PrincePedalboard, 1990
Prince's 1990 Nude Tour board was six pedals: a Colorsound wah, a Boss OC-2 octave, an SD-1 overdrive, a BF-2 flanger, a VB-2 vibrato and a DSD-2 sampler/delay, feeding a hidden rack and two amplifiers.
Nude Tour onstage pedalboard
Order evidence: No source publishes this sequence; the order is reconstructed
Inside the rig · 6 units
Pedal roles & evidence
How each unit fits Prince's 1990 setup. Board-specific roles and the evidence behind each identification and position.
Reconstructed orderIdentity and position are evidenced separately. Reconstructed positions are not observed connections.
Filter & EQ
Colorsound Wah-Wah
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Provides Prince's foot-shaped filter sweeps before the onstage compact effects.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Pitch & Synth
Boss OC-2 Octave
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Adds one- and two-octave-down voices to Prince's guitar signal.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Gain
Boss SD-1 Super OverDrive
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Adds Prince's floor-controlled gain before the concealed clean/dirty amplifier switching system.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Modulation
Boss BF-2 Flanger
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Creates Prince's pronounced swept modulation, a pedal family retained across many later rigs.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Modulation
Boss VB-2 Vibrato
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Introduces true pitch vibrato independently of the rack processors.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Delay & Echo
Boss DSD-2 Digital Sampler/Delay
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Provides floor-controlled echo and short sampled repeats before Prince's concealed rack.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Documented equipment · Reconstructed order · Split output path
The contemporary Musician feature quotes guitar technician Dallas Schoo and explicitly lists the onstage pedalboard before describing Matt Larsen's concealed rack. Guitar Player's 2004 interview independently documents Prince still using the VB-2, octave, flanger and wah families in a later Takumi-diagrammed rig. The displayed sequence follows conventional signal function because the 1990 article lists inventory but does not trace patch cables. The PSM-5 power/master switch and EV-5 expression controller are omitted as utilities; the UREI EQ, HUSH modules, SPX90 and GP-16 units remain documented rack context rather than floor placements.
No source publishes this sequence. The units are ordered by conventional signal-chain practice, and any documented routing zone is kept as recorded.
Cited sources
MethodologyQuestions about Prince's 1990 pedalboard
- What pedals did Prince use in 1990?
- This dated entry lists 6 units: Colorsound Wah-Wah, Boss OC-2 Octave, Boss SD-1 Super OverDrive, Boss BF-2 Flanger, Boss VB-2 Vibrato, Boss DSD-2 Digital Sampler/Delay. This is the recorded inventory, not a claim that every connection or model identification is confirmed; see the evidence and routing notes.
- What order were Prince's pedals in?
- The complete order is reconstructed, not observed. The layout follows the cited routing constraints and the archive's signal-chain convention where the sources are silent. See the diagram and routing notes for the separate paths and any unconfirmed connections.
- Is this Prince's full guitar rig?
- No. This dated entry covers 6 units in the effects path, not every piece of gear Prince owned or used. Floor pedals, rack units and routing devices are included only where recorded; omitted equipment and uncertain connections are explained in the notes. It is not a complete or current rig inventory.
- When and where was this pedalboard used?
- Nude Tour, 1990. This is the rig documented for that touring period, not a career-wide gear list.
- How does the archive know what was on this pedalboard?
- 2 cited sources, listed above with the date each was read, including Musician (archived by Guitarcloud), Guitar Player. Among them a written article and an interview. The units are recorded as documented equipment, and the page was last audited on 2026-07-18.