Courtney < 3 Telecaster Neck

Fender Telecaster Neck

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.

Sidenote

Video also shows Kurt splitting the black Stratocaster body @ 2:39.

Sources

Louie

Jeff of recordmecca.com

nirvanaguide.com

2.07.2010

Updates for Spring 2010

I have a lot of cool NEW entries in the pipeline!

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 the meantime check out Jaime's entry on Nirvana's Tijuana (Mexico) gig. He has an amazing video of Kurt smashing the Sluggo-trade SG.

Stay tuned. Lots of cool post coming!

1.31.2010

Giant Cobain-inspired guitar marks Seattle's new Hard Rock Cafe

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.

Full article here.

12.19.2009

Case for 70's Fender Mustang

From Mark Spiders of Willard,

"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.