Kurt Cobain 69 Competition build

gsinky22

Hi,

Just joined the forum. My name is Grant and I live in Dundee, Scotland.

I've always been a huge Nirvana fan, since they exploded in the early 90's. Kurt's basically the reason I'm a huge Fender nut!

Anyway, I'm currently working on a Mustang build and was looking for a little advice please. I've never pieced together a guitar before (wiring wise). I have all of the parts on order, including both pickups, pickguard, trem and machine heads, but I still have to purchase a jack and my volume and tone pots. My question is.............which pots should I buy? I hear alot about people upgrading to 500K's, but I have no idea what they do or if they are suitable for this guitar?

Here's my work so far.............................................

Recently I also finished this. Luckily the pickguard was already loaded and the only wiring I had to do was solder the jack.

HNB

Mustangs normally use 250k pots. It is rumoured that Kurt's mustangs had their stock 250k pots. Hope that helps.

redman1401

HNB said:
Mustangs normally use 250k pots. It is rumoured that Kurt's mustangs had their stock 250k pots. Hope that helps.

kurts in utero ones did because earnie figured they'd be smashed, but with his 69 having a hot rail, i wonder if they had 500k or if they kept the 250k

HNB

Earnie... you mean this guy?

DSC09565 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

In all serious though, got for a sound that you like. Try 500ks. If you like them, keep them. If you want brighter, go 1meg. (Like Kurts Jaguar.) If 500k is too bright, take it down to 250k. 😀 Pots are cheap and easy to change on Mustangs and Jags because of them being on a seperate plate. 😀 Don't even have to take strings off.

gsinky22

Thanks guys. I had no idea they made the guitar sound brighter. Does it matter which brand I go for, or are they all much the same? Thanks in advance. 😀

redman1401

some say it does, i don't really notice it though, i just use cheap asian parts and for my tone and they work just fine for me. Generally speaking, for hot rails, they usually reccomend 250k, but mine run on 500k pots and sound fine to me.

HNB

I don't think brands make much of a difference with pots and such. Pots influence the sound of a guitar a lot. With a bridge humbucker, I would try 500k. If too bassy, go to 1meg. Too bright, turn the tone pot down a bit. If still too bright, go 250k. 😀

redman1401

HNB said:
I don't think brands make much of a difference with pots and such. Pots influence the sound of a guitar a lot. With a bridge humbucker, I would try 500k. If too bassy, go to 1meg. Too bright, turn the tone pot down a bit. If still too bright, go 250k. 😀

exactly, get a set of each, try them out.

gsinky22

Thanks again. Just remembered I have 3 500K pots from an old squier project. I'll give them a go.

This is a great little site. I actually used to own a Jag-stang, but had to sell it to fund a trip.

I'll be sure to update this post with my progress. Think I'm going to have to have a custom decal made up, as I can't find the white fender lettering anywhere:(

TheJagmaster1

gsinky22 said:
Thanks again. Just remembered I have 3 500K pots from an old squier project. I'll give them a go.
This is a great little site. I actually used to own a Jag-stang, but had to sell it to fund a trip.
I'll be sure to update this post with my progress. Think I'm going to have to have a custom decal made up, as I can't find the white fender lettering anywhere:(

welcome to my world! Ive been looking for a decal too! ☹

come to trying to make one on graphic software to sent to someone to make, but I cant get it quite right.

as for pots, I dont really hear a difference in tone, and I went from 1meg on my jag (very sorta on-off without much of a sweep) then went to 250 (more volume i.e, doesnt really clean up whe turned down) and now Im on 500k which is pretty much the characteristics of a 250k being more volume orientated instead of cleaning up, but they give a nice mix between the sweep and the clean, if that makes sense?

on a side note, earnie looks nothing like I imagined!

TheJagmaster1

oh, and what did you do about the neck? is it a refinished mustang neck?

Im considering refinishing a spare neck if I decide to bite the bullet and get a KC mustang but I may age/ fade it a little. Yours looks awesome so far! lots of photos! 😀

redman1401

DanielClark said:
welcome to my world! Ive been looking for a decal too! ☹
come to trying to make one on graphic software to sent to someone to make, but I cant get it quite right.
as for pots, I dont really hear a difference in tone, and I went from 1meg on my jag (very sorta on-off without much of a sweep) then went to 250 (more volume i.e, doesnt really clean up whe turned down) and now Im on 500k which is pretty much the characteristics of a 250k being more volume orientated instead of cleaning up, but they give a nice mix between the sweep and the clean, if that makes sense?
on a side note, earnie looks nothing like I imagined!

the pot difference doesn't clean it up more, the higher the value, the less resistance. a 1meg pot is basically having the full output of the pickup which allows more highs. if you use a 250k with a humbucker, it tends to be alot more muddy. i have experience with this because i had a super distortion in my mustang with 250k pots and my jag has a super distortion with 1 meg and the tone of them was completely different.

gsinky22

DanielClark said:
welcome to my world! Ive been looking for a decal too! ☹
come to trying to make one on graphic software to sent to someone to make, but I cant get it quite right.
as for pots, I dont really hear a difference in tone, and I went from 1meg on my jag (very sorta on-off without much of a sweep) then went to 250 (more volume i.e, doesnt really clean up whe turned down) and now Im on 500k which is pretty much the characteristics of a 250k being more volume orientated instead of cleaning up, but they give a nice mix between the sweep and the clean, if that makes sense?
on a side note, earnie looks nothing like I imagined!

