Up In The Clouds: An Analysis of Prince’s Cloud Guitar
In this essay, I shall be looking at the iconic Cloud guitar, brought to fame by Prince. Over the course of this text, I will cover the history behind the guitar, the design of it, and the legacy which the Cloud guitar now holds.
An artist in every sense of the word, Prince was one of music’s most colourful characters. Born Prince Rogers Nelson in 1958(Walser, 2018), he became one of the best-selling musicians of all time and helped spawn the influential Minneapolis Sound, a subgenre of funk rock(PBS, 2020). Releasing dozens of albums, amassing well over 100 million copies sold(Beech, 2016), Prince was a constant feature of 1980s and 1990s popular music. Throughout his 39-year career, Prince had an eye for the unusual and relished challenging people’s perceptions; in his lyrics and in his visuals, Prince wasn’t afraid to express himself.
This thirst for expression meant he took great care in every aspect of his work, the music, of course, had to be just right, but Prince spent considerable time working on his visual identity. For the “Purple Rain” era – arguably the definitive Prince era – his visual identity was marked with references to royalty. From his very name to his special relationship with the colour purple (historically linked to royalty due to its scarcity in fabrics during pre-industrial times(Melina, 2011)), Prince was surrounded by royal symbolism – an idea which extended to his instruments.
Instruments of Prince had to be striking. It is hard to envisage a bold character such as him performing one of his mind-bending solos on a standard issue Fender Stratocaster. Although this was the case in his first few years of touring, photos indicate that, in 1981, Prince switched to the Hohner Madcat; an interesting guitar model bearing similarities to both Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters(Spiderstu, 2018). It is believed that Prince originally liked the Madcat due to the leopard print pickguard perfectly matching his stage clothing and amps, both of which were adorned with fake fur – an early indication that image was important in his decision-making(Beckner, 2020).
Dave Rusan was a guitar technician who was working at the Knut-Koupée music shop in Minneapolis, and had previously worked with Prince, repairing guitars and basses, even auditioning to be in his band, The Revolution. In London, Rusan spent a period of six to nine months at another shop, working on guitars for artists such as Keith Richards, Def Leppard, and Gary Moore. Upon his return to Minneapolis, he was instantly tasked with the creation of a new guitar, an instrument that was to be used in Prince’s upcoming film(Beckner, 2021). Despite having no experience of building a guitar from scratch, Rusan accepted the offer, later saying, “I had to take a shot at it. You don’t have too many opportunities like that in life. So I did it.”(Gorra, 2016)
After accepting the offer, Rusan was given a bass as a starting point. This bass, retroactively named the Cloud bass, was a one-off build by luthier Jeff Levin who was operating under the name Sardonyx Guitars. The history of the “Cloud shape” actually begins with a mandolin. Levin was fond of the shape of a Gibson F-Style, but was in need of a bass for the band he was playing with, so he began construction on the cloud bass. The more familiar, flowing shape we see on the Cloud guitar, with its extended horn and the curled carving on the lower body, took form in Levin’s workshop before being sent for consignment at Umanov Guitars in New York City’s East Village. It is here that the exact history becomes unclear. Accounts differ on the specifics of how exactly it came to be in Prince’s possession. André Cymone, Prince’s childhood friend and bassist, has a vivid memory of Prince purchasing the instrument for him in 1978 in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Meanwhile, Levin’s friend, the shopkeeper at Umanov Guitars, remembers it was Prince who bought it in 1976(Swensson, 2021). What we know for certain is that it can be seen being played by André Cymone in the “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” music video, allowing the world a small glimpse at what was to come in Prince’s near future.
