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Lot Essay
The story of Prince's Cloud guitars is legendary. In 1985, Dave Rusan at Knut Koupee guitars made the first Cloud guitar based on a Sardonyx bass guitar made by Jeff Levin. That first Cloud was used in the movie Purple Rain, released in 1985. Rusan went on to make three more Cloud guitars that Prince used extensively on tour from 1985 to 1993 and another model that was never used by Prince. In the early 1990s, Prince began looking for a new maker for these unique guitars that had become an iconic part of his stage act on his tours from Purple Rain through Parade, Sign O' The Times and Lovesexy. Prince turned to luthier Andy Beech to make him another three cloud guitars. The first was yellow, with the other two being blue. After an initial order of three guitars in early 1993, Prince was apparently pleased with the results and ordered more Clouds which were delivered from November 1993 onwards. In total, Prince ordered two additional batches of 12 guitars each, for a total of 27 instruments made between 1993 and 1999.
According to Zeke Clarke's letter accompanying this guitar, This Yellow Cloud guitar was Princes (sic) main guitar & used in most of his early videos & touring performances & album recordings. From around 1988-1994. This letter is a little contradictory because the first and original Cloud guitar, built by Dave Rusan of Knut Koupee in 1983 was in fact donated to the Smithsonian Museum in July 1993, where it remains to this day. The remaining three Cloud guitars built by Rusan, some of which were resprayed yellow at certain points in their trajectory, have all been accounted for and were sold at other auctions between 2016 and 2020. This means that this Cloud guitar was certainly one of the runs built by Andy Beech from 1993 onwards, and not one of the original Dave Rusan/Knut Koupee guitars. In fact, it is known Andy Beech used standard Gibson style 5⁄16” male truss rod nuts on his Cloud guitars which is revealed in this guitar upon interior examination. Conversely, Rusan would use female hex truss rod nuts on the first four Clouds.
Zeke Clarke also states in his letter: In 1994 he broke the neck of this guitar at a French T.V. show. After returning to U.S.A. I repaired neck & installed the first Floyd Rose set up Prince ever played... As well as installing the Floyd Rose Tremolo, Zeke Clark appears to have removed the original output jack from the middle of the swirl on the body and restored the area, with an entire respray to the body and replacement symbol fret marker decals. The French TV Show to which Zeke refers is likely the Canal+ show “Nulle Part Ailleurs” on which Prince performed on 5 May 1994 but footage of the TV Show does not show Prince breaking a guitar. In fact, Prince played his gold Symbol guitar on this TV show which he began using live consistently from April, 1994, the Cloud guitar being largely retired from live performances by the end of 1993 and only making a reappearance for Prince's show Rave Un2 The Year 2000, the concert film released in 1999. However, the previous year, in the early hours of the morning on 8 September 1993, Prince wrapped up his Act II Tour with an impromptu late show at Bagley's, then a large warehouse nightclub in the King's Cross area of London. The show was meant as a farewell before Prince shed his persona and began appearing with "SLAVE" written on his cheek in a nod to his ongoing battle with Warner Bros. Records and footage was later released as Sacrifice of Victor, a live concert released on VHS in March, 1995 in the U.K. and Europe. Prince plays a yellow Cloud guitar throughout the Bagley's show, with a yellow Cloud also making an appearance with Prince earlier that night on the evening of 7 September during the official last date of the Act II Tour at Wembley Stadium as well as during the final song at his show in Mainz, Germany on September 5.
Upon examination of the position of the control knobs and switch (which varied considerably amongst the Cloud models), as well as the detail of the scroll on the upper bout of the guitar, we believe that this guitar being sold matches the footage of Prince performing at Bagley's and in Germany in September, 1993. Accounts of the Bagley's performance recall a raucous evening, with Mavis Staples making an appearance, and a final encore which ended in Prince throwing his yellow Cloud guitar to the ground. Given that only one yellow Andy Beech Cloud guitar was delivered to Prince prior to the Act II Tour, and that his previous two Dave Rusan yellow Cloud guitars (known as Cloud 1 and Cloud 3) had already been donated to the Smithsonian and given away in a competition by the time of this tour respectively, the guitar played at Wembley and at Bagley's at the end of the Act II Tour can only be the first Andy Beech yellow Cloud guitar that was delivered to Prince in early 1993. It is probable that this guitar was given a Paisley Park serial number at a later date, which would explain the absence of this serial number from the Paisley Park Retail fax which listed all known Cloud serial numbers as of January 1995. No photos or footage seem to exist with Prince playing this guitar with the current Floyd Rose set up.