I know what you mean! Luckily, I used to be a graphic designer, so making the decal wouldn't be a problem, but printing with white ink would be. Very few places do, the yellow pages being one of them! I found this place down south. Think I'll be sending the neck there........................http://www.simscustom.com/html/00sprayshop_decal.htm

The neck I imported from the US, and is a Jaguar allparts item. My friend owns a mobile car spraying business and was able to match the colour perfectly. 😀

Oh, I also own a cool jazzmaster copy. Hope you guys like it.........................

johnnynoir

take care about the holes of the control plate. They are too small for some pots like CTS. If they are from a squier i think they match.

if you go with a bridge Hotrail pup, i think 500k is fine.

Maybe you can add an amber tinted lacquer on it. The guitar will look more greeny like the kurt stang in Smells video.

I'm going to do it on my sonic blue mustang (the one on my avatar).

I did a parts stang too:

i'm selling it, low price, contact me if someone is interested. Best mustang sound i ever played 'cause of th good boby wood quality.

gsinky22

johnny noir said:
take care about the holes of the control plate. They are too small for some pots like CTS. If they are from a squier i think they match.
if you go with a bridge Hotrail pup, i think 500k is fine.
Maybe you can add an amber tinted lacquer on it. The guitar will look more greeny like the kurt stang in Smells video.
I'm going to do it on my sonic blue mustang (the one on my avatar).
I did a parts stang too:

i'm selling it, low price, contact me if someone is interested. Best mustang sound i ever played 'cause of th good boby wood quality.

Nice! I always think you appreciate a guitar more when you build it yourself too.😀

TheJagmaster1

johnny noir said:
take care about the holes of the control plate. They are too small for some pots like CTS. If they are from a squier i think they match.
if you go with a bridge Hotrail pup, i think 500k is fine.
Maybe you can add an amber tinted lacquer on it. The guitar will look more greeny like the kurt stang in Smells video.
I'm going to do it on my sonic blue mustang (the one on my avatar).
I did a parts stang too:

i'm selling it, low price, contact me if someone is interested. Best mustang sound i ever played 'cause of th good boby wood quality.

out of curiosity, how much you letting it go for? and are you UK?

TheJagmaster1

gsinky22 said:
I know what you mean! Luckily, I used to be a graphic designer, so making the decal wouldn't be a problem, but printing with white ink would be. Very few places do, the yellow pages being one of them! I found this place down south. Think I'll be sending the neck there........................http://www.simscusto...yshop_decal.htm
The neck I imported from the US, and is a Jaguar allparts item. My friend owns a mobile car spraying business and was able to match the colour perfectly. 😀
Oh, I also own a cool jazzmaster copy. Hope you guys like it.........................

Oh, and if you end up designing one, will you put the template up somewhere? that'd help a tonne! haha

I cant get the thickness of the lines right. I tried tracing the logo from Kurts headstock onto 2d design tools, and then tried colouring it in photoshop. It didnt look as good as expected haha.

where did you get the body from? Warmoth or somewhere? or is it one of those competition body blanks off of ebay that seem to be floating around a bit?

johnnynoir

DanielClark said:
out of curiosity, how much you letting it go for? and are you UK?

no in Lille, north of france. i ask 470€, maybe i can do a special price inc shipping.

gsinky22

DanielClark said:
Oh, and if you end up designing one, will you put the template up somewhere? that'd help a tonne! haha
I cant get the thickness of the lines right. I tried tracing the logo from Kurts headstock onto 2d design tools, and then tried colouring it in photoshop. It didnt look as good as expected haha.
where did you get the body from? Warmoth or somewhere? or is it one of those competition body blanks off of ebay that seem to be floating around a bit?

Will do. It's a genuine Fender Jap reissue, finished in Dark LPB. Yep, ebay purchase! I almost bought a complete one a few years back with matching headstock, then I discovered that those ones were normal LPB. Far too light to match Kurt's. I realise Dark LPB is wrong too, but its a very close match to Competition Burgundy.

redman1401

Kurts was lake placid blue, but being 42 years old its aged. If you look at HNBs photos from the EMP exhibit where it is now, it's dark blue. Completion burgundy is lake placid blue with a bit of purple underneath.