Building a throne: Gus Guitars founder shares memories of creating piece for Prince
Apr 27, 2016, 11:03 AM
The man. The myth. The legend.
Prince.
When rock icon Prince died on April 21 at the age of 57 in his Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, the world was taken aback.
Both celebrities and fans took to social media to immortalize the man who was once thought of as eternal, transcending through the times with music, not age.
G1 Purple Special (Facebook/Gus Guitars)
Then, after the 911 call of his death emerged, showing confusion of an unidentified man trying to state the address and identify the body, questions were raised about his health and raised speculation of prior drug overdoses.
But despite all the controversy revolving around his cause of death, the alleged lack of a will and what would happen to his millions, one aspect of Prince remained: his music.
In an interview with The Guardian, one man spoke out about what it was like to create a guitar for the prince — possibly his last guitar ever.
Simon Farmer, founder of electric guitar company Gus Guitars, spoke to The Guardian about the G1 Purple Special, one of the company’s guitars that was inspired by the musician.
Even though Farmer created the purple guitar many years ago, he said he had only gotten a personalized one to Prince a few weeks before his death.
(Facebook/Gus Guitars)
Prince was so in awe by the masterpiece that he had even shown it off to an audience at Paisley Park shortly before his death, as captured in one of the last known photos of him.
In a statement posted on the website, Farmer wrote that he was looking forward to seeing Prince “rip it up” on the guitar “as only he could.”
“He liked the design and had asked if I could make him a bass version,” the statement read. “I sent some pictures for him to look at and he ordered a black and gold four string which I’d just started building over the last few days.”
Farmer added that although he never got to meet Prince in person, he said he felt the loss personally and has mourned the passing of “one of the greatest musicians and guitarists ever.”
