The truth is you don't need yet another possibly incorrect or incomplete account of Kurt Cobain's Guitar Rig. You just need the right distortion. You could go into detail about the guitars used to play Smells like teen spirit, or the effects for that matter. To get the vast majority of Nirvana songs to sound right. Your guitar rig really just needs the right distortion and a chorus pedal. Is the actual guitar that Kurt played really relevant given the amount of gain and distortion in most of the songs? I'm fully convinced that it is not.
I'm not going to write very much about the gear that nirvana actually used live, and on their records. I think half the fun is to find a sound for yourself. Whether it be your own, or your favorite musicians' grab your guitar turn on your amp, and find the sound you're looking for. If you want to guarantee that you'll sound like Kurt Cobain. Observe the following:
Fender Mustang
Boss DS-1 (or DS-2)Plug those into an amp, and twist some knobs until you get it.
Or visit http://www.kurtsequipment.com/, and read up. Have a lot of money on hand, because most of that gear isn't that affordable.
I love listening to Nirvana, so naturally when I picked up a guitar I wanted to play the nirvana songs. I learned a few, and then I wanted to sound like Nirvana. There are a great many ways to achieve Nirvana like sounds. The important things that you need: a guitar, an amp, distortion. I'm not going to go into detail about the guitars that he actually used. I'm concerned with making a sound come out of my amp that sounds like it could have been nirvana. You can make just about anything sound like Nirvana. It is suggested, but not necessary to use a guitar with humbuckers. Distortion is necessary. Lots of Distortion. See what your guitar amp can offer, you'd be surprised at how close you can come with your amps dirty channel. When I started playing I had one guitar, one amp, and one distortion pedal. None of which, Kurt Cobain ever played live, or in the studio. The distortion pedal never sounded quite right. It was a Danelectro Metal pedal. I don't recall the name of it. The guitar was a Ibanez GAX70, and the amp was a Peavey Rage 158. The amp's dirty could sound very close, but didn't have a footswitch, so in order to go from clean to distortion I needed to use a pedal.
As time went on I decided that I didn't like the pickups that much on the GAX70, so I swapped them out for a DiMarzio super distortion in the bridge, and a PAF in the neck. I know what you're thinking, why put nice pickups in a bargain guitar. Simple, first guitar... can't bring myself to get rid of it. So, that guitar, through a Boss DS-2 turbo distortion. That's how I get my Nirvana like sound. The pickups on the guitar don't really matter. The important part is that you use a ds-1 or ds-2, and a chorus pedal and you're pretty much set. You don't have to have thousands of dollars of gear to get a grunge noise to come out of your amp. You could visit your local pawn shop and pick up any electric guitar, amp, and odds are there is a boss distortion pedal there too.
I'm not that great of a guitarist. I just enjoy plugging in and seeing what I can make come out of the amp. There really aren't that many sounds that you have to create when it comes to nirvana. If you want that heavy grunge sound: Boss DS-1 (or DS-2), guitar, amp. I know what equipment Kurt Cobain used to record and gig. I know I'm taking a lot of things that he had used out. He had an affinity for fender offset guitars, boss distortion was used heavily. Electro-Harmonix Small Clone was used for chorus. There were various other guitars and effects. What equipment do you use to get the right sound? I don't think there is a right answer. There are many sites on out there that will tell you to plug into some expensive Marshall, or buy the latest mustang reissue. Have every one of the effects pedals that he had ever used. That's kind of silly in my opinion. Boss DS-1 is $40 dollars new, and can be had for a lot less on ebay.
I know for a fact that the longer this blog about how to get that Nirvana sound lives on the internet, more people will comment about what he actually did use. How do YOU get your Nirvana-like sounds?
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