Shortly before his untimely death, Prince received a custom Purple Special guitar from Gus Guitars – he liked it so much, he commissioned luthier Simon Farmer to build him a bass version.
Like the guitar, the bass features chrome fibre elements in the construction, holographic gold fibre inlays, purple candy paint and gold-plating on all metal work.
Based on Gus Guitars’ G3 Four Active model, the Purple Special packs a Gus Tube humbucker and single coil pickups with a three-band active EQ by John East, a custom design for Gus.
“There’s obviously an over-riding sadness with this project,” says Simon. “Prince won’t get to see or play the bass, but I felt it was important to finish it and honour his legacy.”
www.gusguitars.com