What was to come was Dave Rusan’s interpretation of the Cloud bass. Breathing new life into a ten-year-old design through an altered outline, a more sparkling aesthetic, and small details which make it uniquely Prince. He was given limited instructions upon receiving the bass, recalling what his boss at Knut-Koupée had told him, “It’s got to be white, it has to have gold parts,” – a colour scheme with both royal and holy connotations, the perfect combination for an artist such as Prince. Like mentioned previously, Prince was fond of his regal references and this shows, gold has been long associated with royalty due to its shining colour, its material properties (E.g. resistance to rust and corrosion), and its great scarcity(Cartwright, 2014). White has its own important history, with its place firmly in religion. Due to its timeless association with purity, religious leaders are often seen draped in the colour. The Pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, has worn white since 1566; and priests and priestesses in the ancient civilisations of Greece and Egypt wore white robes. Again, this colour was saved for people with some form of power, predominantly religious power(Holmes, 2015). This created a perfect marriage of wealth and holy symbolism which would serve Prince rather well. A smaller, often forgotten detail in the original design is the addition of spades along the fretboard, acting as fret markers. This, of course, calls to mind the ace of spades, a particular playing card which has traditionally been the highest card in a deck, thus, the most valuable(technology.org, 2018), adding on one last piece of powerful symbolism to the Cloud guitar.
In terms of electrical hardware, Prince was fond of EMG pickups, and so the Cloud was fitted with an EMG 81 Humbucker by the bridge and an EMG SA Single Coil in the neck position(guitarcloud, n.d.) – an unusual yet familiar combination. The body itself was hard maple, in a neck-through construction. Again, an unusual choice as hard maple is rarely seen in the bodies of guitars due to its undesirable weight, more commonly used in laminate tops or necks. However, as this body was to be fairly small, Rusan came to the conclusion that weight wouldn’t play a part, but hard maple’s strength certainly would, stating that, “the hardness of that wood could help it survive the abuse that Prince often inflicted on his stage guitars”(Thompson, 2022). In regards to tone, the wood offers a nicely rounded sound with great clarity(Beattie, 2016), which perhaps factored into the decision.
The shape of the instrument can be attributed to the Cloud bass, but the reasoning behind Prince using that as inspiration could stretch beyond simple aesthetics. During the early 1980’s, heavy rock was in vogue and so the vast majority of male guitarists favoured pieces that fit the genre, with their harsh angles and typically masculine colour schemes(Smithsonian, 2021). The Cloud is a world apart in this way. Its outline flows, with long curves throughout; and the colour scheme was far softer, it portrayed an elegance seldom seen in popular culture at the time, further giving us evidence of Prince’s desire to subvert expectations and carve his own path.
Owning a beautifully designed guitar is one thing, but Prince wanted to showcase it. Having commissioned the piece with the intent of using it in Purple Rain, with the success of this film and the accompanying album, he went on to use the Cloud guitar throughout the subsequent tour(Price, 2021). It became synonymous with Prince and his extravagant shows, becoming as much a part of the performance as himself. He was so fond of the guitar that he commissioned Rusan to make two replicas which would accompany Prince on tour for years to come, often being repainted to suit the aesthetic of each new era(Beckner, 2021), going on to be seen in peach, blue, yellow, and black iterations.
As of the current day, Dave Rusan is still producing Cloud guitars for Prince enthusiasts across the world, with each piece being listed for $8,000 due to its incredible craftsmanship and its direct link to the original creator of the Cloud(Horsley, 2019). Rusan had done this on occasion over the years but, in the wake of Prince’s untimely death in 2016, interest spiked and he ramped up production, seeing it as his way of continuing Prince’s legacy by giving fans a means to get even closer to their favourite artist. In 2018, Rusan trademarked the design he had been using for 35 years, leading to Paisley Park Estates (Prince’s main business company) sent a letter ordering him to drop the trademark and cease production(Mixdown Magazine, 2019). Thankfully, for all parties, Rusan and Paisley Park came to a legal agreement and settled in a manner which allowed for Rusan to continue his work on producing replicas of the Cloud(Kielty, 2022).
Prince has gone down in history as one of music’s most colourful characters, and there is no doubt that his distinctive instruments have played a part in building such a legacy – none more so than Dave Rusan’s Cloud guitar. It debuted alongside Prince’s most timeless works in film and music, and it remained strapped to him during his countless tours. It is an exercise in comprehensive guitar design, showcasing Prince’s character in its every detail; and an instrument that, to this day, remains a crucial part of music history.
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