Prince

• Wah parked at varying positions acts as an EQ filter on funk comping — not a sweep effect
• Muted 16th-note funk strumming: dead strings on even 16ths, ring out on rhythmic hits
• Clean Strat or Tele-style pickup for funk: bridge or middle, treble up, bass down
• Hard rock lead tone: switch to neck or middle humbucker equivalent, turn up amp gain
• Prince's vibrato is fast and narrow for sustained leads — less wide than blues players
• Learn both funk rhythm (16th-note muting) and pentatonic lead playing — he switches mid-song
• Thumb-over-neck technique for the low E string adds a warm, rounded bass note tone
• Dynamics: Prince went from almost inaudible to full-volume screaming within single bars
• Study the "Purple Rain" solo and "Let's Go Crazy" outro for the rock side of his tone

Prince is the most complete guitar player in pop music history — rhythm, lead, funk, blues and rock all coexisted in his playing with equal mastery. His custom Cloud guitar through a clean-to-dirty amp, with a wah pedal as a rhythmic tool, created tones from funk-clean precision to explosive rock lead.