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musical instrument details
Kurt Cobain's Stratocaster from the In Utero Tour (Nirvana ; kurt cobain guitar)
Estimated price for orientation: 41 000 $
Category: Electric Guitar
Class:
Description Brand: Fender Body Color: Black Body Type: Solid Body Material: Solid Wood MPN: Does Not Apply Model Year: 1993 Model: Stratocaster Size: Full Size String Configuration: 6 String Country/Region of Manufacture: Japan Dexterity: Left-Handed UPC: Does not apply
Hey everyone! My story with this guitar was all over the news a few months ago (check Rolling Stone, the NME, SPIN, Guitar Part, France3 TV features, newspaper headlines in France, and countless other radio and music websites the world over, or just google : "guillaume enault kurt cobain", and you'll get the story in every language possible), but my auction house failed me miserably, so I thought why the hell not ebay? It's all the best for everyone, as we don't have to pay huge commissions to an auction house. Case in point : if you sell an item 50k hammer price, the buyer will end up paying about 62k, and the seller will only get about 40k. That's a comfortable 22k for the auction house!! My identity was disclosed everywhere (see the picure of my face with my ID), and you can see my face along with the guitar on the TV piece they did about me on French national TV : The story of how Kurt Cobain ended up giving me his guitar at the end of the 16th February 1994 show at Palais Omnisport de Rennes, France, is well-documented, but I'll be happy to oblige if you want more detail. Let me first be very clear : Kurt gave me this guitar AS IS, I have NOT altered it, repaired it, customized it, whatever, in ANY way. Strings, strap, everything is still as it was. So yes it was smashed and broken, but it was repaired by Jim Vincent, Kurt's guitar tech, and put back in the guitar rack. He didn't play it on the night he gave it to me, but came back with it in the pit to give it to me after the encore. As to the technicals of the guitar itself, here's what I can say after extensive research : According to James « Jim » Vincent, Kurt's guitar tech from Dec 93 onwards, Kurt had 5 of these lefty black and white Strats, shipped by Fender specifically for the end of set jamming and destruction during the In Utero Tour. The funny bit of trivia I discovered while researching the origins of this guitar is that officially they're branded as MIM (Made in Mexico) strats, but in reality they're MIJ (Japan) ones ! To my knowledge, everything is stock on this guitar, except from the neck, neck plate and strings of course, which are the first things to break on a guitar, which were repaired by Jim Vincent with some odd parts (the neck is a no-name for instance). The tuning keys are Gotoh though, Kurt's prefered brand. To my knowledge these Strats were not used in 1994, the last recorded use I was able to track down is the 31st Dec 93 show. So they were probably only used during the American leg of the In Utero tour, from early October 1993 to the End of Year show 1993. Of these 5 guitars, at least two were destroyed beyond repair (one of which was sold earlier by Mr Vincent) as can be found on youtube footage, which leaves 3. Still according to Mr Vincent, one was left unused (and is in Cobain's archives, and can be seen at the end of the Montage of Heck Documentary). The one up for grabs here is therefore one of the two remaining. The other one was recently sold by Mr Vincent, but did not have a neck or strings, it was just the body, and had an asking price of 65,000$. Mine is the only one that has been repaired and fully playable. (proof : ) The best quality footage of such jamming/destruction is to be found on the legendary "MTV Live and Loud" concert in Seattle. I'll be happy to answer all questions, as well as provide other pictures, even pictures of the inside of the body, which have never been disclosed on the internet, as well as the under-oath testimonies of my direct eye-witnesses to the event. The guitar will come with pictures of tracked use, the Certificate of Authenticity and the full document registered under oath by the Court Bailiff detailing the events of the night by the eye-witnesses both in English and French). Checks accepted from French buyers. I'll provide free, insured, tracked worldwide shipping to the buyer. Will ship as gift, to avoid the customs taxes .All the docs pertaining to this guitar are available in a google photo album, just message me for the link. It contains : my concert ticket, screen caps of the fb page of the show where people discuss his giving me the guitar, the COA, the Court Bailiff's minutes of the under-oath recordings of the night's events by me and multiple eye-witnesses, plenty of pictures of the guitar under every angle possible, even of the insides and plenty of photos of tracked uses of these four strats.
