The Prinz
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.This Telecaster-style guitar is one of several that Prince owned. Despite his reputation for playing extravagant master-built guitars, he allegedly bought his first Hohner from a Minneapolis-area gas station for about $30 in the early 1970s, because the guitar’s leopard-patterned pickguard matched his strap and stage outfit. Becoming one of his main workhorse instruments, Prince would often use these guitars throughout his career. When Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, he performed a masterful version of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” on his original Hohner in an all-star tribute to George Harrison.
Technical Description:
Two-piece maple body with sen (Japanese ash) center stripe, one-piece maple neck with sen “skunk stripe,”; 25 ½ in. scale; natural finish with tortoiseshell binding; Hohner Professional logo decal on headstock, "The Prinz" logo blacked out; two single-coil pickups, three-way selector, volume and tone knobs; chrome adjustable bridge, Schaller tuners, control panel, and knobs, plastic tortoiseshell pickguard, bridge pickup mount, and input jack mounting plate
Technical Description:
Two-piece maple body with sen (Japanese ash) center stripe, one-piece maple neck with sen “skunk stripe,”; 25 ½ in. scale; natural finish with tortoiseshell binding; Hohner Professional logo decal on headstock, "The Prinz" logo blacked out; two single-coil pickups, three-way selector, volume and tone knobs; chrome adjustable bridge, Schaller tuners, control panel, and knobs, plastic tortoiseshell pickguard, bridge pickup mount, and input jack mounting plate
Artwork Details
- Title: The Prinz
- Artist: Hohner (German, Trossingen founded in 1857)
- Artist: Prince Rogers Nelson (American, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1958–2016 Chanhassen, Minnesota)
- Manufacturer: Moridaira Gakki (Nagano, Japan)
- Date: ca. 1980s
- Medium: Maple, walnut, metal, plastic
- Dimensions: Length: ~39 in. (99.1 cm)
Width: ~12 5/8 in. (32.1 cm)
Weight: ~8-9 lbs. - Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
- Credit Line: All Artifacts Courtesy Paisley Park Enterprises, Inc. and The Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments