A close-up look at Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E acoustic guitar
Kurt Cobain’s infamous 1959 Martin D-18E, which was sold to Peter Freedman for $6 million, on display in Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.
Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic guitar will be forever associated with the musician thanks to Nirvana’s live 1993 MTV Unplugged performance just months before he died. It would take a further 26 years for the guitar to earn a different type of infamy after Røde Microphones founder Peter Freedman bought it for $6 million, making it the most expensive guitar ever sold.
Freedman planned to use the guitar to help support the arts sector and, good to his word, has begun touring it around the world. I had the chance to take a closer look at the D-18E at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, where it was showing as part of the Unpopular exhibit – an exploration of the alternative music scene in the 1990s.
The exhibit does a great job of capturing the chaotic, stripped down energy of the times with one room showing a small Nirvana performance in Australia recorded on tape, as well as plenty of photos from the era.
Photos from the 90s alternative music scene at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum’s Unpopular exhibit.
However, the star of the show is Cobain’s famed 1959 Martin D-18 guitar, which sits behind a protective glass cage. He didn’t own the guitar for long, purchasing it with its vintage hardshell case at Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles. He customized both the guitar and it case and used it during several performances before his untimely death on April 5, 1994.
I’ve taken several close up photos which you can see below. The guitar has plenty of scratches and damage from its short lifespan as Cobain’s favoured acoustic instrument.
Cobain’s Martin D-18 guitar specs
1959 Martin D-18E
Serial Number: 166854 (No. 7 of 302)
Body Style: Dreadnought
Wood Composition: Mahogany Back and Sides,
Adirondack Spruce Top, One-Piece Mahogany Neck
Design Elements: Two DeArmond Pickups, Three Control Knobs,
Pickup Selector Switch, Tortoiseshell Pickguard
Modifications
Voltage Guitars recut the nut so it could be played left-handed.
The bridge was filled in and routed to insert a new slot for the saddle.
A Bartolini 3AV pickup was added to the soundhole.
The guitar was one of the first Martins to have electric pickups and marked Martin Guitars’ earliest foray into electric guitars.
Guitar case
The guitar is accompanied by a vintage black hardshell case used by Cobain to carry his Martin D-18E guitar. It was personalized by Cobain with a flyer for Portland Oregon based band, Poison Idea’s 1990 album Feel the Darkness. Nirvana and Poison Idea both played at the September 1992 “No on 9” benefit in Portland, Oregon.
The case included three Dunlop 60mm guitar picks, a partial set of Martin & Co. Phospher Bronze guitar strings, and a small black velvet pouch containing silvertone knife, fork, and spoon lapel pins each with pinbacks.
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Cobain’s other live performances with the Martin D-18
09/08/1993 Club Lingerie, Los Angeles, California (Recording + more information)
