Wendy Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Guitar Parts and Her New Rig!

Wendy Melvoin is a Grammy award-winning guitarist, producer, and songwriter who has written, recorded, and toured with some of the industry's biggest names (Prince and Sheryl Crow, to name a few).

Earlier this month, I built Wendy a new pedalboard using a Vertex Tour Compact with a TC3 riser. After taking the pedalboard on the road, Wendy stopped by the Vertex Showroom in North Hollywood to demonstrate how she's been using her new rig!

Working with Wendy was an absolute pleasure; everyone at Vertex is extremely excited to hear the music she creates with her new "Ambient Board".

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction
02:42 Signal Path Walkthrough
06:27 Pedalboard Demo
08:50 "Purple Rain"
14:56 Ambient Tones
17:05 "My Favorite Mistake"
18:57 How is the Clean Tone?
20:57 Wendy's Final Thoughts
21:37 Thanks for Watching!

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CREDITS:
Host/Co-Production: Mason Marangella
Video: Ricky Chavez
Video Editing: Mason Mejia
Co-Production/Design: Mason Mejia
Audio Engineering: Hunter Harrison

#WendyMelvoin #PurpleRain #rigdoctor

[VertexEffectsInc]

Do you have questions about Wendy's Pedalboard? Tell us in the comments below! Also, tell us which tones you dug the most!

[lucianoromero]

Prince was a perfectionist and only surrounded himself with like minded musicians such as himself 💜 Wendy has my respect 🙌

[jessejordan]

Feel bad for the folks so triggered by how awesome she is to write negative comments. If Prince wants you to play guitar on his records, I’m open the idea you might be pretty amazing.

[boomerdell]

Wendy Melvoin! What a treat. She is such an incredible guitarist and artist, and I hope she gets so much more recognition as such. Absolutely deserves it.

[badumtss]

God, that intro to Purple Rain. She could play it in a loop for eternity and I'd stay put, listening to it without ever getting bored.

[diegorhoenisch]

I worked with Wendy's guitar tech at Ocean Way in the late 1980s and he was floored by her chord vocabulary. She has a remarkable ear for chordal harmony. Her father was also a fucking legend.

Cheers,

Alan Tomlinson

[RJRonquillo]

What a great chat. I hope she's aware of how many people play (or attempt to play) the Purple Rain intro whenever they try out chorus pedals. Such an iconic riff, paired with that effect It's like that and Message In A Bottle are my go-to chorus riffs lol.

[SeanHollingsworth]

So she was 19 when she had this riff immortalized. Incredible!!!

[danielfischer]

She was 19 when she did purple rain ... amazing

[GabiWilsonTV]

I spent 4 hours trying to dial in my daughters VOX amp effects, to get the tone Prince once used on the Purple Rain tour.
I had to use a separate distortion and sustain pedal to get it close.
I then paid her $100 to learn the “Purple Rain” solo on the night he played in Syracuse in 1985.
I kinda already knew it myself so, she had a head start with me teaching her what I knew already.lol
Long story short, she goes by the artist named H.E.R. now and has 5 Grammys and an Oscar.
I was blown away when she told me she would be doing the Grammy Tribute to Prince show.
She has a signature Strat now too and a guitar tech that doesn’t have to spend 4 hours dialing in her pedal board.😂👍🏾🙏🏾🎸🥰

[yzthory]

Purple Rain is an eternal classic .. can’t help but get goosebumps hearing it. It’s haunting .. it’s beautiful arrangement. Prince was fortunate to have Wendy on the team .. she’s badass

[CGCEifel]

Just learned that she also did the intro to Sheryl Crow's "my favorite mistake". Damn do i adore that riff. What a legend.

[mcirone]

Real fans of Prince recognize the brilliance in Wendy. As a prodigy, I doubt he’d waste time on musicians that couldn’t hang. I replied to another commenter re: chords and her being double-jointed.

I’m a huge fan of Prince (& The Revolution) and have played guitar for many years. By no means an expert, but most have considered me “good” - The avg listener or novice musician doesn’t realize the chords/progression from one chord to another are very difficult in some of Prince’s tracks. Not sure if this is due to Wendy being double-jointed, Prince writing songs on Piano first or what. But I am 100% on your side with this. Took me learning multiple tracks in his/their catalogue for me to grasp.

Timing of simple funky riffs, variations on these riffs and surprisingly difficult chords are all small parts of the whole that makes the music and sound more complex.

[TheMrdhyde]

The guitar chords in Purple Rain is some of the most beautiful sounding guitar you will ever hear. ICONIC!!!!

[pagejackson]

Wendy is such an undercelebrated guitarist. I just love her.

[poppycock]

Wendy is just as cool as it gets. Talented and so down to earth.

[KyOte]

Wendy is one of the goats 🐐, don’t get it twisted. Her chord play & rhythm guitar work is legendary. Prince recruited nothing but the best, and she is absolutely in that pantheon. If you think different or want to throw shade on her for any reason, , you’re a fool.

[punkywozza]

Let's not forget that this is the woman who could hang with Prince and sometimes even out shine him on guitar

[peterpedersen]

Would love to see her interviewed by Rick Beato! Get into it real deep and show her professionalism as a player, songwriter, arranger. Always dug her style.

[christopherspillman]

I love her candor and honesty. Not all techs are artists and not all artists are techs. She’s an artist who knows what she wants. I love it