During the Unplugged sessions Kurt Cobain mentions being offered Lead Belly’s guitar for $500k. The guitar he was holding at the time was sold in 2020 for over $6 million, making it the most valuable guitar in the world.
View Reddit by hexarobi – View Source
Sources:
https://loudwire.com/most-expensive-guitars/
https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/320/lot/138597
Ok, now I need to listen to more Nirvana unplugged.
Yeah. Well. He was still an idiot. Left a kid and a wife behind.
I purchased this vhs with my hard earned money. Watched it until it broke. I feel so damn old.
Contrast this clean, acoustic concert to Cobain’s old label mates Tad.
https://youtu.be/RLqO93DLy18
I saw both bands. Tad was amazing except they didn’t have Cobain’s face which is all Geffen wanted.
This is the best unplugged. The man who sold the world is my favorite from this as well as lake of fire.
Best live album ever made damn it . I listen/watch this concert every few months. Timeless.
I believe that Trigger will someday be the most valuable guitar in the world.
seems good
He asked David Geffen to buy it for him
Talk about your all time performances
Always rubbed me wrong that his daughter had to give it to her ex husband.
Justice is an illusion
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/frances-bean-cobain-forced-to-give-up-kurt-cobains-6-million-guitar-in-her-divorce.html/
Nirvana was electric when they was unplugged -Ray Wylie Hubbard
Oh man, peak 90s at 5:51
The guitar is a Martin D-18e which is quite an oddity on its own. They were made in small quantities from 1959 to 1965, and were one of the first attempts at “electrifying” an acoustic guitar. They didn’t have piezoelectric pickups or tiny microphones back then, so they just took two DeArmond magnetic pickups (like you’d find on a solid body electric guitar), screwed them to the top and added the requisite switches, volume and tone controls.
The result was… interesting. It doesn’t sound much like an acoustic guitar, because the magnetic pickups are basically just sensing the strings like an electric guitar. You get very little of the vibrating wood that gives an acoustic guitar its tone.
It’s also incredibly prone to feedback when played at any volume. An acoustic guitar’s top is, by design, very thin and easy to vibrate. With pickups mounted to this thin surface, the sound from a moderately loud amplifier will cause the pickups themselves to vibrate directly, creating feedback. You can actually do some [incredibly cool things with it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5XhhavAo3I), but it can be very hard to control and it’s not what the typical Martin acoustic player wants to deal with.
You can see in the video, there is a modern soundhole pickup installed in Kurt’s guitar. My understanding is that this was used for 100% of his sound during the show and the built-in pickups weren’t used at all.
Obviously, 99% of the $6 million value is due to the owner and its use in an iconic performance. A typical D-18E with no particular provenance and in good condition is worth closer to $15,000-20,000.
I don’t really give a damn about the story, what I love is the song…. and while curt does a good rendition (good for karaoke), the Leadbelly version is truly a haunted, terrible, beautiful thing. It chills me when ol’ leadbelly let’s loose, imagining cold clammy nights out in the pines, his girl walking under a full moon smelling of infidelity. Him questioning her under the bare bulb of their one room shack (or by the flickering kerosene lamp), a revolver on the table.
He offered to buy led bellys guitar for $500,000 and the other person wouldn’t sell
Just dont let Kurt Russell near them.
TIL that songs a Leadbelly cover
This is why Kurt killed himself. Cause he was too sensitive to handle the massive money making machine he was basically a slave to after nirvana broke. I think he would hurt so badly knowing his music and legacy have been monetized in such a grotesque way.
Wasn’t his guitar just a rare guitar to begin with? A Martin D18e? I don’t think they made a lot of them. I’d imagine pairing that with Cobain’s level of fame, and this legendary performance all contributed a lot to the cost. Best unplugged of all time!
Sold to Peter Freedman. Businessman who started RODE microphones.
More expensive than any of the Beatles or Hendrix ones?
Literally just a piece of wood with some metal on it
It’s such a shame he’s gone. Just think of all the songs that we missed out on.
Legend never dies!
This guitar is currently on display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, as part of an exhibition called [Unpopular ](https://www.maas.museum/event/unpopular/), which is about alternative music gigs in Australia in the 90s. It was pretty cool seeing it in the flesh, so to speak.
This unplugged was the holy grail for us late 80’s kids
I wonder how much trigger will sell for when it’s that time.