Semester in school is over and I'm working on revising and cleaning some of the previous entries. Yes, I know about the Kurt neck that recently hit eBay. I will be posting information about it soon. I purposely avoid making posts of things while they are available for sale. Once the sale is finalized I will post the entry.
This neck was once attached to Kurt's Japanese made Telecaster. Kurt had painted the front of the guitar's body with blue latex paint and etched out "Courtney" and the shape of a heart. The neck is now part of Recordmecca's impressive collection.
"This broken neck is from Kurt Cobain's blue telecaster from the Sao Paulo "Hollywood Rock Festival." I obtained it from Louie Mathieu, who was the Red Hot Chili Peppers' road manager (the Chili Peppers co-headlined the festival with Nirvana, and Louie picked up the neck off the stage when Kurt threw it towards the audience--obviously it didn't make it.) As you can see, it has bits of the blue paint Kurt used to paint the Tele on the sides. Anthony Kiedis of the Chili Peppers talks about Kurt smashing the guitar at the festival and Louie coming away with the neck in his book, "Scar Tissue."
From Louie of the RHCP
"As far as the body of the guitar goes I can't really recall think it was either snatched by the crowd as he threw it out there or remained strewn about the stage? He threw the neck out to the crowd as well but it landed kinda lamely in the no-man's land between the crowd and the stage. I jumped off stage to retrieve it and as I got back up on stage Courtney Love was walking by and I said "Hey, you forgot this" so as not to appear like an over-eager souvenir scavenger. She reached out for it and went "ugh, thanks". Cut to years later I'm at a show and I run into Jennifer from L7 and we're reminiscing about that time and those shows. I mention how much I regretted not having held onto that neck.
She turns to me and says: "I have it"
I say, "What are you kidding me!?!"
She says, "Not at all! Courtney left it in the corner of the dressing room and after taking it to Kurt's tech and determining that it was beyond repair; I took it home."
She then said I could have it back seeing as if it hadn't been for me it would have never been rescued."
Jeff from Recordmecca was awesome enough to provide numerous close ups of the neck. You can check out the collection of photographs here. Recordmecca also owns "Sky Stang III" which is on public display at the RRHOF in Cleveland. Thanks to Jeff, a revised entry for Sky Stang III is in the works!
Louie deserves a special thanks for sharing his story and placing the neck in proper hands. He also sent in photographs of the neck. You can check out Lou's photos here.
Below is the video of Kurt jabbing the Telecaster into the amplifier during Scentless Apprentice @ 3:37.
Sorry it's taking me longer to post. I'm currently in school, broke ($), and my schedule has been constricted. Nonetheless there are about 4-5 entries in the pipeline as well as cleaning up previous entries (fixing links, updating info etc).
Update
All of the embedded videos are now working. YouTube likes to remove them from time to time and our links get lost. If you come across a broken link or missing video please email me.
In Miami 1993 at the Bayfront Amphitheater Kurt pointed out to a green giant Stratocaster on top of the Hard Rock Cafe and said "Hey after the show let's all go over there and throw rocks at that stupid fucking neon rock and roll guitar over there".
Now the Hard Rock has mounted a giant guitar in Seattle. It's modeled after his Competition Mustang.
"I believe I have the guitar case from the smashed Sluggo Mustang. In Oct 1989 Nirvana was on the Bleach European tour with TAD. Tad had no case for his Fender Musicmaster and Kurt gave him a Fender Mustang case. Kurt played Tad's Musicmaster on occasion as stated in the letter of provenounce from Tad. I bought it from Tad Doyle several years ago."
Thank you Mark!
Mark's band, Willard, was very much a part of the Seattle music scene. And we all know TAD's close association with Nirvana. Mark says he has letters from Tad Doyle and Sub Pop regarding authenticity.
This may or may not be the neck from Kurt's Epiphone ET-270 that popped up for sale on eBay in 2009. This guide does not offer a strong opinion either way. It could be real. It could be fake.
The seller pulled most of the photos (including the ticket/flyer) from nirvanaguide.com and did not including any form of authentic certification so there is no telling if it's the real deal or not. The only evidence that shows it may be Kurt's is the replacement tuners.
Update
I received email from readers saying they've communicated with the eBay seller. The seller does not personally have a back story on the neck. They are selling for somebody else under consignment.
Update 2
According to trusted sources "the real neck is documented and accounted for. Currently in a NW collection". I know this was left as a comment below but additionally I've received email with this information.
Update 3
Another reader has brought up an excellent observation. Kurt's Epiphone ET270 was outfitted with Gotoh tuners from the late 1980s/early 1990's. The tuners in the photographs of this neck appear to be Schaller tuners found on Mexican made Fender Stratocasters from the early 2000's. This information cannot be verified and the information is intended for entertainment purposes only.
Update 4
A trusted source pointed out that there are recently (September 2020) surfaced photographs of Kurt playing one of these that appear to have Schaller tuners similar to the ones shown on these photographs.
Disclaimer: This guide is not claiming that this neck is a fake, nor is it claiming that it's real. This guide is only reporting opinions based on observations, not facts. This guide is intended for entertainment purposes only and has no business affiliation with collectors, buyers, or sellers. It was never intended to be any source of such information or a "buyer's guide" for Kurt's guitars. The guide's primary intention is to obtain close up photographs of Kurt Cobain's guitars and speculate as to where they may currently be.
Kurt used this guitar on Nirvana's 1989 US tour. At some point in the northeast part of the tour Kurt had smashed the guitar to the point where it was rendered unplayable. He took it into Mouradian Guitar in MA to fix the broken neck but either did not have the time or the money to go through with the repair.
While in New Jersey Kurt traded his broken Mustang with Sluggo (of the band Grannies and Huballaloo) for a Gibson SG that Kurt ended up painting light blue.
At one point the guitar was on display at the Seattle EMP on loan from Sluggo himself. It was taken off display to be auctioned off. In December of 2008 the smashed guitar made news headlines when it sold for $100,000. It is rumored to be returning there on loan from it's current (private undisclosed) owner for the Nirvana 2010 exhibit at the EMP.
If anyone has more photos of this guitar please send!
The photograph above is from the last show that this guitar was used on (Wilkinsburg, PA 7/9/89). There are no videos of the show but it's assumed that's where the guitar was smashed last. The video below is from a performance on 7/12/89 in Philadelphia, PA. No Mustang, but still a neat insight on this era of the band.
And another great montage of photos from this era.
