Bio: Kurt Donald Cobain (born February 20, 1967) was a famous singer, guitarist and front-man of the grunge band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, in 1985. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the longest-lasting being Dave Grohl, who joined the band in 1990.
Nirvana released their debut album called “Bleach” in in 1989, and established itself as part of the Seattle grunge scene. The band became well known all over the country after their second album “Nevermind” in 1991, and their famous hit “Smells like teen spirit”.
Cobain himself often struggled with depression. On April 8, 1994, he was found dead in the greenhouse above his garage at his Lake Washington house. Suicide note has been found next to his body.
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Kurt Cobain’s Electric Guitars:
1969 Fender Lake Placid Blue ’Competition Stripe’ Mustang
One of the Kurt’s personal favorites, the guitar he used in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video. It was purchased just prior to recording “Nevermind”.
1969 Fender Lake Placid Blue ‘Competition Stripe’Mustang
Kurt’s Mustang was lake placid blue with matching headstock. It had two black, single coil sized pickups with a white mother-of-pearl pickguard. The bridge was replaced with a Gotoh Tune-O-Matic (Kurt’s favorite).
Despite being a guitar Kurt took special care of, he did smash it at a show in Dallas in 1991 breaking the neck joint. Eventually Cobain placed his beloved Fender Mustang in storage for the “In Utero” tour. It was rarely used after that, an exception being at the Hollywood Rock Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1993.
Kurt’s Mustang on display in EMP Museum
Kurt’s Fender Mustang is currently on display at Seattle’s Experience Music Project. The serial number is 279651.
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1965 Fender Jaguar
Kurt’s main guitar during the Nevermind era. He purchased it through the “L.A. Recycler” just before recording “Nevermind”. The Jaguar was seen on tours mostly during 1991 and 1992.
1965 Fender Jaguar
Guitar had a chrome Schaller bridge, and a tortoise shell pickguard. The hambuckers were DiMarzio PAF on the neck, and a DiMarzio the Super Distortion on the bridge (it was later replaced with a black Duncan JB). There was also a tape covering the on/off and phase switches which were replaced with a Gibson-style toggle switch
It is believed that Courtney Love gave this Jaguar to Eric Erlandson after Kurt died.
The guitar serial number is 95747.
1965 Fender Jaguar
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Fiesta red Fender Mustang
This guitar first came with a red swirl pick-guard, which was later replaced with white pearl pick-guard. This led some people to believe that Kurt had two red Mustangs.
It was mostly used during the In Utero tour. It had a pearloid pickguard, hambucker mounted on bridge, and a white Seymour Duncan JB Hot Rails on the neck, which was later modified with black pickup cover.
Fiesta Red Fender Mustang
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Sonic blue Fender Mustang
Kurt had three of these guitars, one of them with the serial number 016988.
One had a red-swirl pick-guard, another a matte red pick-guard, and both were modified with a full-sized humbucker on the bridge. These two were used on the In Utero tour, the third one was never set-up and stayed at Kurt’s house.
Sonic blue Fender Mustang
After Kurt died, Courtney gave one of these Mustangs to a boy named Bobby Costello.
One of the Kurt’s Mustangs
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Fender Stratocaster
Kurt used a lot of different Strats. They were mostly Japanese, because of availability and smaller frets. These guitars usually ended up being trashed on the concerts, and reassembled after (if possible). He also used a number of Fender Mexican Stratocasters most fitted with black Seymour Duncan Hot Rails on the bridge.
He had three white Fender Stratocasters. Two of them had Seymour Duncan Hot Rails, the third one was stock, and had the “K” sticker on the pick-guard.
Two of these guitars ended up being trashed, one at the Seattle Center in 1992 and the other one in Argentina.
Kurt’s white strat
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Vandalism Stratocaster
This guitar had a black pick-guard, 2 white single-coil sized pickups and a black humbucker on the bridge, probably a Seymour Duncan JB. Serial number of the guitar is 006414.
