Last year on Christmas Eve, I landed my dream guitar. Here's the story of how it went down · 4:41pm Dec 18th, 2019
Did I ever tell y'all about the time a year ago, right on Christmas Eve, when I finally got my dream guitar?
I had mentioned for a long time that I was after a Kurt Cobain signature guitar, his infamous Jag-Stang, preferably in Sonic Blue. It also comes in Fiesta Red, which was the official paint choice for the final product. The blue was only for the prototype when he was testing it in-concert in Munich. Unfortunately, he never got it because he died the day it was meant to be sent to him. It has since been stuck in a glass display case with his other gear in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum, but it had recently been sold at auction for a hefty price tag of between £40,000-£60,000.
Well, the bad part is that I live in England, which means that hardly anybody near me has one. I think only maybe a couple hundred, if that, people have one in the UK. If they do, then they were imported from the US. I've been craving to touch one and play one, to own a unique and highly-collectable guitar ever since I saw one, to the point where I had a dream I was sat playing one on the edge of my bed, the one in red.
I hunted one down on every site I could find, and eBay was the answer, as it turned out. Two years went by and nothing until I saw one that wasn't even twenty miles away from me, not a very long drive at all, just beneath the Humber Bridge. It was the best lead I had that didn't include me paying tonnes for international shipping, customs or pitching in for petrol money, so I took it.
Man, the first time I set eyes on that guitar...wow. Very vibrant colour, weird and wonderful-looking, nice and intact clear coat finish, a little dusty, but smothered in post-punk era glory! The best part was when I turned it over and saw that little printing that said, 'Designed by Kurt Cobain.'
Needless to say, I didn't want to put it down, and the only distraction I had while I was checking it out were the cats the owner had, one of which kept snuggling around my feet and purring while it circled me. The cat also gave me a cute begging face for me to rub its ears by standing on its back legs and propping its paws up and tilting its head at me. So, cute cats and a Jag-Stang? That's my idea of a good Christmas Eve!
With this guitar, I'm planning on keeping it. I traded my Mustang for a Duo-Sonic on my birthday a couple months ago and I regretted the hell out of it, so this one is staying with me. I'm not going to sell it to anyone, privately or otherwise. It'll remain in my collection as both a piece of Kurt Cobain memorabilia and as a main guitar. I'm thinking of using it for a number of my recordings, too. I think it makes sense to record punk rock with a guitar designed and played by a famous punk rocker of one of the most influential and biggest bands of all-time.
If you're a guitarist yourself, then you'll understand exactly how much an instrument means to you. It's only an empathetic quality shared amongst those who play and / or write music. To everyone else, they only see instruments as expensive decorations to hang on walls that look pretty. When you pick it up and learn to play it yourself, then your eyes will open further than you could imagine.
O-Right, I'mma get outta hither.
Merry Shishmash, with love, from The United Dreamdom,
- FireRain 💛
Sounds like a Christmas worth of it's own movie (step aside Ralphey.)