Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I guess we al are familiar with Prince's movie "Purple Rain" and with Wendy Melvoin playing a heavily modified 330 in that movie and on the tour.

That Rick had its high gains replaced by what I believe are Seymour Duncan bar magnet singlecoils which are really hot pickups.

http://www.veoh.com/videos/e63373S3zASxwk
"Purple Rain" The song that is.
This music video from the movie not only displays Melvoin's rick but also the sound she got from it. It clearly has a sound of its own. A very nice airy clean chorus soaked sound that nicely compensates Prince's high gain EMG sound from his Dave Rusan made custom solid.

God knows how many girls saw Wendy in that movie and went: "Whoa! She's so cool, where can I get one of those guitars?"

As for the whereabouts of this guitar, as far as I know, she still has it, which is something that cannot be said of that White Rusan solid Prince played in the movie: at the final date of the Purple Rain tour, he smashed it.

Besides the pickups, also notice the Gibson stop tailpiece on her guitar as well. The thing is, I can (and have) get a similar sound on a 100% stock Rick 330. Since she is playing with a primarily clean sound (which is perhaps the strongest point of a Rickenbacker guitar), you have to wonder why she chose to heavily modify a guitar that didn't need it in the first place. With that being said, I would still like to have her guitar, since I remember Purple Rain quite well. She also played that guitar in the video for "When Doves Cry" where there are some good close-up shots of it.

I guess she had the pickups replaced because those Duncan "Blade" pickups work better with distortion. Live Wendy had to play a lot of songs with guitarwork from Dez Dickerson, who'm she replaced with The Revolution. Songs like "why do you wanna treat me so bad?" and "Little red corvette" require a creamy distortion.

Also in "Purple rain" there's a little song called "Lets go Crazy" where Wendy plays with an overdriven tone and let's not forget about "Computer Blue" where Prince and Wendy played dual solos.

As for the replacing of the tailpiece. I guess that was also done in order to make the guitar work in live settings and touring. Rick bridges tend to rattle and putting the tail closer results in a different break angle over the bridge which cures that, it also accounts for greater sustain for playing with distortion.

I am pleased to find some more people who appreciate the music of Prince. I said in another thread just recently that Princes work will stand the test of time. I truly believe that he will be more greatly appreciated as time goes by.

Prince has surrounded himself with top notch performers who quietly went about their business in his presence. Wendy Melvoin and Sheila E are two prime examples of the talent that he attracted. Wendy is a very good guitarist and I am sure she had a good reason to modify her 330. Purists won't like it but how many of us think there is nothing wrong with modifying our Gibsons or our Fenders to our personal taste?

I wouldn't consider myself a purist by ANY means, but I have seen LOTS of guitars unnecessarily modified by people who simply don't take enough time to really explore thier guitar's sonic possibilities. I have found that Rickenbackers sound excellent when distorted, and the neck pickup gives a really fat, buttery tone, especially if you tweak the 5th blend knob. Don't get me wrong, I have always been a fan of Wendy Melvoin's playing and I even think her blue Rick is cool, but I still think that the mods she had performed on her guitar were unnecessary.

But then again Brian, your opinion is biased because you don't know what prompted Wendy to have her guitar modified. You can easily say something is "unnecessary" if you don't know the full story.

Note also that her 330 has the second set of volume and tone pots as well as the blend pot removed and the holes in the pickguard where they sat plugged. I guess she was more at ease with the guitar having a Master volume and tone. Sacrificing tonal variation for ease of use.

It's also highly possible that she got the guitar in a sorry state (Keep in mind that she was only 18 when she joined The Revolution) with a lot of missing parts and had it fixed up the way you see it.

We both don't know why the mods happened but they did and in the end it made Wendy a lot of money.

I'd wager that the guitar in the video and the guitar in the song are most likely not the same. Does anyone have any studio info from that session? Processed like that, it's virtually impossible to tell what was used during tracking.

That Rick most definitely made her a lot of money, I agree with you there. I think it's kind of a shame that she doesn't play it anymore, at least on stage.

Again, I am NOT knocking her or her guitar, as I think it's cool. The first Rick I ever bought was midnight blue, and her guitar most definitely played a part in my choice of color.

I also agree that she could have bought the guitar in a sorry state and simply used whatever was available to put the thing back to playing condition, as up until recently Rick replacement parts have been hard to find. If that's the case, I will take back everything I said about the mods done to her guitar being unnecessary.

Once again I want to stress to you that I LIKE her guitar (a lot, actually), but I just think the mods are a little over the top, that's all. If her guitar should ever come up for sale, I will be first in line to buy it.

Matt, according to the extras on the "Purple Rain" DVD that song was recorded when that scene was shot all instruments went directly into a recording mobile truck, they played it four times in order to get as many footage from the crowd and stage as possible and edit that into what was used in the movie. But they used the sound from the best take.

Give aways are when Prince goes "If y'all know what I mean, come on and raise your hands" while he's doing a litte finger vibrato. That's not something he'd say on a recording in a studio. And it's there on the actual record.

The only thing added in post production were the strings, the violins and Cello.

That settles that. Thanks for the info.