Prince's guitar maker on his axes, and the Superbowl show

Dig, if you will, Andy Beech.

The Bellingham man made 31 guitars for the now-deceased Prince.

Prince was a distinctive performer, and Beech made his guitars distinctive as well.

One of them was the famous "Prince symbol" guitar he played with during the final song of his performance at the Superbowlin 2007.

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"At halftime I'm surrounded by friends and everyone else, and I'm screaming at the TV: 'Play the guitar!'" he told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn.

"And when he brought it out it was way more exciting than the game, even though I'm a huge football fan. That was pretty iconic. It was an epic moment."

Beech has been friends with Ozzy Osborne's guitar player, Zakk Wylde, for many years. It was while Beech was touring as a guitar technician for Wylde that he met technicians working for Prince.

Through that connection, he was asked to design guitars that were "unique" and required a lot of trial and error from Beech.

"Those things could take 100 hours," he said. "You're looking at a full couple of weeks just working on one guitar."

It was a relationship that lasted for many years, but through all that time, he never met the man once.

"It was one of those things where our paths never crossed, really," he said. "I was always talking to management or techs or whatever. It was always one of those things, 'Well, maybe I'll catch up with him next time.'"

Next time never came.

"If you don't think that's a regret of mine right now Ugh. I should'vedone it. I should'vedone it."

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled:Prince's guitar maker talks about fretting over his guitars