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Kurt Cobain (1967-1994)
His electric guitars
Kurt Cobain played with a lot of different guitars. He smashed about 300 guitars on scene with Nirvana. He first smashed a guitar in a concert in the Evergreen State College, Washington, on Halloween-night, 30 October 1988. He had a couple of beautiful guitars with preference for the Fender Mustang. He didn't like Gibson guitars, but in his beginnings he played with an Epiphone SG and a redburst Epiphone ET270 (this is the guitar which's neck was always replaced).
Epiphone SG:
He liked the Fender guitars because they are light. Except he was left-handed, Kurt had the problem of finding guitars of a good quality for reasonnable price. One of his most famous guitars at the time of "Nevermind" was a Fender Mustang of 1969 in Lake Placid Blue, competition model. You can see the guitar on the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. Normally you could only get this type of guitar in red, orange or white. So Kurt's guitar was a custom model, with the correspondant neck. It had 2 pickups with 2 standard simple bobinns, and a mother-of-pearl pickguard. The bridge was replaced with a Stewart MacDonald Gotoh Tune-O-Matic, this was Kurts favourite. He smashed the guitar in a concert in the Tree Club.
Kurt also had a fiesta red with red-swirl-mother-of-bowling-ball pickguard, which was later changed to white pearl pickguard. It had two black single-coil sized pickups, they were later routed for a humbucker. Kurt received this guitar right before the first Roseland show. It came with a red-swirl pickguard which Earnie Bailey replaced with a white pearl pickguard from Chandler. It was used during the In Utero tour, most often seen with the white pearl pickguard. This was the first Mustang Earnie routed to fit a full-sized humbucker in the bridge. It was fitted with a Seymour Duncan J.B. Kurt later wanted all of his Mustangs routed for the J.B., that is, except for the '69 competition. The March 1995 issue of "Guitar World" magazine mentions Kurt sent out 4 new, stock, Mustangs to be routed for humbuckers. These were sonic blue and one fiesta red. The way Earnie modified these guitars is fascinating:
"First, they had to be cut for the heavier strings. Then, the necks were shimmed for a better bridge angle. Then, Gotoh Tune-O-Matic bridges were installed. Then, Earnie had to modify the tailpieces (large, cylinder-shaped objects that the ball-end of the strings sit in). He removed the two springs (for the vibrato bar) and added washers underneath to the posts beneath the bridge plate, which locked it down to the plate. Basically, this procedure made it solid like a stop tailpiece. This meant that you couldn't use the vibrato bar, which Kurt detested anyways. Last, Earnie flipped the tailpiece around, so instead of having to put the strings through under the bridge, you could stick them right in normally. The ball ends could then fit in the recesses".
He also had 3 sonic blue Fender Mustangs, 2 of them (the ones he used for the "In Utero" -tour) were set up like above. These did Kurt use the most on the "In Utero"-tour.
Fender Mustang:
In the same period he also used a Fender Jaguar of 1965 in Tobacco Sunburst with a red-swirl mother-of-bowling-ball pickguard. This was his main guitar durijng the "Nevermind" era. It had 2 volume knobs, 1 tone knob and a black chrome Schaller bridge. There was tape covering the on/off and phase switches. There are full-sized humbuckers in both the bridge and neck positions, the neck being a DiMarzio PAF and the bridge a DiMarzio Super Distortion until the In Utero tour when it was replaced with a black Duncan JB. Probably he replaced the neck of this guitar.
Fender Jaguar:
He also played with a black Fender Stratocaster with a black pickguard. It had 2 white single-coil sized pickups and a black full-sized humbucker in the bridge, used as early as 1991. It had the sticker: "Vandalism: As beautiful as a rock in a cop's face" and supposedly, "Courtesy of the Feederz: Office of Anti-Public relations". The neck/headstock was replaced with a Fernandes for the 10/31/91 Seattle Paramount Theater show, where it was broken off again and replaced. This guitar was smashed in Paris in the spring of 1992 or the winter of 1991.
Kurt used 5 or 6 black Fender Mexican Strats with white pickguards and black Seymour Duncan Hot rails in the bridge during the In Utero tour, used mostly for smashing. They were pieced back together all the time.
He also used other models, like a white Univox Hi-Flyer, which you can see in the "Heart-Shaped Box" video. He also had a Mosrite, a guitar of the sixties, which he used for the recordings of "Bleach". Kurt's intensive use of Fender began at the time of "Nevermind". Formerly he mostly used Univox guitars.
