Nirvana

Nirvana formed in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987, when Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic began playing together in various configurations before settling on a lineup. Dave Grohl joined as drummer in 1990. The band had released one album on Sub Pop — Bleach, recorded for $606 — before signing to DGC Records and recording Nevermind with producer Butch Vig in 1991. Nevermind changed the commercial landscape of rock music. It displaced Michael Jackson's Dangerous from the top of the Billboard chart in January 1992 and shifted the center of gravity in rock production away from the polished, compressed sounds of late-1980s hard rock toward something rawer and more dynamic. The gear behind it was more considered than the mythology suggests. Cobain's guitars were Fender offset instruments: a 1969 Fender Mustang and a modified 1965 Fender Jaguar, both student-model guitars available cheaply because nobody wanted them. The Jaguar had been modified with a DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucker at the bridge. His amp rig was a Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp running into a Crown Power Base 2 power amp, feeding Marshall 4x12 cabinets with Celestion G12T-75 speakers. The Mesa's rhythm channel ran clean; all distortion came from a Boss DS-1 pedal — a $50 stompbox — placed before the preamp input. The chorus on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came from an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone. "Lithium" used an EHX Big Muff Pi through a Fender Bassman for a darker fuzz tone. A Vox AC30 handled clean overdubs throughout the record. In Utero (1993), recorded with Steve Albini, took a deliberately opposite production approach — room microphones, minimal processing, Cobain's picking dynamics fully exposed. The gear was similar but the treatment was not. The result was a rawer, more confrontational record that Cobain considered more representative of the band's actual sound. Cobain died on April 5, 1994. Nirvana had been active for seven years and released three studio albums. Their influence on guitar tone, production aesthetics, and the commercial viability of independent-minded rock music is impossible to overstate. Key gear: Fender Mustang, Fender Jaguar, Boss DS-1, Electro-Harmonix Small Clone, Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp, Marshall 4x12 cabinet, Vox AC30, Fender Bassman.