Prince's one-of-a-kind gold-leaf Fender Custom Shop Strat is going up for auction

If you weren’t able to scrounge up the more than half a million dollars required to nab Prince’s custom-made and long-lost “blue angel” guitar, which recently sold at auction for $563,500, we have another one-of-a-kind Prince instrument for you.

Feast your eyes on the “Goldfinger” gold-leaf prototype Fender Stratocaster custom electric guitar, used in rehearsals for his Welcome 2 America Tour and played at the kickoff for his tour at the Apollo Theater in New York City on October 24, 2010.

Fender Custom Shop Master Builder Yuriy Shishkov applied gold leaf directly to the body of the guitar, as opposed to simply painting it gold like previous Fender colors such as Shoreline Gold. The guitar also features a highly figured tiger stripe maple neck hand-shaped by Master Builder Greg Fessler, with his signature at the top of the neck.

The concept for the Strat came out of a request from Live Nation asking for a unique guitar that Prince could use for a fundraiser as a kickoff to his tour. 

This prototype was sent to Prince to showcase at his Apollo Theater press conference announcing the tour and charity auction. After the announcement, Prince played the guitar for rehearsals and it was sent back to Fender with his personal specifications that included a new neck profile and his selection of new pickups.

A completely new guitar was then custom built using the prototype and the new specs from Prince.

This original prototype has remained in the case, untouched, since being returned by Prince, who also requested that it never be duplicated.

It comes in a custom "Goldfinger" flight case created by Morris and Holmberg.

The Goldfinger Strat is listed with a minimum bid of $150,000 and is estimated to sell for $200,000 - $300,000.

The auction begins on July 22. For more information or to bid, head to Gotta Have Rock and Roll.