R.E.M.’s Peter Buck Was Given Kurt Cobain’s Fender Jag-Stang Guitar

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Kurt Cobain’s Sonic Blue Jag-Stang Guitar (serial #0000000000-KC) was given to R.E.M.’s Peter Buck by Courtney Love after Cobain died.  Buck can be seen playing it on “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” music video.

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Mike Mills, also from R.E.M., plays this same guitar in concert during the song “Let Me In“, which itself is a tribute to Kurt Cobain.  Here’s a clip of R.E.M. talking about playing Kurt’s guitar on “Let Me In”.

The Fender Jag-Stang is an electric guitar designed by Kurt Cobain, intended as a hybrid of two Fender electric guitars: the Jaguar and the Mustang.  Cobain suggested his idea for an instrument to Fender, resulting in two left-handed prototypes built by former Custom Shop Master Builder Larry L. Brooks, only one of which was ever played by Cobain himself.

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It has been said that the instrument needed much tweaking before Cobain would have been satisfied with it, and it was shipped back to Fender for repairs before Cobain brought it with him on the European leg of Nirvana’s In Utero tour in 1994, where the guitar was seldom played live.  Many believe that Cobain was ultimately unsatisfied with the result and hence never completed revisions for the instrument before his death in April 1994.

Kurt Cobain Was Listening To R.E.M.’s “Automatic For The People” Before He Took His Life


Comments

  1. Matt G. says:

    It's fun to see a right handed person playing a lefty guitar–like a mirror image of Hendrix!

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