Fender Kurt Cobain Mustang 2012 Fiesta Red Kurt Cobain Nirvana Guitar

This Kurt Cobain Fender Mustang signature is made exactly to Kurt’s specifications in 1993 for the In Utero Nirvana tour. This is another beautifully made and authentic artist endorsed guitar by Fender. The guitar is a wonderful player and has a powerful sound for its size. This Fender Mustang guitar is in excellent condition with minimal play wear.  These guitars are very sought after by Nirvana fans and collectors alike. There is a slight finish crack in the upper neck pocket which are very common with Fender guitars. The lower neck pocket is fine. The headstock has small ding and a couple of tiny scratches. Other than that there are no other chips or dings. These are hands down the best Fender Mustang’s out there. As they have Seymour Duncan JB’s in the bridge for a great fat, raw rock sound, and can be controlled by the sliding tone pick up switches that have been sunken down at Kurt’s request and is a great improvement on the originals which used to poke out and were easily hit when strumming. The guitar comes with the original tremolo arm.

The approximate measurements of the guitar are as follows: The nut width is 41.3mm / 1.625″, the depth of the neck at the first fret is 21.24mm / 0.8365″ and 2.11mm / 0.949″ at the 12th fret. It has a C shape neck profile with a 7.25″ fretboard radius. The frets at 1.93mm / 0.076″ wide and 1.18mm / 0.046″ deep. The guitar weighs approximately 3.455KG. The neck is great to hold nice and slim but not too narrow, just right.

The Fiesta Red Fender Mustang was the first of the Japanese Fender Mustangs that Kurt acquired. The first recored appearance of his Fiesta Red Mustang was on the 23rd July 1993 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York. His ‘Roseland Ballroom’ Mustang was later changed by his Guitar tech Earnie Bailey to have a white pick guard with a full size Black Seymour Duncan JB which is the version Fender based their Kurt Cobain signature Mustang on. Kurt’s Fiesta Red Mustang was named ‘Oranj Stang’ by Kurt and was written on the side of the case and preceded the arrival of the four ‘Sky Stang’s’ which arrived shortly before the start of the In Utero Tour. This Fender Kurt Cobain Mustang is all original complete with the Fender Kurt Cobain Pick guard, pick ups and wiring and is a truly awesome guitar. It’s just an awesome guitar to play and own and you can see why they were Kurt’s stage favourites that he almost exclusively played them from ’93 onwards.

Inspired by Kurt Cobain’s arsenal of modded guitars, the new Fender Kurt Cobain Mustang electric guitar takes you back there, with highly distinctive features including an angled single-coil Mustang neck pickup and ferocious Seymour Duncan JB humbucking bridge pickup mounted directly to the body, dual on-off/phase in-out switches for each pickup, a polyester-finished alder body and an Adjusto-Matic™ bridge with dynamic vibrato tailpiece.

Other features include the classic 24″ Mustang scale length, C-shaped maple neck with urethane finish, 7.25″ – radius rosewood fingerboard with 22 vintage-style frets and vintage-style ivory dot inlays, four-ply Tortoiseshell pickguard, master volume and tone controls, vintage-style tuners, and chrome hardware.

Kurt Cobain liked Mustangs a lot. For one, he preferred offbeat guitars that didn’t cost much and the Mustang certainly fit those two criteria. Also, being somewhat physically diminutive himself, he liked to perform live with slightly more diminutive guitars, like Fender Mustangs and Jaguars, which better fit his hands and his reach.

See for yourself-go back and watch the famous 1991 video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and there he is and there it is slung over his shoulder. Or think back to footage of the ’93-’94 In Utero tour, when he seldom went onstage with anything but a Mustang. Quite often and especially later on, Mustangs were a big part of what Kurt Cobain was all about, musically.

When Kurt Cobain hit the stage in the early 90’s, it was often with a Mustang electric guitar – he was an enigmatic anti-hero figure with an esoteric anti-hero instrument. So it’s with great pride that Fender introduces the Kurt Cobain Mustang, which evokes the man, the band, the sound and the times, and gives an authentically crafted nod to one of the most unlikely guitars to ever find itself at the centre of a musical maelstrom.

Guitar Features and Specifications

Body & Bridge:

• Body Material:Alder
• Body Shape:Mustang
• Body Finish:Urethane
• Bridge:Adjusto-Matic™ Bridge with Dynamic Vibrato Tail-piece
• Pickguard:4-Ply Tortoiseshell

Neck:

• Neck Shape:“C” Shape
• Number of Frets:22
• Fret Size:Vintage Style
• Position Inlays:Vintage Ivory Dots
• Fingerboard Radius:7.25″ (18.41 cm)
• Fretboard:Rosewood
• Neck Material:Maple
• Neck Finish:Urethane
• Nut Width:1.625″ (41.3 mm)
• Scale Length:24″ (61 cm)
• String Nut:Synthetic Bone

Pickups & Hardware:

• Pickup Configuration:H/S
• Bridge Pickup:Seymour Duncan JB Model™ Humbucking Bridge Pickup – Direct Mount
• Neck Pickup:Mustang Single-Coil Neck Pickup
• Pickup Switching:On/Off Slider, In/Out Phase Switch for Each Pickup
• Controls:Master Volume, Master Tone
• Hardware Finish:Chrome