But there's another part of this people debate a lot too, did KURT like the guitar? The common consensus is "no". With a misbelief that Kurt "never played it on more than a few songs on one leg of the Nirvana In Utero Tour", and that Kurt never intended to put it on the market, and that it was an "unfinished design". Let's see what's true, and what's not...

First off, let's talk about Kurt's use of the Jag-Stang. I think I really did like the guitar as it was used a lot more than a lot of early 1990's speculation really said he did. He started using it on the southeastern United States (think Florida, Georgia, Alabama) leg of the In Utero Tour, and also used it a lot during the European leg in early 1994, including for almost an entire show in France in late 93'. "But what about the pickups/bridge...yadda yadda"....let's talk about the luthier biz a little.

Fender is a major corporate guitar maker. And there were a couple issues with why Kurt's design didn't have a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker in it stock, or a Tune-O-Matic bridge. If you take a look back, Fender didn't start using their TUne-O-Matic clone, the "Adjust-o-Matic" on any of their guitars until a very small run of Japanese models starting sometime around 1997, which included the Jaguar Special HH (CIJ), and the Courtney Love "Venus" model (Squier's Vista series take on the Mercury guitar Courtney was playing prior).

In the case of pickups, Fender in 1993, was a "DIMARZIO SHOP" - what this means is that they had license from DiMarzio to use DIMARZIO PICKUPS in their production guitars, including even special custom designs. This is very similar to DiMarzio's relationship with Hondo's designer series in the early 80's (PAUL DEAN!!), where you could buy a Hondo with a Samick X14, DiMarzio K10 (an OEM version of the Super II sold in multiple models), and the DiMarzio Super II it seems eeked out on a rare few Hondos as well. In 1991-1992, Fender's signature artist roster included Yngwie Malmsteen, and Ritchie Sambora of Bon Jovi - both of those guys were using guitars with DiMarzio pickups in them too. And if you looked in any Frontline catalogs from the time, you'd notice only ONE 3rd party brand of pickup in use: DiMarzio. And the Yngwie Malmsteen and Ritchie Sambora STratocasters were probably the only two to have DiMarzios in the whole catalog, the rest used Fender Pickups (and I'm not counting the Lace Sensors as 3rd party because they were marketed as "Fender Lace Sensor" pickups).

And when we take Kurt into account. Kurt had at least one guitar with DiMarzio pickups in it that he Loved - his 1966 Fender Jaguar! THE guitar that basically made Nirvana a "Fender Guitar Band" other than his 69' Mustang (which also may have had a DiMarzio Hot Rail in it). So Kurt probably had no qualms with brand just as long as it sounded to his liking at the most extreme. But I also recall Larry Brooks saying "Kurt was Easy to work with", which probably means, he didn't fuss about with pickups as much as say...Steve Vai, who had Ibanez build him something like, five of the same guitar (JEM), and one of those had an "Evolution" Humbucker in it - that became his beloved EVO. Plus, Kurt had a skilled tech in Earnie Bailey - but we'll get to that after we address the bridge.

The Tune-O-Matic thing, kids, is a thing we have in the states called a PATENT. Basically, when a inventor, or a company, comes up with a unique design for a mechanism or some form of functionality that is entirely unique, and doesn't conflict with other patents, you apply for a patent with the US Patent office to protect your invention from other people copying and stealing your design. It's a legally binding thing that allows you to sue people for financial damages, and allows you to license your design out to other companies/people for a financial compensation without risk of conflict between you and someone else claiming they invented the same thing. The Gibson Tune-O-Matic bridge, whether Nashville or ABR style, is a PATENTED invention by GIBSON. And at that time, Gibson didn't let the patent lapse on it. My theory is that the Adjust-o-Matic was a minor risk for Fender at the time so they limited it to Japan who probably has different patent laws (or did at the time), and thusly, could produce a product with that patented part without prosecution. By the time Courtney and the Vista series started - I think the patent had either lapsed, or Gibson just stopped caring about it so much - hard to tell or know, and I'm not spending the time researching it. Basically put, in 1993-1997ish, Fender could not, legally, put a Tune-O-Matic bridge on one of their guitars without paying Gibson a licensing fee or something for it. And while they could have done that on Kurt's personal Jag-Stangs (the first two made), I have a feeling the idea of this being a production model was in the cards from day one. Kurt even hinted at it in an interview in his kinda' funny backwards way. Patents expire every 20 years by the way, so Gibson probably re-applied or recieved the patent (it takes a VERY long time or so I'm told) in the very late 70's maybe? Like say, 1977?

