4.52am Issue: 025 16th March 2017 - The Kurt Cobain Nirvana Issue

FENDER MUSTANG
Kurt Cobain Signature
If the Fender Jaguar was Kurt Cobain’s
ultimate guitar, the Mustang was the one
that he played the most, whether it was
on the recording of ‘Nevermind’ or the
tour for ‘In Utero’, time and again it was
a Mustang you would see him grasping.
In a lot of ways it made sense, like Sonic
Youth found with their adoption of illloved
Jazzmasters the Mustang was
cheap to buy second-hand, easily
modified if you weren’t too precious
about neatness when it came to enlarging
pickup cavities, and it was nice and light
on stage when it came to throw it around
and as a student guitar by design, like the
Jaguar, it has a shorter scale length
which maybe was attractive to Kurt who
wasn’t the tallest of geezers. Who knows.
It was an easy win for Fender to create a
signature/tribute model though, and they
went for it in a big way in 2011 to
celebrate that it was 20 twenty years
since the launch of ‘Nevermind’. They
also selected the perfect colours, which is
never a bad thing.
As with his Jaguar, you quickly notice
that the Mustang was pragmatically
upgraded, this time he retained the
standard Mustang neck pickup (though
rarely used it) and at the bridge the
single coil pickup was replaced, this
time by another classic, the Seymour
Duncan JB..
No surprise that for a light guitar, this
one rocked.
Again and as with the Jaguar the nononsense
addition of an ABR/Adjust-omatic
bridge solves any historical
concerns and other than that it is pretty
standard fare with an alder body,
maple and rosewood neck with a
vintage 7.25” radius and vintage frets.
Even compared to the Jaguar this is a
no-bull guitar and in a lot of ways it is
perfect for the man and the music he
made with it.
You can find out more HERE although
it is no longer available, apart from in
shops where, err, it is.
One cool guitar that really needs to be
re-issued.