It had the sticker saying “Vandalism: As beautiful as a rock in a cop’s face” and “Courtesy of the Feederz: Office of Anti-Public relations”. The guitar had several neck replacement including ones from Fender Japan, Kramer, and a Fernandez Strat neck.
This guitar was smashed in Paris in the spring of 1992 or the winter of 1991, but it was put back together after Kurt’s death by Earnie Bailey, Nirvana’s guitar tech.
“Vandalism” Stratocaster
Kurt also had Black Fender Strat with a white pick-guard two single-coil sized pickups and a full-sized black humbucker on the bridge. with Tune-O-Matic mounted. It was trashed during the recording of “Endless, Nameless” for “Nevermind”, and later put back to pieces ended up looking similar to Vandalism Strat.
Another Black Stratocaster with white pick-guard belonged to Cobain. It had a black Seymore Duncan Hot Rails pickup on the bridge. It was smashed by Dave Grohl at the 1992 Reading Festival, and can be found today at the Boston Hard Rock Cafe.
Cobain’s guitar at Hard Rock Caffe
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Fender Telecaster ‘heart’ Courtney
Japanese-made, with white pick-guard and originally a 3-tone sunburst but Kurt had painted the front of the guitar’s body with blue latex paint and etched out “Courtney” and the shape of a heart. Seen in the “Come As You Are” music video.
Cobain’s blue Telecaster
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1993 Fender Telecaster Custom
This was supposedly the guitar that Kurt wrote his music on from 1993. It was modified by Earnie Bailey. It had Gotoh tuners, Duncan JB black on the bridge, and a Gibson PAF on the neck.
The guitar was sold to a private buyer at rockstarsguitars.com. It still has four of the original strings.
Cobain’s 1993 Telecaster
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Custom Ferrington Guitar
This is a custom build guitar, based on the Fender Mustang, made by Luthier Danny Ferrington for Kurt in 1992.
Part from an article about this guitar:
“I built his guitar to be a lot like that old Mustang, except we used a Gibson-style bridge that’s better at keeping the guitar in tune, and I made the neck a little straighter so that it won’t be so apt to break when Kurt plays it hard. It’s tricky making left-handed guitars, though, because everything on a left-handed guitar is counter-intuitive for me. Right off the bat I made a few mistakes on Kurt’s guitar, so finally I took to labeling all the parts ‘This Side Up’ to remind myself that I needed to do everything backwards. The guitar turned out real well, and a few months later Kurt came by with his wife to pick it up. Just after he started playing it he stopped dead in his tracks and said, ‘This is like my dream guitar!’ His wife asked, ‘Honey, are you gonna trash this one too?’ but Kurt got this horrified look on his face, and in a solemn voice he said, ‘No, this one’s going to be my recording guitar.’ I was tickled to death, and it was incredibly satisfying to hear that I’d hit the nail right on the head”
Custom Ferrington Guitar
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The Jag-Stang
Another custom guitar built for Kobain, this time by Fender. Cobain worked with the Fender Custom Shop to develop this guitar, which was supposed to be some kind of combination of Jaguar and Mustang. It had a Dimarzio H-8 Humbucker pickup on the bridge, and a Texas Special single coil on the neck.
Kurt requested two guitars, one in Solid Blue and one in Fiesta Red. He used the blue one on Nirvana’s 1993 tour.
Here’s Kurt’s drawing on how he wanted this guitar to look like:
Kurt’s drawing of Jag-Stang
And this is how it ended up looking:
Fender Jag-Stang
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1960s Mosrite Gospel
This was one of only two actual Mosrite guitars Kurt owned (other ones were usually a Univox copies). Kurt purchased the guitar in San Francisco in 1990.
It was a factory right handed instrument, so it was modified for Kurt with a strap button added to the treble side horn, and the original metal string guide has been flipped to allow it to be strung left handed.