So let's talk about Earnie Bailey, and famous musicians and their guitars. Musicians are still people, just like the rest of us. We have changes in style, changes in taste, and sometimes, even just can't leave anything alone (a feeling I'm well too familiar with as you probably know visiting this site). It is not unusual for a rock musician of much renown to have, even their signature guitars, modified. Just look at all the Ibanez Jems Steve Vai has, and all the variations ranging from Sustainers, pickup variants, there were at least 5 with different pickups that included EVO starting out, even some with wacky tempered tuning necks, and I can't believe that all of that came from Ibanez's custom shop from day one, I'm sure the original path was Vai and his experts having those guitars modified to suit a need or want in the studio or live - and Kurt Cobain was no different, just on a far less focused and deliberate level.

And honestly, the changes employed are "minimal effort" type changes. Basically, you remove the strings, flip the tailbar around with some washers, shim the neck, put in a Tune-O-Matic, and then wire in a 4 conductor Duncan JB pickup where the DiMarzio H3/H8 humbucker was. Then, when it's time to send the guitar back for refinements, they just pulled the TOM, shim, and swapped the pickup back, and shipped it back to Fender, if they even needed to do that. I'm willing to bet all that was just to fit the Jag-Stang on Tour and not have it sound too different from his Mustangs so it could be fit into the set with Orangestang and the Skystangs without a notcieable drop in volume or an extreme change in sound.

Kurt obviously liked the guitar enough to continue working on it until his death. They were about to ship out the second prototype, a Fiesta Red one, in April 1994 when he was found dead, and seeing him use the guitar in france in late 93' or early 94' for almost an entire show means there were at least a couple to several shows where the Jag-Stang was the main guitar in use. That tells me he liked it enough to keep pursuing and improving it. Rumor has it that there was also supposed to be a tummy cut and arm contour added sometime late in the process.

So what about the model released? I think Kurt would have been more than okay with that. To bring one up to HIS specs from a 1995 production model would not take much, just flip the tailpiece, put in a J.B., and a Nashville TOM with a neck shim, and he would have likely been happy even with a basswood body. You have to remeber, this is a guy that initially just used whatever could be bought for $50 in a pawn shop and easily converted to Left-hand use if not left handed, so it's not like he was against modding a guitar. I don't think it's a lack of standards or expectations, but rather, a function of what Kurt said he wanted - a guitar with no preconcieved notions attached. There's no signature on the headstock - not much unlike the Hondo PAul Dean guitars of the 80's - which funny enough....let's dig into that...

Both guitars are a combination two different models or brands. Paul Dean's guitar is a cross between a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster - it has the scale length, pickups, and bridge system, of a customized 70's Les PAul Special with humbuckers, but has a build almost identical to just about any FENDER instrument, with it's own unique part of the design being the chambered neck and tilted headstock (the latter also a Gibson feature). The body is shaped kind of like a Stratocaster, a little bigger, with bulbous horns on it like a Rickenbaker - giving it a very unique, distinct look. The pickups - not far off from Kurt's Jag-Stang as Fender put it together - were DiMarzios, Super II's to be exact, later budgeted down to DiMArzio K10s as an option, or Samick X14s when on a budget - as Samick built most of the Paul Dean II guitars in Korea (though I have some evidence and reason to believe Matsamoku made some of the really nice early ones like mine in Japan - just like...you guessed it, the first three runs of Fender Jag-Stang).

Kurt's guitar combines the size of a Fender Mustang, and the Fender Mustang's upper horn, with the body-lines from a Fender Jaguar on all but one quadrant. THe result is a strinkingly elongated looking guitar that looks funny on a stand, but has a benefit of looking not at all like a toy on someone like me whose built like a damn linebacker, and not looking comically oversized on a person of smaller build. Also, placement of said parts seems to have made the Jag-Stang appeal to women a bit because it's upper horns don't interfere with...well...the softie bits on the upper chest as much as a tradtional guitar would, in that regard it's very similiar to St. Vincent's MusicMan model. THe neck was a key feature just like Paul's guitar - except in this case it was to recreate the feel of a 1960's soft C shape neck with a skinny nut width. Kurt's prototype came from Fender's custom shop with a DiMarzio H3 or H8 pre-production pickup in it, and the production models had a DiMarzio designed humbucker in the bridge not unlike the DiMarzio K10, and later they had a Fender made "Santa Ana" humbucker not unlike the Samick X14. Actually, the K10 and X14 have similiar output, windings, and magnet to the production Jag-Stang pickup.