The most Famous tele copy?

[Blazer]

What is the best known artist used Tele that isn't a tele at all.

My vote goes to the unofficial Prince Signature model from Hohner, the Prinz



Prince has used one from his early days on because it was affordable, looked sharp with it's flamed maple body and leopard skin pickguaurd and its dry funky sound. (the one pictured above is a later model with tortoise shell guard)

Bought in 1980 from Knut Koupee Music store in Mineapolis, Prince according to Karl Dedolph the stores manager, probably chose the guitar because of it's leopard skin pickguard which matched his stage outfit. The budget guitar's raw tone was ideal for the clean guitar chugging and staccato rhythms of Punk-Funk. He used it whilst supporting Rick James that year, on the "Dirty Mind" album and on almost every tour to date. A Telecaster variant, the guitar differs greatly to the Fender industry standard. The Hohner is all maple finished in blonde, as opposed to the Ash and Alder body of a Fender. The tonal properties of Maple suit the artist well, it has a bright top end and good sustain; he chose this wood for all his later custom guitars. The Hohners distinctive imitation Mahogany binding on the edges and central join bind a two-piece figured Maple top, the neck is also highly figured one piece affair.

This is Prince's actual guitar



It was only after he became famous that Hohner renamed their guitar "The Prince" but after objections from Prince himself renamed it again as "The Prinz"

Prince is still using that Original Hohner and it is seen in plenty of video clips

[rusticman]

Theres one for sale right now here:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...&category=2384

ive wonted one of theese for al long time but i never seem to have any cash when one is up for sale. They usally are a bit overpriced in my opinion.

looks very very cool.

rust

[genelovesjez]

Originally Posted by Blazer

Prince is still using that Original Hohner and it is seen in plenty of video clips

I've often wondered if he's had copies made.

[Blazer]

Originally Posted by genelovesjez

I've often wondered if he's had copies made.

Well apart from the shape, the neck through body construction and the EMG pickups, Prince's Cloud and Symbol guitars actually are copies of his Hohner, the feel of the neck is duplicated and they are made from the same kind of maple.

Revolution guitarists Miko and Wendy also used the Hohner Prinz. I can't tell if the examples they played were actually Prince's guitar but I assume that Prince had his crew buy a few more Hohners for his band members, Wendy's most famous guitar however is her heavily modified Rickenbacker 330 which was panted purple and had it's original pickups replaced with Fender style single coils. She'seen playing that one in the "Purple Rain" Video and in the long version of "When doves cry"

And as for Prince himself, I guess the cover of his latest DVD says it all.

[tschommer]

Are you sure that the cloud guitar is made of maple? I played that guitar for a while and it seemed really light, I don't think that it weighed more that 6 or 7 pounds. I was playing my Flying V at the time and it seemed noticeably lighter than my V. I would have guessed that it was mahogany. But it was a while ago so maybe I'm wrong.

Sorry this is off the subject.

[alvis]

About 12 years ago I used to borrow a pre-Prinz Prinz from Subway Guitars when I was hangin out in there.Guess I shoulda bought it.