Kurt Cobain | Guitar World

Kurt Cobain's stage-smashed Fender Stratocaster sold at auction for $600,000

Is this the most expensive smashed guitar ever sold? Kurt Cobain’s stage-smashed Fender Stratocaster sells at auction for $600,000 – 10 times its initial estimate

By Matt Parker published 22 May 23

The instrument, signed by all three members of Nirvana, er, smashed expectations in the recent sale

Krist Novoselic of Nirvana during MTV Live and Loud: Nirvana Performs Live - December 1993 at Pier 28 in Seattle, Washington, United States.

The 5 Nirvana basslines you need to hear

By Joel McIver published 5 May 23

From Smells Like Teen Spirit to About a Girl, here are Krist Novoselic’s five greatest basslines

Kurt Cobain plays a Fender Stratocaster (left), the aforementioned Stratocaster after it was smashed by Kurt Cobain

A Kurt Cobain stage-smashed Fender Stratocaster is going up for auction

By Jackson Maxwell published 3 May 23

Signed by all three members of Nirvana, the Strat also features a note from Cobain addressed to the Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan

Nancy Wilson of Heart, Nile Rodgers and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain

Nirvana, Nile Rodgers and Heart’s Nancy and Ann Wilson all honored with 2023 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards

By Matt Parker published 6 January 23

The Recording Academy has announced the list of honorees for this year, and it’s studded with iconic guitar talent

Aaron Rash's Kurt Cobain The Engine Pedal

A YouTuber has built a pedal to clone Kurt Cobain’s home demo tone

By Matt Parker published 2 December 22

Producer/songwriter Aaron Rash has hand-wired a pedal he calls the Engine

Kurt Cobain’s Boss DS-1 sells for $75,000 – is this the most expensive pedal sold at auction?

By Matt Parker published 16 November 22

The highly personalized distortion pedal recently went for more than Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys Octavia pedal

Kurt Cobain’s stage-smashed 1973 Fender Mustang sells for nearly $500,000 at auction

By Matt Owen published 14 November 22

The sunburst offset was smashed in 1989, and its remains were swapped for a Gibson SG after Cobain's guitar-destroying performance left him without an instrument to play

Kurt Cobain (left), his battered 1973 Fender Mustang

Kurt Cobain-signed 1973 Fender Mustang – which he smashed onstage in 1989 – goes up for auction

By Matt Owen published 2 November 22

The signed guitar was later exchanged for a Gibson SG, after Cobain's guitar-smashing antics left him without a guitar to play for Nirvana's gigs

Flea (L) and John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers perform during the ACL Music festival 2022 at Zilker Park on October 09, 2022 in Austin, Texas.

Watch Red Hot Chili Peppers cover Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit with John Frusciante on lead vocals

By Michael Astley-Brown last updated 1 November 22

The funk-rockers tackled the grunge classic during a recent show at Flea’s Silverlake Conservatory of Music

Dave Grohl (left) and Kurt Cobain perform onstage at the Reading Festival on August 30, 1992

Watch Nirvana's legendary Reading 1992 set in full in remastered 4K

By Jackson Maxwell published 30 August 22

The band's final UK performance – an explosive 25-song set widely regarded as one of the band's greatest – occurred 30 years ago today

(from left) guitars played by Ace Frehley, George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix

Guitars played by Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Ace Frehley go up for auction

By Jackson Maxwell published 5 August 22

Also going under the hammer is the destroyed neck of a guitar used (and subsequently smashed) by Kurt Cobain

Collection of electric guitars and acoustic guitars

The 12 most expensive guitars sold at auction

By Jenna Scaramanga last updated 21 April 23

Fenders owned by Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, Martins belonging to Kurt Cobain and David Gilmour, and one independently made axe headline the list of most profitable six-strings to go under the hammer

Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang sells at auction for $4.5 million

By Matt Owen last updated 23 May 22

The winning bid from Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay makes the iconic offset the second most expensive guitar sold at auction, overtaking David Gilmour's Black Strat

Kurt Cobain Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang

Bids on Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang have already hit $2 million

By Matt Parker published 11 May 22

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has made a generous early bid to kickstart an auction in aid of his mental health charity Kick the Stigma

The blue 1969 Mustang Fender guitar used by Kurt Cobain in the 1991 Nirvana music video "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is displayed at the media preview of the "Music Icons" auction, at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills, California, on April 11, 2022

Kurt Cobain’s iconic Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang to go on tour ahead of world-first auction

By Matt Owen published 21 April 22

Used in Nirvana's breakthrough smash hit, the guitar's value is estimated to be around $800,000

Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang goes up for auction for the first time

By Matt Owen published 11 April 22

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the guitar – which featured in the iconic 1991 music video – will go towards supporting mental health charity, Kicking The Stigma

Kurt Cobain's final days to be turned into an opera by London's Royal Opera House

By Sam Roche published 7 April 22

Cobain's is “an archetypal story – operas deal well in those”, says ROH composer-in-residence Oliver Leith

30 left-handed guitarists who flipped the instrument on its head

By Jenna Scaramanga last updated 14 April 22

We chart some of the most inspiring southpaws to ever pick up a six-string

Kurt Cobain performs with Nirvana at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota on December 10, 1993

Watch Nirvana cover The Cars at their final show in 1994

By Jackson Maxwell published 1 March 22

Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl played the tongue-in-cheek cover during a scorching 23-song set at Terminal Einz in Munich, Germany – their last concert ever

Fender Kurt Cobain Jag-Stang review

By Chris Gill last updated 12 January 22

Three decades after Nevermind changed the world, Fender resurrects the late Nirvana frontman's signature electric