Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E
This Martin D-18E Kurt bought in early 1992 at Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles for $5,000 [Julien’s]. It became one of his best known and most iconic guitars after he was seen performing with it during the MTV Unplugged in New York live album.
Specs
Kurt’s Martin is actually a pretty rare guitar produced only for a year in the late 50s, and it was one of the earliest Martins to feature electric pickups.
Kurt’s guitar, serial number 155864, was just number 7 out of 302, according to Julien’s. Also, the guitar originally came equipped with two DeArmond pickups.
Embed from Getty ImagesRegarding mods on Kurt’s guitar, apparently those stock DeArmond pickups didn’t sound very good with bronze-wound strings that Kurt was using, so his D-18E was fitted with an additional Bartolini 3AV sound hole pickup – which Kurt already tried out on his Epiphone Texan.
The Guitar Today
After Kurt’s passing, it seems that the guitar ended up with his daughter, Francis Bean – however, it was kept at the secret vault in Seattle, together with the rest of Kurt’s belongings.
According to TMZ, in 2018 the guitar ended up with Isaiah Silva, Francis’ ex-husband, as a part of the divorce settlement agreement. Soon after, it was auctioned through Julien’s, and ended up with RODE Microphones founder, Peter Freedman. The final price was $6 million, which makes this guitar the most expensive guitar ever sold through auction at the time of writing this.
Bridge Replaced?
Based on the more recent photos of the guitar, it seems that someone replaced the original bridge. When Kurt played the guitar, the bridge was adjusted for left-hand playing. On left-handed guitars, the bass side of the saddle is angled away from the fretboard, while on the right-handed one, the case is exactly the opposite.
It’s also possible that the old saddle slot was simply filled, and that someone re-cut the slot for right-handed play. In any case, this just goes to show that someone right-handed used the guitar during all these years.
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Courtney played it on Holes MTV unplugged set. She had it changed sometimes before 2/14/95.
I think Flatwound Electric Strings would’ve worked better like the GE140SF
I saw the guitar at an exhibition here in Sydney the other day. Here’s an up close photo I took. If you zoom in you can see a crack and what appears to be where they filled in the old bridge position.
Nice! Yeah, the old saddle slot is clearly seen here – thanks for sending the photo.
Were there any other guitars shown at the exhibition?
There were no other guitars unfortunately. There was a lot of interesting memorabilia from their tour of Australia and footage of their shows here.
I’ve just made the full set replica;)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=91U0SRxhmmM
Lol, that’s amazing, how did you find all that stuff? Even the Tom Peterson watch is there. Also, what did you use as the basis for the guitar – a D-18?
Thanks:)
Full description on my website khristore.com
Ok for the sound-hole pick-up… so what about the other two pickups?! Any information?
Just curious also to know which one he used more often and how the electronic works on that guitar for blending / switching the 3 pickups. Any information or external link would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
The other two pickups are the stock DeArmonds that were already on the guitar.
Oh ok, I’ve read it once more and got it, sorry!
Still doesn’t say how much he originally paid for it!
Is that information published anywhere? I’d be glad to add it, but I couldn’t find it anywhere when I first wrote this.
He bought it for $5.000 (as a vintage guitar) at Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles in 1992…
[From this YouTube video by Darren Julien (2:02): https://youtube.com/watch?v=a5yHjbTWG7A&feature=share ]
Alright, I’ll add that piece of intormation. Thanks!
According to Darren Julien Kurt Cobain bought it for $5.000 at Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles in 1992!
$5,000 in 1992
Think I saw 4/5k is what it sold for in a La.music store in a article related to this story
5k was the price when kurt bought it in the early nineties.
I believe about 5000 dollars he bought it as kinda a oddity
Was it not modified also to accommodate him Playing left handed?
Sorry Dems, I missed your comments. I think, based on the photos, that the guitar was modified for left-hand play when Kurt used it. If you look at the photo of Kurt holding it, you can see that the bridge saddle has more slack on the bass side. But if you look at the more recent photos of the guitar, the saddle is exactly the opposite – more slack on the treble side.
Therefore I think that it now has a completely new bridge on it.
I think his guitar tec changed the nut or bridge for a lefty
this guitar was given to his daughter in the will, when she got older she got married and then had a divorce, the only way for the divorce to go through was her having to give him this guitar unfortunately. he then put it up for auction which came to a grand total of 6 million US dollars, i think it was so wrong and should never of happened.
Actually the story is more complexed, you can find it easy.
Wow bet she is pissed because he sold it and because he got 6M to boot talk about a come up from a break up
This Martin is officialy the most expensive guitar ever sold, it was auctioned for $6 million dollars at Julien’s.
Yup, I’ve just read the release about this. Will update the article.