Fender Stratocaster (Japanese model):
During the "Nevermind"-tour Kurt also used a Fender Telecaster in Sunburst, which he repainted in pale blue. He also had a Sunburst Fender Telecaster Custom. It was send to Kurt by Fender in early 1994. Quoting Earnie Bailey : "Fender sent this out for the In Utero tour to replace the blue one. Stock pickups were very shrill. After Kurt's coma in Rome, I thought modifying this guitar would make it a workhorse and get him away from the Mustang-Jaguar image. Hopefully get him perked up. I put on new tuners (Gotoh's - his favorite). A Tele bridge from Stew-Mac with a Humbucker cut-out and individual saddle for each string. In the bridge, I put a Duncan JB - black, and in the neck, and new Gibson PAF, potted with a Chrome cover. He got this 2 weeks before he died, and said it was his new favorite. He used it for the home recordings he was making with Pat and Eric Erlanderson in March 1994 in Kurt's basement.
After the recordings of 'In Utero" Kurt made a design of the Fender Jag-Stang, a combination of the Jaguar and the Mustang. The upper part is from the Jaguar and the bottom part is from the Mustang. The neck is short, like the Mustang. The pickup by the neck is a Fender Texas Special with a simple bobinn, and the pickup by the bridge is a DiMarzio H-3 humbucker. Each pickup is regulable in 3 phases. The neck is in maple and has 22 frets and is very comfortable to play with. The guitar also has a Tune O Matic bridge (Gibson style). On demand of Kurt the Jag-Stang is only available in Sonic Blue and Fiesta Red. Kurt used a Sonic Blue model for the "In Utero"-tour and some recordings.
His acoustic guitars
For the recording of "Polly" and "Something In The Way", Kurt used an old Stella, a 12-string which he bought for $20. There were only 5 nylon strings on it, which he didn't replace for the recordings. For the unplugged session Kurt mostly used an Epiphone Texan. He also used an Ibanez Custom and a Takamine. He changed it for a right-handed Martin D-18E (the electro-acoustic version of the Martin D-18), a very rare model (there are only made 302 copies of it). The guitar originaly had 2 De Armond pickups (especially for nickel strings), but Kurt installed a Bartolini 3AV pickup because he played with standard bronze strings. Kurt connected it first to a Fender Twin, to create a very clean sound.
Takamine:
Martin D-18E:
His amps
His favorite studio amp was his Fender Twin Reverb. Live he liked Marshall cabinets, but would probably play just about anything.
70's Peavey Vintage 2x12. This was the first amp when he was growing up in aberdeen. It was the tube model with the fake vinyl tweed. His dad gave it to Goodwill, and Kurt was very upset about it. He often cited this as his favorite amp and always was looking for another one.
Randall heads and BFI Bullfrog 4x12 cabinets, Kurt used these in the beginning.
Sunn Beta-Lead head driving Peavey 4x12 cabs was the setup for the Bleach tour.
4 power amps Crown 800-W.
Mesa Boogie (7,8,10) pre-amps.
Mesa Boogie Studio .22 preamp, Crown or Crest 4801 power amp. Pretty straightforward. Powered 8 cabinets. For speakers he had 25 watt Greenbacks, then 75 Watt Celestions, and finally Vintage 30's, which Kurt liked best. This was his live rig for most of the Nevermind tour. He used the Crest power amps up until the end, too.
Mesa/Boogie Mark III head and Marshall 4x12 cabinets.
Fender Bassman amp, he used this for 4 songs on "Nevermind", like "Lithium".
Vox AC30 amp, he used this for a very clean sound.
Marshall Lead 12 "Micro-Stack", he used it in the later period.
! ! ! The Marshall Ministacks with the red trim were for laughs only. Once Kurt said to the crowd "I guess you want to see me smash something, right?" and then threw the mini-stack across the stage. They weren't plugged in ever ! ! !
His effects
Boss DS-1 Distortion, he used this pedal for the recording of "Nevermind" and on tour till February 1992.
Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion, he began using this from February 1992. He also used this on "Unplugged In New York" for "The Man Who Sold The World".
DOD FX69 Grunge pedal, he bought it as a complete joke, Kurt hated it. He threw it out into the crowd on the last tour.
Tech 21 SansAmp ampsimulator, he used this for the distortion.
Electro-Harmonix Small Clone, he used this for the recording of "Aneurysm", it produces the chorus of "Nevermind", like "Come As You Are", the pre-chorus of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and solos like "school", "About A Gril", "In Bloom", "Serve The Servants". He also used this on "Unplugged In New York" for "Come As You Are".
Electro-Harmonix Polychorus, he used this for "In Utero", like the "Heart-Shaped Box"-solo, "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter", "Scentless Apprentice". I'm sure he also used this for "Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Throug The Strip
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, he used this for some fuzz on "Nevermind".
Electro-Harmonix Echo Flanger.
His micros (for the speakers)
Shure SM57.
AKG 414.
Neumann U87, he used this for "Lithium".
Sennheiser 421.
Other stuff:
Tortex red .50 picks, from the factory without logos on it.
Dean Markley 10-52 strings. He used thick strings to create the "grunge"-sound
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