The guitar that Kurt Cobain appeared with in the music video for “Smells like Teen Spirit” is going up for auction. At a three-day “Music Icons” auction in May, the blue 1964 Fender Mustang is expected to go for as high as $800,000.

“Out of all the guitars in the world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. They’re cheap and totally inefficient, and they sound like crap and are very small.”

I don’t know if I would call the situation ironic, but it is amusing when you consider the indifference with which Kurt Cobain approached the electric guitar; in his playing and choice of instrument. He was not an objectively good guitarist but never pretended to be either. His playing was angry, simple, and raw, with no air of pretentiousness whatsoever. He never made much effort to improve his technical capacity; he eschewed solos (apart from simple melodic lines or frenetic bends) and would often record with out-of-tune guitars. I think he valued musical authenticity above everything else, and he didn’t need anything special to do that.

“I’ve never considered musical equipment very sacred.”

Kurt used cheap, low-quality instruments throughout much of his career (including in the studio) even after he had the means to acquire better equipment.

Here are some of Kurt’s guitars

Harmony Stella 12 -String

For “Something in The Way,” Kurt used this 12 string that he paid only $30 for. The instrument was out of tune for the recording and had just five strings. This same guitar was used for all acoustic parts on Nevermind.

Fender Stratocasters

Kurt used Stratocasters extensively, but he actually favored the models from Japan. One of these instruments was his famous “Vandalism” Strat.

Kurt with the vandalism Strat

Fender Mustangs (A LOT of them)

Kurt had a funny way of showing his love for the Fender Mustang. He played tons of them over the years of differing quality, origin, and colour. However, he smashed more Mustangs than Pete Townshend did Gibson SGs.

The Blue Fender Mustang in question

Martin D-18E

This is the guitar that Kurt used for Nirvana’s legendary unplugged performance on MTV. It became the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction when it went for over $6 million in 2020. This acoustic is one of the nicer guitars that Kurt ever owned. The man who didn’t care about guitars coughed up $5,000 for the rare instrument in 1992. Even by today’s standards, that is a lot of money for a guitar.

With the Martin D-18E

If there is one thing you can take away from Kurt Cobain’s guitar history, let it be that equipment is secondary to the musician who is using it. The ideas and the personality is all in the hands. The guitar is just there to capture it.