Kurt Cobain’s Fender Quad Reverb

Kurt Cobain recorded nearly all of In Utero using a battered Fender Quad Reverb combo. The amp was barely functional – only one of its power tubes worked and one of the four 12-inch Utah speakers was blown – yet Cobain liked the harsh, compressed tone it produced when driven hard.

Producer Steve Albini confirmed that they deliberately left the amp unrepaired, preferring its ragged distortion and natural compression. The sessions used the amp’s built-in 4×12 speakers exclusively, with no external cabinet.

He had a couple of amps, a Randall and a Fender Quad Reverb that he mostly used. The Quad had a couple of broken tubes, so its overdrive sound was really raspy and unpredictable. He liked that sound and it featured on pretty much every song.

Steve Albini for Guitar.com

Apart from this amp, Kurt also had a Randal amp, and possibly, a modified Marshall Plexi that he used for clean tones.

On a song-by-song basis, Kurt would decide which amp would be the main sound and which would be the overdub sound, so the Randall, Quad, and one other amp (I forget which) would be done live, the other guitar part overdubbed. I don’t recall there being a Plexi. He did have a Mesa Boogie preamp and power amp as his live rig for touring, and we tried that out but it sounded awful and we never used it.

Steve Albini Reddit AMA