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In February of this year we took a look at Ergo Instruments' interpretation of Prince's 'Cloud' guitar. Ergo have made a small handful of these guitars - there was another one in purple also offered for sale on eBay, and now here is an Ergo Instruments 'Cloud' bass which to my eyes is far more suited to the design. Ergo's Jesse Blue tells us that:

I've built this Cloud replica in tribute to 'His Royal Badness', but with an added nod to what I believe is a tribute to the actual, original 'Cloud' - from what I understand, the original 'Cloud' was actually a 4 string bass guitar played by Andre Cymone in Prince's band - there's a snippet of a camera catch from an American Bandstand performance (I believe the relatively 'famous' one where our hero wouldn't speak to Dick Clark who later stated that was the toughest interview he'd ever done!) posted on the Cloud Online Forum, which marks its appearance. I guess Prince fell in love with the shape, because his iconic white Cloud in Purple Rain replaced both Andre and his bass a few years after. Obviously, it's not an 'exact' replica - in that it's not painted an opaque, solid color as most other Cloud guitars I've seen over the years (and I've never seen another bass guitar!)...

Now, I'm pretty certain that I HAVE seen Prince playing a 'Cloud' bass, possibly with the New Power Generation. Is anyone out there able to confirm this? Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me.

Anyway, this bass - fitted with LED position markers, by the way - is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,198.90.

For the record, Ergo Instruments actually specialise in producing fine EUBs - Electric Upright Basses. These 'Cloud' guitars and basses are a side project.

G L Wilson

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