Way cool clip, but I have to correct her on the vintage of her Hohner, because that's NEVER 1974 example, as it clearly shows the eighties "Hohner Professional" logo.
It's very likely the same one she uses here.
Prince and the Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin demonstrating her riffs on a Hohner Madcat
- Thread starter Blazer
- Start date
Way cool clip, but I have to correct her on the vintage of her Hohner, because that's NEVER 1974 example, as it clearly shows the eighties "Hohner Professional" logo.
It's very likely the same one she uses here.
Flip G
Tele-Holic
Wendy? Yes, Lisa.
Is the water warm enough? Yes Lisa.
Shall we begin? Yes, Lisa.
Ohhh!
Is the water warm enough? Yes Lisa.
Shall we begin? Yes, Lisa.
Ohhh!
Did not know she played that Sheryl Crow riff. Cool!
Willie Johnson
Friend of Leo's
What a player. Thanks for sharing.
Tonetele
Poster Extraordinaire
I thought it was an Anderson Madcat, correct me if Im wrong.
Peegoo
Doctor of Teleocity
That Jack Black is a good interviewer.
Dbrian66
TDPRI Member
Thanks for sharing that. She is an awesome guitar player. I didn’t know she was only 19 when she did Purple Rain. That is just too cool!
But the way she got into the band was a story onto itself too.
Let's go back 40 years and Prince and the Revolution were rehearsing to go on tour to support the album which ever so slightly inched them closer to global stardom.
But within the ranks of the Revolutionaries, there was trouble brewing.
This is Dez Dickerson, who had been with the Revolution since day one, impossible to overlook him in the musicvideo. In addition, Prince also had Dez compose and play on tracks on the Vanity Six and The Time albums.
"He's so dull" a Dez written song by Vanity Six.
Prince and Dez forming a deep friendship over their working relationship. But Dez was getting exhausted by the sheer workload Prince put on him and at that time also discovered Christianity and wanted to take his life into another direction.
So Dez told Prince that after the 1999 tour was over, he'd be leaving the Revolution. Prince, being the Class act he was, gave him his blessing, but not before pranking him in a big way by naming one of The Time's singles after his actual phone number.
But during the tour, Prince still had to deal with the elephant in the room that after the tour wrapped up, he needed a new guitarist. Little did he know she was already in his entourage. Here's Wendy herself telling how it happened.
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Tonetele
Poster Extraordinaire
Blazer just checked eBay and Japanese store. HS Anderton huitars ( one a 1973 ) does NOT sauyHohner on the headstock. They are priced between $9500= $11000 USD . I respect Hohner guitars, my first guitar teacher had an archtop Hohner, not a Hofner , when he gave me lesoons in 1969 . I was always of the belief that Prince used an HS Anderson MAD CAT HS1, a highly prized and great sounding guitarand he rips on it.
Tonetele
Poster Extraordinaire
Blazer you are correct. Prince's Hoher with Symor Duncan pickups was his T style guitar. However they went on to make very cheap copies. The Andeson is the expensive one but that doesn't matter. Prince had an original Hohner. Ther's even a Bill Lawence model. But Prince got lucky. The good ones are MIJ. His is a 1973 very well made Hohner.
Er... so you know. There was a reason why Prince's Hohner had that back plate.
And this clip shows that reason.
Because behind that backplate was a built in wireless unit and a dummy coil, since the stock pickups of the Hohner were very microphonic and would hum like crazy as this clip showcased.
Prince during the "Dirty Mind" tour. His amps are Mesa Boogies, note also no lead coming from the Hohner, the wireless doing its job.
According to Roger Sadowsky who made four more copies of the Hohner for Prince to use on the "Purple rain" tour, the Hohner was a very cheaply made instrument and Prince's roadcrew HATED the Hohner and urged him to make those copies first grade instruments, since the Hohner was anything but.
slauson slim
Poster Extraordinaire
She is wonderful. Positive, articulate, knowledgeable, stylistically wide ranging and she got the funk. And Cheryl Crow iconic hook, very fine.
Rusty Spanner
Tele-Meister
At 53, and as a longtime fan I still cannot quite comprehend how he managed to acquire such magnificent talent.
As a hardcore punk/metalhead just starting to get into MDMA and the house music scene, he just blew us all away.
I don't think these musicians get half the credit they deserve.
I wish I could be more articulate about how far he was ahead of his time.
A friend in Manchester at the time was approached about auditioning as his bass player, but chose to follow his dream to be an architect instead.
He succeded in that, but I often wonder what could have been.
Love to all.
As a hardcore punk/metalhead just starting to get into MDMA and the house music scene, he just blew us all away.
I don't think these musicians get half the credit they deserve.
I wish I could be more articulate about how far he was ahead of his time.
A friend in Manchester at the time was approached about auditioning as his bass player, but chose to follow his dream to be an architect instead.
He succeded in that, but I often wonder what could have been.
Love to all.
bottlenecker
Poster Extraordinaire
I think the hohner versions were still made by the same company that made the hs andersons, but with hohner on the headstock.
She probably had another pickguard put there, cos it's a leopard-skin guard, when the 80s Hohner have some sort of tortoise shell pickguard. It must be the one she had on tour in 1986?
Dont you find it surprising? The band had 4 top notch copies made by Sadowsky in the 80s, yet Wendy got a Hohner reissue, a reissue that started in the first place because of Prince's success?
Then again, she already said that she's not a gear head, which also explains why she names the pickups in her Rickenbackers to be G&L MFD pickups, which they clearly were not.
Because back then G&L weren't making the ASAT Classic yet and G&L MFD pickups don't have bar magnets. The pickups in her Ricks were most likely Seymour Duncan Hot stack Tele bridge pickups.
