Kurt Cobain & His Guitar
By Pappy
A buddy of mine and I were talking about signature guitars and how much I love them. I think they're awesome because of the uniqueness behind them if an artist is actually putting in inputs and the company is actually listening to them and somewhere between conception and production things don't get butchered too badly for cost's sake or "estimated popularity" of the model or whether the 13-year-old down the street can afford it (no offense to said 13-year-old, but if every guitar was aimed at you, there would be a LOT of cheaply-made, horrible playing guitars out there).
He said the best example of a signature guitar comes from Kurt Cobain. He said that Cobain clipped out pictures of parts and glued them together and came out with the Jagstang.
Like this (courtesy of Wikipedia):
Then, somehow someone at Fender caught wind of the guitar (Wikipedia says Cobain approached Fender) and Fender must have looked at the popularity of Nirvana and said it was a good idea and made two prototypes, one blue and one pink.
Now, according to Wikipedia, Cobain wasn't such a big fan of the models, saying that certain parts needed modifications or replacements and eventually he gave up trying to make the guitar better.
The guitar was still released posthumously and eventually it was discontinued. But then there was a huge response asking for it back so it was resurrected and then discontinued yet again. Now here we are, a big milestone in Nirvana's career (20th anniversary of Nevermind being released) and Fender is putting out another Cobain model.
But the interesting thing about it is that they aren't putting out his reportedly popular signature guitar - the guitar he supposedly helped design to match the one in his dreams and glued to a piece of paper. Instead they're putting out a tribute model of the Jaguar he used a lot during his years with the modifications it has that were put there "by the previous owner."
Wait.
Can we just wait a second here and consider this? Instead of putting out a proven guitar model that fans would probably like (especially if it featured a limited finish that was some beautifully underused color that would fit in with Cobain like, say, a light and cheery yellow) and instead opted for a guitar that was used by Cobain and featured mods done by someone else?
Honestly, this guitar doesn't make much sense to me. I mean, logically - sales-wise - it does. There has been a resurgence in the demand for classic guitars and shapes. Add this to the still-going-strong relic business and the apparent demand for guitars that are made to not only look vintage but to look exactly like the owner's guitar and BAM, this model works.
The Jaguar also looks better than the Jagstang, at least to my eyes.
But there are problems with it, at least to me.
1) It's not the guitar Cobain helped design which seems a little messed up. If there were issues (I'm not doubting that input at all - after all, how many sigs get the go-ahead after one pass?) why not look at the inputs Cobain made, fix them, and put out a guitar and say "while we here at Fender have released the Jagstang before, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Nevermind, we went back in the archives and looked at the scribbled, barely legible notes sent in on scraps of paper and fixed the guitar to be more like what Kurt had in mind. God rest his soul." Would that be too hard? I mean, if it's true that he helped design it then it must have meant he would have preferred IT to be put out there with his name attached to it, otherwise he would have pitched a signature Jaguar.
Right?
2) The mods. On Fender's website describing the guitar they say that a lot of the modifications were made by the owner previous to Cobain. Which means that he didn't make the mods, he just went along with them. Makes sense to me! Going by everything I read about Cobain, he seemed to gravitate to the cheap and just use it. He'd use anything any way he saw fit and nothing about my research made me think he was really big into nailing a specific tone. There wasn't a lot of similar bullet points comparing him to Eric Johnson is what I mean.
3) Price! I'll give Fender this: it has got to be tough to put out relics that are a) cheap and b) quality. The idea of making them all look the same must also be pretty daunting. The Joe Strummer Tele is a great example. It looked nothing like Strummer's Tele, featured a poly finish so it couldn't be any more roughed up than it already was and had a price tag of something like $600.00.
They must have learned their lesson though with this model because Musician's Friend has it listed at $1,299.99. That's surely high enough to get the quality while still considerably lower than what most relics cost, right?
Photo Courtesy of Musician's Friend
Ah! Except the Road Worn Tele features a lacquer body, almost identical wear to each other, great tones and playability and is priced at a penny shy of $900.00. Four hundred bucks cheaper than the price of this Jaguar.
And, on another note, I think there's some merit to putting out a guitar that can easily be wrecked to fit you and display your wear and tear and make it your own. I hear the Highway One series, for instance, has a thin lacquer finish on the body and can show your wear quickly. I don't think this is a bad thing and I would even go so far as to say that this is possibly a good idea for relics. I mean, if the biggest complaint is that they all have the same wear pattern, why not put them out with no wear but easily able to acquire it (advertise it as such, too) and let the player dictate the wear? The Highway One Tele retails from MF at $729.99.
Both the Road Worn and especially the H1 seem to be much more in the ballpark of what I think people would expect from a Cobain sig. Possibly even a tribute guitar. Just close your eyes (after reading this) and think "Kurt Cobain's guitar" and imagine the price tag. How expensive is this guitar, with the name of someone who would scour pawn shops buying the cheapest crap he could to see how it sounded on stage?
I'd say $730 is perfect. I'd even believe $900.00. I may even believe $1,065.76 but that's the high point. Not $1,300. Seems greedy, frankly. Of course, it's not like Cobain's around to argue the price point which brings me to my next beef and that is that Cobain's not around to approve this.
I guess that's a small beef considering the amount of tribute or signature guitars released posthumously - hell, ALL of Cobain's signature guitars have been released posthumously so my beef is even more weak. I just think that there's a difference between continuing the release schedule of a signature guitar already in the process of being made/released, and releasing a completely different guitar.
Honestly, I would have been fine with a reissue Jagstang, even one with all the accoutrements attached making this one more special than the previous offerings, because it makes sense. He helped design it so it would theoretically have mods that he wanted, not ones that he could live with, it sold for a fair price of $619.99 on the street in 1996 ($852.60 in 2010 dollars) without a case and $774.99 with a case ($1,065.76 in 2010 dollars) so everyone could potentially afford it (bonus points go to Fender in 1996 for not insisting on a case but offering it as an option) so it could theoretically be reached, even by the 13-year-old down the street and it would just make sense.
On the other hand, I'm torn because the Jaguar looks better and is more up my personal alley playing-wise.
So many conflicting ideas...
XXX---XXX
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