Prince's Personally-Owned and Played Schecter Cloud
Schecter AD-C-1-FR-HR BLK Electric Guitar. Schertor diamond series popular model, Hellrazer arrived. Serial number: W12060064. 【Fret remaining】: 70% ~ 80%. Black Schecter Tuners and Hardware Schecter Locking Tremolo 'Very clean, excellent condition all original Schecter Strategy, circa mid 1980's. 'S' serial #1978.We have read that this guitar was from the Dallas shop. This guy from school wants to buy my Schecter Omen 6 but he wants to know what year. I looked a little on Schecters website but couldnt find anyplace.
Accompanied by a letter of provenance from the original recipient, Raul Sandoval, which reads, in part: “This white Cloud Guitar was gifted to me personally by the artist known as Prince Rogers Nelson (aka Prince). I was hired by Prince himself and worked as his bodyguard/personal assistant from 2001–2010. In 2005, Prince selected two (2) Schecter Cloud Guitars for himself—one in white (noted here) and one in blue. We would take them with us on tours or other engagements. The guitars would always be set up in Prince’s Green Room for him to warm up with before heading on stage—never taken on stage. I personally attest to the provenance and authenticity of this Schecter guitar and to its having been gifted directly to me by Prince.” Also accompanied by a first edition of 21 Nights, hardcover with slipcase, published by Atria Books in 2008, with the included ‘Indigo Nights–Live Sessions’ CD.
Luthier Dave Rusan was working at Knut-Koupée Music, a store owned by local guitarist Jeff Hill, when he was asked to create the iconic Cloud guitar in 1983. Prince, a regular customer at the South Minneapolis shop, was talking with Hill at the counter when Rusan arrived for work. Prince and Hill moved to the back office, and after some time, the latter returned with exciting news for Rusan: ‘Prince is going to make a movie. He needs a guitar, and you’re going to make it.’
The requested Purple Rain guitar was to feature a design inspired by the bass owned by Prince's childhood friend and former bass player, André Cymone. Other than the body style, Rusan was told that the guitar ‘had to be white, and it had to have gold hardware.’ In the end, Rusan made four Cloud-style guitars for Prince in the mid 1980s, the last of which for a contest giveaway sponsored by Warner Bros. in 1985.
Prince had several other Cloud guitars commissioned over the years, including those from Schecter, who later produced a limited run to be sold to the public during the artist's 'Hit and Run' tour of 2014-15. According to the Schecter website: ‘We have never publicly sold guitars that we made for Prince. He has always custom ordered them from us exclusively for his own use. Only one time during the ‘Hit and Run Tour’ did he have Schecter create a production run of guitars that he sold exclusively at his shows…All guitars shown on our website are purely to commemorate the works that we created for him. We have always respected his wishes to not recreate the guitars and resell them.’ As one of Prince's own Schecter Clouds, the electric guitar offered here is a magnificent rarity, having been personally played by the artist any number of times before his record-breaking shows. A sensational, museum-quality offering, which is perhaps the only Prince-played Cloud available for purchase.
Schecter Guitar Serial Number
ESP guitars rose to prominence in the 1980s on the strengths of flamboyant paint schemes and lead style sonic hardware. The Japanese guitar company made a name for itself on signature guitar models built for some of the most popular musicians of the time period. Identifying model years based on serial numbers for these ESP guitars can be difficult as the company kept few production records.
Company Beginnings
Electric Sound Products was opened in 1975 by Hisatake Shibuya in Japan. ESP was originally created to build custom replacement parts for existing guitars, and did not begin producing its own models until 1976. The guitar company hit the shores of the United States in 1983, setting up shop in New York. ESP introduced its first line of guitars there for the U.S., the 400 series, which had strikingly similar body styles to the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster models.
Signature ESP Guitars
Beginning in 1984, ESP built custom guitars for several high-profile musicians, including Vernon Reid, Ronnie Wood and Vinnie Vincent. This trend continued in 1986 when George Lynch, while on tour in Japan, had a signature ESP guitar built for him. The result would become the ESP Kamikaze. The company used Lynch's popularity to release the Kamikaze as its first signature model available in the United States. Hardware from the Kamikaze models would make appearances in the M-1, MI Custom and Horizon Custom models released that same year.
Vintage ESP Guitar Identification
ESP maintained limited records for its earlier models such as the 400 Series and its Signature guitar production line. In order to effectively date an ESP model built from 1976 to 1988, ESP's technical support staff will need the serial number of the guitar but, more important, pictures of the front and back of the headstock, neck and body. Contact information for ESP's technical support is available on the company's United States website under the support heading. Remember, serial number alone is not an effective way to date these earlier models. ESP simply didn't keep good enough records for that.
Current ESP Guitar Identification
Guitars currently in production and maintained in ESP's catalog are much easier to identify, though serial number alone is still not adequate. ESP's technical support staff will still require pictures of the guitar, along with the serial number to accurately identify the guitar for the customer. The reason for the guitar's serial number being insufficient is the multiple guitar companies for which ESP has built parts over the years. Guitar necks, fret boards and head stocks were built for companies such as Kramer, Dimarzio, Robin Guitars and Schecter, with some parts being used on ESP models as well. As a result, the serial number alone is an indicator of which factory produced the guitar, and not the year or model.
Warnings
Schecter Guitar Replacement Parts
Schecter Guitar Serial Number Lookup
Only ESP's technical support staff can accurately make the determination of a guitar's year of production. Avoid guitar 'dater websites' that allow users to input a serial number of a model and get back the year and model name of the guitar in question. These sites are primarily used to perpetuate a counterfeiting epidemic that has been ongoing for years in the music instrument industry. The only company or site or personnel that can accurately date any instrument is the manufacturing company itself.
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