What amplifiers did Prince use?

Prince used a number of amplifier set ups over the course of his career. His is mostly associated with Mesa/Boogie, using their amplifiers from 1979 to 1992 and again in the 2000s. He also used Soldano, Fender, Orange and Peavey amplifiers.

Prince’s first amplifier set up seems to have been a Fender Showman, which appears in many early images. For his first tour in 1979, he used a Mesa/Boogie Mark II with a Marshall 4x12" cabinet. The Mark II would be his preferred amplifier until 1988, when he upgraded to a Mesa/Boogie Mark III. This was his preferred amplifier in the studio as well as live. Contrary to reports of Prince running these amplifiers clean, he used the distortion channels on these amplifiers (often in a two amp clean/dirty set up). For the 1999 tour, he switched to Bag End D-12M cabinets.

For the Act I & II tours, Prince switched to a new rack set up consisting of a Soldano SLO-100 amplifier for dirty Sounds and Soldano/Caswell x99 preamp and Mesa/Boogie Strategy 500 power amp for clean sounds. Prince paired these amplifiers with Marshall and Peavey cabinets.

Prince first used Peavey cabinets on the Parade tour and by the mid 1990s he had several Peavey 5150 4x12s. At this time, Prince started using a Peavey Classic 100 half stacks for smaller shows and aftershows, and Peavey Delta Blues combos in the studio. This was the start of Prince‘s preference for using smaller “tweed” style amplifiers for smaller dates. On the One Nite Alone... tour, Prince used Fender Bassman combos along with his rack effects system. It was around this time that Prince started relying his Boss BD-2 Blues Driver and Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion for his distortion, running his amps as clean “pedal platforms”.

When Prince started playing larger venues on the Musicology tour, he started using Mesa/Boogie Heartbreaker amplifiers, the company’s tribute to the older Mark series. He paired these amps with Mesa/Boogie cabinets, finished in a custom purple color. He also used the smaller Mesa/Boogie Lone Star amplifiers, possibly for smaller venues. When promoting 3121 and Planet Earth, Prince used an Orange stack – unusual “British” style amp that Prince possibly chose for the color.

Prince’s last amp was a custom Soldano Avenger 100 head paired with a Mesa/Boogie 4x12" cabinets.