Description
| Brand: | Fender | Body Color: | Black |
| Body Type: | Solid | Body Material: | Solid Wood |
| MPN: | Does Not Apply | Model Year: | 1993 |
| Model: | Stratocaster | Size: | Full Size |
| String Configuration: | 6 String | Country/Region of Manufacture: | Japan |
| Dexterity: | Left-Handed | UPC: | Does not apply |
Hey everyone! My story with this guitar was all over the news a few months ago (check Rolling Stone, the NME, SPIN, Guitar Part, France3 TV features, newspaper headlines in France, and countless other radio and music websites the world over, or just google : "guillaume enault kurt cobain", and you'll get the story in every language possible), but my auction house failed me miserably, so I thought why the hell not ebay? It's all the best for everyone, as we don't have to pay huge commissions to an auction house. Case in point : if you sell an item 50k hammer price, the buyer will end up paying about 62k, and the seller will only get about 40k. That's a comfortable 22k for the auction house!!
My identity was disclosed everywhere (see the picure of my face with my ID), and you can see my face along with the guitar on the TV piece they did about me on French national TV : The story of how Kurt Cobain ended up giving me his guitar at the end of the 16th February 1994 show at Palais Omnisport de Rennes, France, is well-documented, but I'll be happy to oblige if you want more detail. Let me first be very clear : Kurt gave me this guitar AS IS, I have NOT altered it, repaired it, customized it, whatever, in ANY way. Strings, strap, everything is still as it was. So yes it was smashed and broken, but it was repaired by Jim Vincent, Kurt's guitar tech, and put back in the guitar rack. He didn't play it on the night he gave it to me, but came back with it in the pit to give it to me after the encore. As to the technicals of the guitar itself, here's what I can say after extensive research : According to James « Jim » Vincent, Kurt's guitar tech from Dec 93 onwards, Kurt had 5 of these lefty black and white Strats, shipped by Fender specifically for the end of set jamming and destruction during the In Utero Tour. The funny bit of trivia I discovered while researching the origins of this guitar is that officially they're branded as MIM (Made in Mexico) strats, but in reality they're MIJ (Japan) ones ! To my knowledge, everything is stock on this guitar, except from the neck, neck plate and strings of course, which are the first things to break on a guitar, which were repaired by Jim Vincent with some odd parts (the neck is a no-name for instance). The tuning keys are Gotoh though, Kurt's prefered brand. To my knowledge these Strats were not used in 1994, the last recorded use I was able to track down is the 31st Dec 93 show. So they were probably only used during the American leg of the In Utero tour, from early October 1993 to the End of Year show 1993. Of these 5 guitars, at least two were destroyed beyond repair (one of which was sold earlier by Mr Vincent) as can be found on youtube footage, which leaves 3. Still according to Mr Vincent, one was left unused (and is in Cobain's archives, and can be seen at the end of the Montage of Heck Documentary). The one up for grabs here is therefore one of the two remaining. The other one was recently sold by Mr Vincent, but did not have a neck or strings, it was just the body, and had an asking price of 65,000$. Mine is the only one that has been repaired and fully playable. (proof : ) The best quality footage of such jamming/destruction is to be found on the legendary "MTV Live and Loud" concert in Seattle. I'll be happy to answer all questions, as well as provide other pictures, even pictures of the inside of the body, which have never been disclosed on the internet, as well as the under-oath testimonies of my direct eye-witnesses to the event. The guitar will come with pictures of tracked use, the Certificate of Authenticity and the full document registered under oath by the Court Bailiff detailing the events of the night by the eye-witnesses both in English and French). Checks accepted from French buyers. I'll provide free, insured, tracked worldwide shipping to the buyer. Will ship as gift, to avoid the customs taxes .All the docs pertaining to this guitar are available in a google photo album, just message me for the link. It contains : my concert ticket, screen caps of the fb page of the show where people discuss his giving me the guitar, the COA, the Court Bailiff's minutes of the under-oath recordings of the night's events by me and multiple eye-witnesses, plenty of pictures of the guitar under every angle possible, even of the insides and plenty of photos of tracked uses of these four strats.