According to Zeke Clarke's letter accompanying this guitar, This Yellow Cloud guitar was Princes (sic) main guitar & used in most of his early videos & touring performances & album recordings. From around 1988-1994. This letter is a little contradictory because the first and original Cloud guitar, built by Dave Rusan of Knut Koupee in 1983 was in fact donated to the Smithsonian Museum in July 1993, where it remains to this day. The remaining three Cloud guitars built by Rusan, some of which were resprayed yellow at certain points in their trajectory, have all been accounted for and were sold at other auctions between 2016 and 2020. This means that this Cloud guitar was certainly one of the runs built by Andy Beech from 1993 onwards, and not one of the original Dave Rusan/Knut Koupee guitars. In fact, it is known Andy Beech used standard Gibson style 5⁄16” male truss rod nuts on his Cloud guitars which is revealed in this guitar upon interior examination. Conversely, Rusan would use female hex truss rod nuts on the first four Clouds.
Zeke Clarke also states in his letter: In 1994 he broke the neck of this guitar at a French T.V. show. After returning to U.S.A. I repaired neck & installed the first Floyd Rose set up Prince ever played... As well as installing the Floyd Rose Tremolo, Zeke Clark appears to have removed the original output jack from the middle of the swirl on the body and restored the area, with an entire respray to the body and replacement symbol fret marker decals. The French TV Show to which Zeke refers is likely the Canal+ show “Nulle Part Ailleurs” on which Prince performed on 5 May 1994 but footage of the TV Show does not show Prince breaking a guitar. In fact, Prince played his gold Symbol guitar on this TV show which he began using live consistently from April, 1994, the Cloud guitar being largely retired from live performances by the end of 1993 and only making a reappearance for Prince's show Rave Un2 The Year 2000, the concert film released in 1999. However, the previous year, in the early hours of the morning on 8 September 1993, Prince wrapped up his Act II Tour with an impromptu late show at Bagley's, then a large warehouse nightclub in the King's Cross area of London. The show was meant as a farewell before Prince shed his persona and began appearing with "SLAVE" written on his cheek in a nod to his ongoing battle with Warner Bros. Records and footage was later released as Sacrifice of Victor, a live concert released on VHS in March, 1995 in the U.K. and Europe. Prince plays a yellow Cloud guitar throughout the Bagley's show, with a yellow Cloud also making an appearance with Prince earlier that night on the evening of 7 September during the official last date of the Act II Tour at Wembley Stadium as well as during the final song at his show in Mainz, Germany on September 5.
Upon examination of the position of the control knobs and switch (which varied considerably amongst the Cloud models), as well as the detail of the scroll on the upper bout of the guitar, we believe that this guitar being sold matches the footage of Prince performing at Bagley's and in Germany in September, 1993. Accounts of the Bagley's performance recall a raucous evening, with Mavis Staples making an appearance, and a final encore which ended in Prince throwing his yellow Cloud guitar to the ground. Given that only one yellow Andy Beech Cloud guitar was delivered to Prince prior to the Act II Tour, and that his previous two Dave Rusan yellow Cloud guitars (known as Cloud 1 and Cloud 3) had already been donated to the Smithsonian and given away in a competition by the time of this tour respectively, the guitar played at Wembley and at Bagley's at the end of the Act II Tour can only be the first Andy Beech yellow Cloud guitar that was delivered to Prince in early 1993. It is probable that this guitar was given a Paisley Park serial number at a later date, which would explain the absence of this serial number from the Paisley Park Retail fax which listed all known Cloud serial numbers as of January 1995. No photos or footage seem to exist with Prince playing this guitar with the current Floyd Rose set up.