For Sale Cobain Mustang #1 on reverb, updated

Posted on June 21, 2022 by admin

For sale on my reverb page
https://reverb.com/item/56758680-kurt-cobain-custom-1-mustang-thomas-baptist-church-vinyl-soundgarden-decal-univox-custom-pickup

Kurt Cobain Custom #1 Mustang from a 2016 Sonic Blue Classic Vibe

Refinished body slightly reliced Faded Mocha color with Matte finish, Sanded down headstock
Pickguard CNC cut from Thomas Baptist Church record “Where are the Dead?”.
Shielded control plate CNC cut from rare 4 layer pickguard, beveled top edge by hand, left bottom edge straight.
I hand wound a clone Univox early Phase III pickup with 2.93kHz loaded resonant frequency. Unwaxed, lacquer dipped. From analysis of 6 Vintage Univox pickups. More details below.
CTS 500k volume pot, 500k Bourns tone pot, switchcraft jack, 2 way toggle, kill switch in up position.
Vintage Univox Volume and Tone Knobs
Vintage Fender Japanese Tuners pulled from a 90’s guitar.
Mustang bridge posts locked down with plastic tubing, improves tuning stability. Can be easily removed.
Durable Soundgarden sticker made I outlined in Illustrator and made by Stickermule.
Uploaded a video demoing the guitar it has the tremolo arm and updated roller bridge.

Kurt’s modifications
Kurt purchased this guitar at Evergreen State College. He added the control plate and pickup from a Univox Hi Flier Phase III guitar. He added a vinyl pickguard made from a Thomas Baptist record and added a Subpop Soundgarden sticker. He sanded the headstock. Eventually he removed the vinyl pickguard and replaced with a real mustang pickguard and painted green, which can possibly be the one on the cover of Bleach album. Parts of this guitar are in the museum in Seattle. He plays this guitar on the Pine Street live tracks on the Deluxe Bleach album.

The Fluff
The Univox clone pickup has been reverse engineered by analyzing six 1970’s Univox pickups. This took a lot of research and experimenting with wind counts. This clone Univox pickup is based on an early Univox Phase III pickup which differs from the later Phase III and Phase IV humbuckers. It is darker than those pickups, the pole pieces and baseplate are different. The original was unwaxed but I did dip the humbucker coils in lacquer which doesn’t take as much high end compared to wax potting. Squealing is reduced. Single distortion pedals can handle it well, stacking distortions sound pretty good as long as the gain isn’t too high. Not a metal guitar but you can push it a bit.

Kurt placed the pickup very close to the bridge. Bottom half of the humbucker ring was removed and cavity routed with a slight angle with the bass strings closer to the bridge than the treble ones. This has very original sound. Much like a Low Wind Lollar PAF. Chords shine brightly but still has that low end PAF sound. Great for note definition.

PLEASE NOTE
Setup uses Top/Heavy strings 52, 42,30,17,13,10. Nut has been filed down for this setup. If you want to use a thinner gauge setup. Let me know, I’ll can make a new nut. No extra charge. But I feel this setup plays and sounds the best.

For more higher quality images and details of build, check out my shop website from
“Info and policies” page of my shop. It has my webpage site there.

Let me know if you have any questions. FREE SHIPPING! Firm on price.

Thanks!