What amplifiers did Prince use?

Prince used a number of amplifier set ups over the course of his career. His first amplifier was a Mesa/Boogie Mark II. He first used this amp on the Prince tour in 1979 and it remained his main amplifier until the late 1980s. He initially paired this amplifier with a Marshall 4x12" cabinet. Around 1999 he switched to Bag End D-12M cabinets and continued using these live and in the studio until the early 1990s. Prince switched from Mark II to Mesa/Boogie Mark III amplifier heads in the late 1980s.

Around the Act I & II tours, Prince switched to a new rack set up. This comprised a Soldano SLO-100 amplifier for Dirty Sounds and Soldano/Caswell x99 preamp and Mesa/Boogie Strategy 500 power amp for clean sounds. These amplifiers were paired with Marshall and Peavey 4x12" cabinets. Prince also had a MIDI switching system based around Uptown and Digital Music Corp switchers, controlled by a Roland FC-100.

In the 2000s, Prince rolled back his rack equipment. He used a number of Mesa/Boogie head, cabinet and combo set-ups including Heartbreaker and Lone Star amplifiers. He also used Orange heads and cabinets and Fender Bassman combos. From 2014, he used custom Soldano Avenger 100 heads paired with Mesa/Boogie 4x12" cabinets.