Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain, the late Nirvana frontman, built one of the most widely copied guitar tones of the 1990s with remarkably little gear. Across Nirvana's recordings his distortion came from a Boss DS-1 and later a Boss DS-2, and his chorus from an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone, cheap compact pedals run into modest amps. Guitar World describes the DS-1 as "used on most Nirvana tracks and was a mainstay of Cobain's tone"¹.

Nevermind: Boss DS-1 and Small Clone

For Nirvana's 1991 breakthrough album Nevermind, Cobain's core pedal pairing was the Boss DS-1 Distortion and the Electro-Harmonix Small Clone. Producer Butch Vig's account of the sessions, relayed in Guitar.com's rig rundown, is direct: "we know Cobain used a DS-1 Distortion and Small Clone"³. Dave Hunter, writing in Guitar Player, points to the DS-1 on the album's biggest single: "An iconic example of distortion can be heard on Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' where Kurt Cobain used a Boss" DS-1⁷. A ProCo RAT distortion pedal was also allegedly used on some songs on the album³.

The Small Clone carried the chorus side of the record. Mike at aNaLoG.MaN, whose product page documents the pedal's history, says Cobain "used the small clone for the chorus effects on Nevermind and Aneurysm," the latter recorded in 1990 and later the b-side of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"⁴. Aion FX notes the Small Clone "was most famously used by Kurt Cobain on 'Come As You Are' as well as several other tracks on Nevermind"⁸. EarthQuaker Devices' Dan Epstein puts the album's influence in perspective:

One setting detail survives: Cobain "pretty much permanently had the Small Clone Depth slider in the Upper / High position," according to Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson⁵.

The amps behind the pedals were as modest as the pedals themselves. In the studio, Vig recalls, "Kurt had a Mesa/Boogie, but we also used a Fender Bassman"³. On the tour that followed, Cobain used a Mesa/Boogie Studio preamp with a Crown power amp through Marshall 4x12 cabinets³, and MusicRadar reports he "reportedly turned the midrange up substantially on his Mesa preamps"¹⁰.

His primary studio guitars for the album were a 1969 Lake Placid Blue Competition Fender Mustang and a 1965 sunburst Fender Jaguar³. For the album's closing track, "Endless Nameless," he used a black Strat with a full-sized black humbucker in the bridge³.

In Utero and MTV Unplugged: DS-2 into Small Clone

From In Utero onward, Cobain moved to the Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion while keeping the Small Clone. Rhett Shull, in his review video on the DS-1, puts the switch simply: "Kurt Cobain used this from in utero on when you listen to never mind he's using one of these older DS ones"². Guitar World's Alex Lynham notes the connection between the two, describing "the tone of players like Kurt Cobain that had owned and used 1980s units" of the DS-1¹¹. MusicRadar's history of the pedal records that Cobain was "known for prolifically using the pedal around the period of Bleach and then alternating between DS-1 and DS-2 thereafter"¹⁰.

The Small Clone stayed in the chain throughout. aNaLoG.MaN reports that Cobain "began using the Small clone for solos like School, About a Girl, In Bloom, Serve the Servants, etc"⁴. He also used an Electro-Harmonix Stereo Polychorus, a reissue of the classic flanger/chorus pedal, as reviewed by Barry Rudolph¹².

For Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York, recorded in 1993 and released as an album in November 1994, the rig barely changed. Guitar.com's rundown of the show, drawing on tech Earnie Bailey's account, reports that "Cobain also used a DS-2 distortion pedal and Electro-Harmonix" Small Clone⁶. aNaLoG.MaN summarizes the whole chain in one line: "His chain then simply went Guitar - DS2 - Small Clone - Amp. Used on Unplugged too"⁴.

The guitar was different. Cobain played a newly acquired 1959 Martin D-18E for the duration of the show, "which was actually a very rare guitar, only 300 of them are said to have been made"⁶. That guitar sold at auction in 2020 for over six million dollars, the most expensive guitar ever sold. On the amplification side, he "was insistent on running his acoustic through his Fender Twin Reverb, which" he essentially used as a monitor for himself⁶.

The signal chain, era by era

Cobain's signal chain stayed short across Nirvana's career, which is a large part of why players copy it with two or three used pedals. In the In Utero and Unplugged era it was, in aNaLoG.MaN's words, "Guitar - DS2 - Small Clone - Amp"⁴. In the Nevermind era the same slots were filled by the DS-1 and Small Clone³, with a ProCo RAT appearing on some songs³. Guitar World has also highlighted how affordable the setup was, reporting on a Reverb video covering "five of the cheapest pedals from Kurt Cobain's setup and how he used them to craft the band's songs," all under $80 on Reverb at the time¹³.

A few details round out the picture of how he voiced the rig. Beyond the reported midrange boost on his Mesa preamps¹⁰, the Small Clone's depth switch parked in the upper position⁵ is the one control setting consistently reported, and it is the setting players copying "Come As You Are" reach for first.

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