Prince's Vox HDC-77 has become the latest guitar from the Purple Rain hitmaker's sizable collection to make its way to auction. The “blackburst”-finished guitar is expected to fetch up to £300,000 ($383,000), just months after Prince's iconic Cloud 3 sold for an eye-watering $910,000.
The VOX HDC-77 was extensively stage-played, most famously during Prince's HitNRun tour across the UK, US & Canada in 2014 and 2015 – it would be his final electric tour (its followup, the Piano & a Microphone Tour, ended shortly before he passed away in April 2016).
His last documented use of the semi-hollow guitar was during his performance for Barack Obama at the White House in June 2015.
During this time, Prince was touring with 3rdeyegirl, comprising Donna Grantis (guitar), Ida Nielsen (bass), and Hannah Welton (drums), who served as his backing band.
His former bandmates are inextricably linked to this guitar's story. In 2019, Nielson confirmed that she was the one who convinced Prince to try Vox guitars, tweeting, “I bought one for me, and then he liked it so much that I got one for him too.”
Moreover, until this year, it was part of Grantis' private collection, and according to Sotheby's, the instrument “hasn't been played since Prince last performed with it.”
In an interview with Guitar World, Grantis talked about her experience gigging with Prince. “He taught me about the funk vocabulary. He taught me about sounds,” she said.
“He taught me about articulation and attitude and power and tones. Prince was an incredible inspiration. Whether we were jamming at Paisley Park or playing onstage at the Superdome, I would just be blown away all the time.”
The blackburst is not the only HDC-77 Prince used during this era. He also owned an ivory/white version with a custom psychedelic pattern on the body, which matched the ’70s funk rock-inspired music he was exploring during that time.
Launched in 2010, the HDC-77 features a distinctive contoured body, while a three-position switch allows its CoAxe pickups to produce single-coil, P-90 or humbucker tones.
This electric guitar joins Sotheby's inaugural Pop Culture auction, which aims to bring together iconic artifacts from the music, film, and entertainment worlds. A trio of Noel Gallagher’s guitars and a Steinway grand piano that sat in Studio 3 at Abbey Road Studios are also part of the auction.
Online bidding takes place between August 29 and September 12, with a dedicated in-person exhibition at London's New Bond Street galleries starting on September 9. For more information about the Prince guitar and Pop Culture, visit Sotheby's.
