Kurt Cobain's Mutant Guitar

It’s been seventeen years since Kurt Cobain tragically passed away and while he is well remembered for his music few will remember the Jag-Stang, a mutant guitar he created from spare parts of other guitars.

Cobain’s personal Jag-Stang had a Fender Texas special pickup in the neck, a DiMarzio H-3 humbucker pickup in the bridge and the Mustang's "Dynamic Vibrato" bridge placed in the Fender Jaguar body.  The neck of the guitar was a 24 inch short scale from a Fender Mustang.

The Fender Custom Shop built two left-handed prototypes for Kurt, only one of which he ever played.  Kurt was not satisfied with the guitars and sent them back to Fender for revisions prior to the European leg of Nirvana's In Utero tour in 1994.  One guitar was infrequently used on the tour and ultimately he was disappointed in the work Fender had done and he never completed his revisions to the ultimate design.

Shortly after Kurt’s death Fender went ahead with production of the guitars with a single coil pickup and one humbucker, each with its own toggle to switch from on, off or out-of-phase settings.  The guitars were produced in Japan from 1995 to 2001 and later reissued from 2003 to 2006.  The production was generally considered to be low quality and the guitars are more valued for their uniqueness than anything else.

Cobain's Jag-Stang was given to R.E.M.'s Peter Buck by Courtney Love after Cobain’s death and can be seen in the video for "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"