First, with Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups and later Kinman Traditional pickups.

Takumi Suetsugu, Prince's guitar tech, has remarked that it is the best Telecaster he has ever played. His guitar techs worked on the instrument to keep it road worthy, but it remained a quality instrument. It would have cost about 80,000 YEN new in 1976, over $1,000 in today's money. It was of decent quality, built by the equivalent of the Morris factory's custom shop team. Despite being a copy of a Fender design from the far east, the instrument was far from a cheap copy. There are varying reports of the quality of the instrument. Prince liked the 'leopard print' pickguard as it matched his stage costume and other equipment, which were all covered in fake fur. , but Andre Cymone has reported that he bought it from a Minneapolis guitar store (probably Knut Koupee) around the same time as his Fender Jazz bass Prince acquired his Hohner Madcat at some point in the late 1970s. The legend is it cost $30 from a gas station The Madcat went out of production, with only 500 Hohner-branded Madcats built. Morris Guitars received a lawsuit from Fender for copying their headstock design.

The bridge is also surrounded by a ring made from the same material as the pickguard. The pickguard is somewhere between tortoiseshell and leopard print in appearance. The guitar has a bridge like a hardtail Stratocaster and pickups like the neck and bridge pickup from the Stratocaster. It has a walnut centre strip, sen ash sides and a book-matched maple top and back. The design is not a straight copy of a Telecaster. Hohner liked the guitar and decided to release the guitar under their brand. H.S Anderson were a brand launched by the Japanese Morris Guitar company. The Hohner Madcat was first released as the H.S. It most likely appears on all studio albums from 1980 onward, with the notable exception of Batman, when Prince wanted a more futuristic sound Whilst Prince used other guitars live, according to Susan Rogers, Prince preferred to use the Hohner Madcat in the studio over other guitars like the Cloud Guitar. He used it on later tours including the Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain, Lovesexy, Nude, Musicology, Earth and Welcome 2 America tours. Prince started using this guitar on the Dirty Mind tour. However, its pickups and bridge are closer to a Fender Stratocaster, which gives this instrument its unique sound. The guitar has a similar shape to a Fender Telecaster. Alongside the Dave Rusan Cloud Guitar and the Auerswald Symbol Guitar, it is the guitar most associated with Prince.

Violins were recorded with Telefunken ELA M 251 microphones and cellos with Neumann U47 microphones.The Hohner Madcat is an electric guitar used by Prince throughout his career. The Steinway Model B was recorded with AKG C414 microphones.ĭrums were probably recorded with the following microphones - Kick Drum: Sennheiser MD 421 Snare: Shure SM57 Toms: Sennheiser MD 441/ MD 421 HiHat: Neumann KM84 Overheads: AKG C414 Guitars were also recorded direct using a Countryman 85 DIīasses were recorded direct using a Countryman 85 DI The guitars amps were recorded through Shure SM57 (First Avenue) and Sennheiser MD421 (St.

Prince guitar rig