's high-heeled boot is a customized Colorsound wah.

From there it's on to the rack where Prince can switch between a Soldano Caswell preamp for clean tones or a rackmount 100 Soldano head for dirty sounds. The stomp boxes can be run in front of either amp. Either amp can be used, via two Uptown Flash mixers, in conjuntions with any of the following rack effects: Alesis Quadraverb, Roland GP-16 with VCA expression pedal, and two customized ZOOM 9030's.

Cabs, The 100-watt Soldano runs four cabinets: two onstage, two off-stage in a pit that are mic'ed, oned out of phase with the other. The preamps also feed two Mesa/Boogie Strategy 500 stereo power amps. One cab per channel: Marshall slant cabinet with Celestion 30's for clean and Peavy 5150 for dirty.

According to Zeke, "No matter what equipment he likes, he's alway thinking ahead, 'Can we make this unit do such and such? Let's change this particular envelope in this unit - - I want those delays in reverse....' We spend a lot of time doing research, development and modifying things. And that's on EVERY component. He's always looking for ways to produce different wave forms, different sounds...one step ahead of everybody". [size=3]copyright Guitar World 1994. edited for brevity ~ twang[/size]

Of course this article was written 10 years ago but with Prince you take what you can get. I'm sure a lot has changed but this'll give an idea of what he likes and where he was coming from.

I haven't found anything about the mods done to his Hohner tele but I'd love to know what he's had done.

[lenny]

why does it still have me laughing... prince uses a "metal zone" stomp box..

it just sounds funny