"teen sprit" Super distortion ?

[King IzzO)))]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

I dunno, I never thought of that as "great tone", maybe that's my disconnect.

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

Yes, that Japanese silver screw is an key element to his sound, reissues do not sound very good to my hears.

Odd since his was a MIT version...

[inshield]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

Odd since his was a MIT version...

Was it? that is interesting.. where did you get this ?

*edit*

Made a quick search, it seems he was photographed with both versions.

I got a MIJ and a MIT , the MIJ sounds better to my ears, it could be me tho.

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

Was it? that is interesting.. where did you get this ?

*edit*

Made a quick search, it seems he was photographed with both versions.

I got a MIJ and a MIT , the MIJ sounds better to my ears, it could be me tho.

I'm no expert but I remember reading that he only had one DS-1 and the spare was a DS-2...once the DS-1 dies the DS-2 became the go to.

He also referred to the DS-1 in more than one interview as a "cheep distortion box made in Taiwan by Roland".

[Adieu]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

Kurt never really switched to JB, it was an experiment in some one guitar by his tech just a bit before his death. It's Fender + Courtney who decided to stick the $70 market/ who-knows-how-low OEM wholesale JB into his signature, postmortem. Since the Jagstang was incomplete, just a prototype he was unhappy with, at his time of death.

The pups he DID use most are actually DiMarzio H3 (stock fender and ibby OEM pup, sorta like an evo neck supposedly, but hotter) and 2 Texas specials.

Been building a replica of a guitar he used a bunch, the "VANDALISM STRAT" (sticker says Vandalism is as beautiful as a rock to a cop's face, AFAIK, plus he tended to smash this guitar time and again). Ridiculously enough, the project is one step from completion, currently delayed by shipping on goddamn #3-48 machine screws, which are taking TEN DAYS to show up due to holidays and weekends and me being unwilling to pay +30 bucks shipping for ***SCREWS*** (I mean, rly? cmon!!).

Here's what I got so far. Sorry bout the Russian text, I was putting it up with pretty much this info in a Russian online community, plus a bit of a marketing pitch in case somebody wants to buy it off me once I'm done messing around and bored with it, and make it pay for my next project (Russia's a goldmine for flipping guitars if you don't mind shipping know your way around customs declarations and can write russian to talk to customers; reason being their robber baron gov't charges like 50% customs + lots of business taxes on stores and commercial entities, but lets "gifts" under $1k total per month - or was it euro 1k I forget to private individuals - per RECIPIENT through free... plus their distributor networks are silly weak, so many customers can't even buy stuff if they had the cash for their list prices cuz there's nobody selling and no one delivering)

The old trial build - just pups, no cosmetics to spec - with DiMarzio H3 (bridge hum) + Fender USA CS Texas Special Bridge (mid) + Some sort of other Texas-type pup, by looks or output either TexMex mid or GFS Texas neck (neck) FULL ON NAILED IT. every Nirvana sound dead-on just through a Valve Special all 10s except master and reverb into a 1960a 4x12 w/ Greenbacks, didn't even really need to hook up any suspicious crappy orange pedals lol... nailed it SOOO close it shocked me kinda, cuz I got greeady about splitting my Custom Shop Texas set, and left the mid and neck to pair with a spare Air Norton laying around for full set perfection on a more expensive MIJ - and just put in the useless-for-HSS bridge single and some 5.5k Texasy single that could be either-or one TexMex or another GFS. Then again, Kurt and his tech weren't the most meticulous or organized of people, so the so-very-right feel of the bridge in mid might be cause they wired it wrong themselves, or also used leftovers and scavenged stuff. The H3 scavenged from a Heartfield or Ibanez certainly suggests just that.



PS though it might've nailed it so nice cuz, like Kurt's, my bridge humbucker was temporarily TAPED IN for lack of screws, lol. Also why the new correct colour guard isn't on, the body and neck I used are surprisingly pristine didn't wanna take tools to them more often than necessary so I'm waiting up for the shipping to come in already with the pup screws so I can assemble her right in one go. Currenty, the weird look is just the black HSS guard overlaid over the white and not attached or anything, just over the pups under the strings.

PPS the typical Nirvana sound on this axe is Position 2, HS... position 1 is for the duller-sounding choruses and stuff, when the guitar tone has less kick in songs, and position 3 or position 5 provide clean tones for "acoustic". Position 4? I wired that wrong, effin phase haha... will fix and find out when I get everything I need to properly assemble her WITHOUT tape

[Adieu]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

For being an amateur-ish build on a MIM with craigslist parts, it sounds LUDICROUSLY closer to the Nirvana sound than the JagStangs, Mustangs, Jaguars, and JB-loaded strats people have been trying to use... on a total budget like $275 before the pickguard and those thrice-damned pickup screws kicked it up to 300 even. Oh, knobs. 306. Oh, but that's with a pristine hardshell, so not so bad

...and I've even got a spare set of MIM singles and yet another SSS 11-screw guard out of it. If I got greedy and sold off all the extraneous crap (pups, guard, OHSC) I guess it'd drop it back to $200, or even lower. NOT BAD EH?

