A beautiful bespoke Schecter ‘Diamond Series’ Cloud guitar owned and played by Prince is currently up for auction, and if anyone out there fancies donating £50,000 to your dear, trusted friends at Louder, we'd honestly be more than happy to give this gorgeous guitar a new home.
The guitar is being put up for auction by Prince's former bodyguard/personal assistant Raul Sandoval, who was gifted the guitar by the late musician.
A description of the item on the RR Auction website reads: “This blue 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 blue (noted here) and one in white. 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.”
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."
The current leading bid for the guitar is $45,500, and it's expected that it will sell for no less than $60,000 when bidding closes on November 22.
Other rare items up for grabs in the auction house's Marvels of Modern Music collection include a copy of With The Beatles signed by all members of the Fab Four, a signed copy of Queen's A Night At The Opera, John Lydon’s handwritten lyrics to Sex Pistols classics Holidays in the Sun and Submission, and guitars signed by Bruce Springsteen and Ramones.
Full details of the auction can be found here.
