Legendary Tone: Kurt Cobain of Nirvana

Legendary Tone:

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana

I have been a fan of Nirvana since I was a boy, which isn't surprising considering that I am a 90's kid. Something about his raw guitar and vocals stood out to me. Kurt was absolutely one of my childhood guitar heroes.

Cobain was known for playing many guitars but primarily he used his left-handed Fender Mustang. This isn't as well known of a Fender as the Stratocaster, however it was Curt's favorite (specifically his 1969 "Lake Placid Blue" Fender competition Mustang). This is the same guitar seen in the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video. These guitars are most recognizable by the shape and the racing stripes on the body.

For amplification, Kurt mainly used Fender and Marshall. His Marshall stacks are also seen in the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video. As most guitarists do, he used the Marshall stacks for his crunch tones and Fender amps like the Fender Twin Reverb were used for his clean tones. These two amps have been the choice for many classic players. 

For distortion, Kurt experimented with many different pedals his most popular choices was the ProCo RAT and the Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi. These pedals were used by countless "grunge" bands of the era. These pedals have very unique sounds, which is one of the reasons they were so popular. The ProCo RAT is a distortion pedal designed to emulate an amplifier (many say a Marshall) boosting a fuzz pedal. The EHX Big Muff sounds more like a cross between a fuzz pedal and a distortion pedal. These two pedals were primarily used during the recording of the album Nevermind.

Finally, for modulation, Kurt's favorite pedal was the Electro Harmonix Small Clone chorus pedal. This pedal may also be heard on Nevermind. It can be heard on tracks such as the guitar solo on Smells Like Teen Spirit.

While Kurt experimented with different pedals, these pedals will cover more than enough of his famous guitar tones.