Prince's Yellow Cloud guitar sells for $137,500

Prince’s Yellow Cloud guitar which he used throughout the 90s has sold at auction for $137,500.

The custom-built guitar was made by Minneapolis Knut-Koupee Enterprises and is outfitted with gold knobs, tremolo and tuning keys. It was purchased by Indianapolis Colts owner and avid music memorabilia collector Jim Irsay – who also bought former Beatle Ringo Starr’s drum kit for $1.4 million last year.

Prince’s former guitar technician Zeke Clark says of the guitar (via Heritage Auctions): “This Yellow Cloud guitar was Prince’s main guitar and used in most of his early videos and touring performances and album recordings. From around 1988 until 1994.

“In 1994 he broke the neck of this guitar at a French TV show. After returning to the US, I repaired the neck and installed the first Floyd Rose set up Prince ever played. He used it to record more albums, up until the symbol guitar was born. After the symbol guitar, he wanted 24 additional cloud guitars made to be sold at his outlet store.”

Also sold at the auction was a lock of the late David Bowie’s hair at $18,750, which was originally expected to fetch $4000. The two-inch snippet was taken by former Madame Tussauds wax museum employee Wendy Farrier to help her make a wig for the late rock star’s wax figure.

Also among the items sold at the auction were an unplayed Fender guitar signed by George Harrison and Eric Clapton, and Whitney Houston’s driver’s license.

Meanwhile, the blazer worn by Prince in the 1984 movie Purple Rain will also go under the hammer this week – and is expected to fetch more than 10 times its $8000 guide price, according to Profiles In History auction house client relations manager Brian Chanes.

Prince died of a reported accidental opioid overdose aged 57 in April, while Bowie passed away aged 69 in January after an 18-month battle with cancer.

The Yellow Cloud guitar (Image credit: Tommaso Boddi/AFP)

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Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.