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A guitar used by Prince on his ‘Purple Rain’ tour has fetched over £450,000 ($563,000) at auction on Friday (June 19).
The custom electric blue instrument was one of four ‘cloud’ guitars used between 1984 and 1985 in support of the ‘When Doves Cry’ hitmaker’s seminal sixth studio album.
It was also used throughout the ‘Parade’ tour in 1986, the ‘Sign o’ The Times’ tour in 1987, and was the primary guitar Prince used throughout the ‘Lovesexy’ tour between 1988 and 1989.
The guitar was thought to be lost when it disappeared in the ’90s until it was found last year. The owner was given it by Prince but was not aware of its exact history.
A description on Julien’s Auctions site read: “The guitar, currently painted an electric blue finish, has been refinished a number of times, but began white. The guitar has also been painted and used by Prince as peach, light blue, and yellow. The guitar neck is cracked from between the 6th and 7th frets up to the headstock.
“From 1984 until the time that Andy Beech began making Cloud guitars for Prince in 1993, this was Prince’s primary performance Cloud guitar. Guitar is accompanied by a custom purple Calzone case with stenciled labeling identifying this as ‘C1’ and listing the address for Paisley Park.”
Julien’s arranged for a CAT scan of the guitar to test its authenticity.
Martin Nolan of Julien’s told Fox News: “The owners of the other three Cloud guitars won’t be selling soon so this opportunity may never come up again.”
As for the whereabouts of the other three ‘cloud’ guitars, one was handed out as a prize in a competition, one is privately owned and the other sits in Smithsonian Museum in New York.
Prince’s guitar is one of the highlights of Julien’s Auctions ‘Music Icons’ auction, which is taking place across yesterday and today (June 20).
On the second day of the auction, Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E, which he used for Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance, is being sold.
The new quote was shared to mark what would’ve been Prince’s 62nd birthday (June 7) and the ongoing series of Black Lives Matter protests across the globe.
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