Mosrite Gospel
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Kurt Cobain’s Acoustic Guitars:
1959 Martin D-18E
Kurt bought this guitar at Voltage Guitar in Los Angeles in the 1993. Martin made only 302 models of this guitar. This one in particular had a serial number 166854. It had a solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and two single coil exposed DeArmond pickups. Kurt also added a Bartolini 3AV pickup.
This guitar is probably most know from Unplugged in New York concert.
Martin D-18E
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1961 Epiphone Texan Acoustic “Nixon Now”
Kurt purchased this guitar in Los Angeles guitar shop. It had a Bartolini 3 AV pickup, and it was Kurt’s main guitar until he started using the Martin D-18E.
Kobain’s Nixon Now Guitar
This guitar was also used as a backup on the recording of Unplugged.
Nixon Now guitar on the recording of Unplugged
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Kurt Cobain’s Amps:
As you may have noticed, Kurt wasn’t really one of those players who stick to one guitar, and one amp. He used a lot of different stuff, and especially when it comes to amps, it’s not easy to name them all, because most of them were used briefly and ended up being trashed or replaced.
- Randall RG120PH
Used during Bleach era. Kurt often smashed these cabinets, so they were replaced all the time with whatever was available at the time.
- MESA/Boogie preamp
This was the amp Kurt used for the latter part of the “Nevermind” tour. He had midrange turned all the way up.
- Crest 4801 Power Amplifier
Kurt really liked this amp, and used it on the In Utero tour. As Kurt’s guitar tech Earnie Bailey put it, it is “the amp that wouldn’t die”.
Kurt’s Crest 4801 Amp
1982 blackface 135-watt “Ultra-Linear” model. It had Groove 6L6′s Tubes. Kurt used it for recording “In Utero” and on “Unplugged.”
Fender Twin Reverb
Some people say that Kurt also used Marshalls, and he did indeed use Marshall cabinets, but as Earnie Bailey his technician said, he really disliked Marshall Amps:
“Regarding the Marshalls, Kurt really disliked Marshall amps. Partly, due to the whole hair metal stigma happening in the 80′s, and he didn’t like the sound of them. I think it was too generic for him. If you recall on his 4×12 cabs, he had his Marshall logos taped over, not removed (which is a simple task), as a statement towards the status associated with owning Marshall gear. Marshall 4×12′s are easy to find whether you are buying or renting overseas. This is a likely reason why he used them considering how often they had to be replaced. Kurt using a Marshall head for a power amp is pretty out there, think about it, a Marshall’s output stage is rather dirty and would be even more so at the volumes Nirvana played at. I brought an old plexi 100 to the Reciprocal session in 1993. It had 6550′s in it and had the gain lowered to sound like a Dual Showman. It took a long time to get him to even try it. Kurt wound up recording with Endino’s Twin again, and Krist used the plexi for bass”
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Kurt Cobain’s Effects:
Boss DS-2 (left) and Tech 21 Sans Amp Classic (right)
Kurt used it throughout “Bleach” and “Nevermind”. He often referred to as Roland EF-1.
Kurt switched to a DS-2 pedal after Nevermind. HIs settings were:
- Level: Max
- Tone: usually around 11 o’clock 11,
- Distortion: to the max but occasionally at about 1 or 2 o’clock in the studio
- Turbo knob was usually set to position one.
Kurt also used this pedal on “Unplugged” for the song “The Man Who Sold the World” .
This was Kurt’s man distortion throughout the “In Utero” tour.
- Electro Harmonix Small Clone Chorus Pedal
One of Kurt’s favorites. He used it on Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, Drain You, and many other songs.
Used for “In Utero” for the “Heart-Shaped Box” solo, “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter,” and “Scentless Apprentice”. Kurt also gad Electro-Harmonix EchoFlanger which has the same basic function as this pedal.
This is the picture of Kurt’s handwritten PolyChorus settings:
Kurt’s PolyChorus settings
Used for recording “Lithium”
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Kurt Cobain’s Picks:
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Kurt Cobain’s Strings:
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