In 2007, Prince announced that he’d be in residence at London’s 02 Arena for 21 days to promote his Planet Earth album. It would be a...
In 2007, Prince announced that he’d be in residence at London’s 02 Arena for 21 days to promote his Planet Earth album. It would be a monumental venture, with Prince playing to audiences of more than 350,000 people in August and September.
Around the same time, luthier Simon Farmer, owner of Gus Guitars in Heathfield, England[1], had started building a guitar he named a G1 Purple Special. It was the first “Special” in a line of color-themed variants.
“Everyone always told me it looked like the sort of guitar Prince would play,” Farmer said. “It is the embodiment of a showman such as Prince, who throws so much of his personality into every artistic endeavor.”
Farmer began to work on the Purple Special specifically for Prince. For three months, Farmer worked night and day on the guitar. “I did nothing else,” Farmer said. “I put all of my other work aside. I was like a man possessed trying to get it finished.”
With its unique teardrop-shaped body and compact, lightweight design, Farmer thought it would work for Prince. The guitar is very easy and comfortable to play, especially for smaller players. Farmer also wired the electrics specifically for Prince, making holographic carbon fiber inlays on the fretboard.
“As a guitar maker, it’s the stuff of dreams to make an instrument for someone famous,” Farmer said. “And it really doesn’t get any more famous than Prince, and it doesn’t get any better as a guitar player. Getting it to him was a long shot, but the thought of him playing my guitar was just so awesome that it drove me, inspired me. It was almost as if I had an epiphany to build this guitar.”
But the clock was ticking. Loudly. Farmer was intent on delivering