Oh and before I get all full of myself and entirely forget what this was all about:
SUMMARY: trust me a Super Distortion that ain't. basis - built a guitar that clones one of his axes and nails the sound, and it's not a Super D in any sorta Jag and/or Stang, it's a DiMarzio H3 (OEM overwound Evo neck) in the bridge of a strat, paired in pos. 2 with a Texas Special for the sharper edgier parts, and just the DiM H3 for the choruses and the duller pts.

[Edgecrusher]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

What a shocker! you mean that a cheap cobbled together guitar managed to sound like a cheap cobbled together guitar? No way! a low tech low brow guitar sound should come from low brow equipment

[Myaccount876]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

Why would someone want a Cobain tone? Just muddy noise.

[Adieu]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

It's very plug-n-play, that's why. Turn up distortion and go, clean it up and sing, do whatever. And it's a helluva lot better than any plain stock new MiM, or at least was before Pawn Shop moved countries, dunno how the quality on that is today...

Even a single Fender CS Texas Special coil already clears you outta total cheapo territory, unless you've got an exclusive taste for guitars that cost more than most guy's cars. And it's soldered super-clean, thank you very much, the one difference to Kobain's is mine ain't noisy, not even pushin all 10s on a tube amp. These days, I always try to resolder guitars even newish ones with untouched factory pups, and you'd be shocked HOW MUCH a bit of of heating through a few cold solder joints can do for you on newer sub-1k stuff, or just reestablishing old connections worn down by time and moving around or bouncing too much I guess on vintage gear. Cuz, by resolder, I don't mean dropping in NOS or new vintage-spec period correct materials $25-a-pot snobbery or smthn, just simply making all the connections nice and clean, maybe ripping out some crap wire for normal stuff, only switch out pots if their royally effed up or totally wrong for the pickups to begin with....

Btw, Kobain's tech/roadie guy sucked, and some of the muddy noise they occasionally put out is just buggered up upgrades or fixes. Kurt did, on occassion, manage to sound pretty cool. Check out Unplugged or something, instead of basing overall judgment on some crap track recorded on busted up pawn shop purchases via some Sanyo cassette deck while drunk or stoned in someone's garage. Nobody sounds good like that, it's just that unless you get real famous and then real dead, no one's ever airing out that dirty laundry of yours

Built it cause I accidentally found that I had the exact three pups and black strat needed and was gonna end up building it anyways, Kurt or no Kurt. Just googled how DiMarzio H3's go with Texas Specials after finding a decent pairing between the other 2 texases I had and the Air Norton some guy felt the need to sell to me (for pennies) as part of a "matched set" - yeah right - with the DiMarzio H3 (obviously sold being called something else) and realized that a whole lotta fanboys might find that thing interesting, possibly valuable.... and, in any case, couldn't tear out stock MiM pups fast enough. CERAMIC SINGLES? C'mon, rly? Pff. 2 USA pups + 1 TexMex or GFS clone thereof, why the heck not?

[Adieu]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

Why would someone want a Cobain tone? Just muddy noise.

The OP asked. I built a copy of his guitar - by sheer accident, really, once google told me my choice of pups fretboard and body colour matched, and I was 1 pickup cover 1 pickguard and 3 knobs away from a replica. When I posted it up on a forum, there was quite a bit of attention and even some people toying with the idea of paying me $700 + shipping for it when it's done. The google result I was going on was a fairly big and well-built online community discussing his gear, people building replicas, swapping out Jagstang Mustang and Jaguar pups to various specs supposedly or truly used by Kurt, exploring pup and stombox options to nail various tones, etc.


...All in all, I'd say there's quite a lot of people looking for that sound, whether it's idle curiosity and a love for nifty tinkering projects like mine, 90s nostalgia for others, and even pure full-blown fanatical adoration and hero worship for some.


PLus, it's FUN. And electric guitar's not a one-trick pony... if everyone's tonal whims were the same and everyone aimed for the juciest, purest, harmonic-rich sound, we wouldn't have much too choose from, probably just 12-pounder lesters with pearlies and maple-necked '69 thinline teles w/ texas specials. Cute stuff, but knowing best for everyone else what they need and giving them just that and no "bad" options kinda sounds like communism, and we all know THAT was quite a drag ...Even I kinda prefer my variety today, and I personally was once a proud citizen of the good ol' CCCP, thought to myself there was nothing much wrong with it back then, and have even occasionally missed it since, lol.


.

[79adam79]

Re: "teen sprit" Super distortion ?

I have been trying to replicate the Nevermind sound, and have had some trouble trying to find out if what he used was a Mesa studio .22 PREAMP, or Mesa studio .22 AMP combo.
I read somewhere that Butch Vig said that Kurt's main amp for Nevermind sessions was a studio .22 AMP combo, not a preamp.
So went out and bought one, paired it with a vintage ds-1 *silver screw* and I swear it is the Nevermind sound, works really well paired with a Proco RAT for some songs too. I've never tried the Mesa .22 preamp tho.

As with most studio albums, alot of the sound comes from the recording equipment on top of the gear. I was reading that the AKG 414 mic was one of the mainstays on the guitar cab. Fender Twin re-tubbed w/ Groove Tubes was also used. Plus, the Small Clone he used was the original '70s model. A couple ways to spot it: it says "Mini-Chorus" instead of "Full-Chorus," and the LED is 5mm instead of 3mm.