BELLINGHAM, Wash. — There’s a rock star photo session underway at photographer Edward Dose’s studio in Monroe. But the featured star is not a musician. It's one of the most recognizable guitars in the world.
"You want to bring it to life," Dose said, as he carefully adjusted the gleaming purple masterpiece and snapped away with his camera.
Bellingham luthier Andy Beech created the guitar. He's a fine musician in his own right, as the lead guitarist for rock bands Mutiny Bay and MTR Project. He also happens to be Prince’s all-time favorite guitar maker.
At the now-legendary 2007 Super Bowl halftime performance, Prince played “Purple Rain,” in the rain, delivering a blistering solo on an Andy Beech-built beauty.
Though Beech never met Prince in person, they struck up a long collaboration.
"I made 31 guitars for Prince," he said.
And here come numbers 32 through 36.
"They have hired me to build five guitars for Paisley Park’s museum," Beech said.
The first piece headed to the Purple One’s former home just in time for his 65th birthday is an exact replica of that Super Bowl guitar, shaped in the form of Prince’s personal symbol.
"I fell back into it fairly easily, but I was like, God, these are hard," Beech said.
The design features a long, delicate extension that sweeps gracefully below the main body of the instrument. Beech said it's "ridiculously easy" to play, but very difficult to build.
Always known to be mischievous with his collaborators, Prince may have brought a little posthumous playfulness to the process.
"You’d be working on something (and) it was like, oh I can’t do this I gotta do that. The paint job, we had problems with the spraying of paint and everything. The whole thing was just, like, everything that could go wrong went wrong," Beech said. "How did I even get it done?"
Causing trouble for guitar makers was always part of Prince’s act, which involved hurling the instruments through the air and sliding them across the stage, switching from one guitar to the next throughout his sets.
"He broke them a lot," Beech said. "That’s okay. That’s why there’s a bunch of them.
The only thing Beech loves more than building this guitar is letting it go.
"Quite honestly," he said, "I can’t wait to hand it off because I’m tired of holding it and looking at it, because I’m gonna mess it up or something. I feel like I’m carrying the Stanley Cup or something."
Guitar number 32 is the first one Prince will never play. But the artist’s music lives on.
"He wrote songs for the world," Beech said, "so I feel super blessed to be a part of it."
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