From Leadbelly to Nevermind: History of Kurt Cobain's Stella Harmony H912 | Nirvana Guitar History 6
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- An extensive look at Kurt Cobain's Stella Harmony H912, an acoustic guitar that was used on several recordings including Nevermind, In Utero and Kurt's home demos.
Discussing the mods, the problems, every recording it's on and how it connects to Kurt to his hero: Lead Belly.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
1:58 - Chapter 1: Kurt's "$20 Junk Pawn Shop" Guitar
6:53 - Chapter 2: The Stella in Nirvana
15:08 - Chapter 3: Leadbelly and The Potential Sale
21:07 - Chapter 4: My Stella
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could you try to recreate Nirvana in Japan tone? 1992 tour. It's very dry and doesn't sound like any fender amp. But it is huge and powerful. Same tone can be heard in their Hawaii show in 1992 as well
What nylon strings did you use? I’m getting an H1141 which is the same body shape, pick guard and size as the H912 but it’s red and has a 6 string headstock. I want to make sure I have the right size strings
It’s crazy to think that Kurt actually thought about getting rid of the Jaguar
I know right!? Was shocked when I found that
@@NirvanaGuitars All the same, he might have figured he could always get another Lefty Jaguar.
@@Esteban69129hilarious 🙄
When that shotgun went off (whether Kurt pulled the trigger or someone was hired to is another conversation) the world lost more in that instant than you and all of your descendants could ever provide in 100 lifetimes. Scrub.
@@Esteban69129hahaha ur so funny 😐😐
@@hiiragiryo615what did he say?
This is one of my favorite sounding guitars. It sounds so calming and yet woeful
The Nylon Strings On It Give it a warm and haunting sound.
Hey Eric I am a big fan great video man. Keep up the good work!
@Georgeisjawa wood aging will also contribute to the sound. I had a 67 Kay Archtop that I put electric strings on to emulate Lennon and something about the wood being old caused it to have a darker more natural sound. I've noticed this with many older guitars especially acoustics
@@knives_on_static Thanks for your advice. I will really take this into consideration moving forward. I really appreciate the time it takes for wood to age. Because a great youtuber/luthier from Maryland Brian Gossard once said. "If your acoustic does not sound good today, it will sound better tommorow.", For example when I got my Rouge Dreadnought Acoustic out of the box for my birthday in April it did not sound great, and it was also the strings. But now is sounds great! Thanks for the tips man!
@@knives_on_static Makes me wonder how a 1930s Parlor Acoustic will sound due to its wood being over 82 years old... They seem to certainly have some sort of a poor Great Depression era sound to them, anyhow. The whole poor boy goin' down to play wit th' fellas wit a washbord sound.
@@101Voltslook up 1930s Stella Parlor Guitar by the YT channel Benedict Goodman. They sound fucking amazing.
You can hear the stella clearly in the "Complete In Utero Sessions" boot. What a great sounding bootleg overall, a must listen for all obsessives.
Your channel is better than a museum. I really appreciate the research you put into your videos. I knew nothing about this iconic guitar until I watched this video.
Wow I can’t thank you enough for the kind words 🥹 I really appreciate you watching my videos!
Same, I thought this was a random Pawn Shop Acoustic with 5 nylon strings. But after this video I realized that there was way more than that!
We think of the late 60's as being a really long time ago. But that guitar was really no older to Kurt at the time then someone today playing a guitar built in say the year 2000
We think of the early 90s (i was a senior in high school in 92) as not being that long ago but it was closer in time to the JFK assassination than to present day. My daughter told me that in a effort to make her parents feel old. Cheers
I really love how these old Stella and Harmony acoustics look. Just pure blues shab-charm.
when listening to Dave singing about an old guitar, I instantly thought about Kurt and those demos which I love for their purity. Hopefully next April will be a day things get set right
My friend was able to see Lead Belly’s guitar in person so knowing more about the guitar is so freaking cool
DUDE no way!! I’d love to see Leadbelly’s guitar!!
@@NirvanaGuitars yeah me too and I was like freaking out because he and I are both huge Nirvana fans so knowing that Kurt was going to buy that same guitar is sooo trippy
Leadbelly's guitar without the pickguard has entirely different binding around the body and soundhole- so I'm pretty sure it's a different guitar.
I'm going to be honest. I started listening to Nirvana only 3/4 months ago, before i was just into rock and hair metal but this sort of friendship between Nirvana fans brought me into this fantastic world. I luckily discovered you just after some weeks listening to Nirvana and your videos are always pure gold, especially these long ones.
I don't think there's a more dedicated community than Kurt's and Nirvana's. Just wanted to let you know that your videos are fantastic and thank you for that
Wow thank you so much! From one fanatic to another, welcome to the community 🙂
Welcome to the family! Been in it 30 years now and still listen to them in the car to this day. Pretty crazy really considering there’s so little in the way of studio albums.
Once again, absolutely amazing work. Literally, this is documentary-quality.
I really appreciate that thank you!! 🥹
The fore brother of the H912 is the H922. A true Leadbelly influenced instrument; they can be found if you are persistent , and are reasonably priced. Produced from 1940 to 1964 ish…Cool video!!!
Getting more and more intrigued with every video you make!
Thank god I stumbled upon one a while ago.
The amount of research and effort put into this document makes this, again, a wholesome and educational video to watch.
Music and editing adding to the experience, bringing the guitar and it’s backstory to life!
Awesome video with so much great information! Thank you so much!
Thank you for your work on the history of these guitars! I always enjoy your videos!
Stella is really cool and your sound awesome, thank you for making such cool videos!❤
Hey man! I'm a nirvana fanatic and I came across your channel a couple months ago and holy shit! I love this channel man, you put so much effort into these videos and its amazing, every week I check up on this channel to see if there's a new upload, keep up the good work!
Love your stuff man. Great to hear all these backstories. For Kurt Stella Harmony is like Linus' blanket.
Thanks for sharing
You always blow me away. You are a very special CZcamsr, a true historian.
Bro I'm from Brazil and I'm literally a huge fan of your work. Keep going ❤️
This is so cool! I’m very lucky to have my own H912 😅 I’m so happy you have the passion for the Stella like I do.
You're killing it as always, cheers mate!
Thank you so much! 🤩
Absolutely LOVE your channel !! Love Nirvana, Great Episode ! So glad I found your channel ! Keep up the amazing content and work !!
Thank you so much!! Can't tell you how much I appreciate the kind words and support 🙏
Might be your best video! Thanks a lot
Wow that means a lot!! This one took a lot of time and research, so I'm very happy to hear you enjoyed it 😃
Greta video man! I’ve been binging your videos for a couple days now and for my birthday, I’ve even asked for a Boss DS-2 because of your content.
Thank you so so much for watching!! Happy almost birthday, you'll love the DS-2 for Nirvana tones I hope you get it!
gret video. loved the transition! ;)
This is my favorite music related channel on CZcams please keep doing good videos they are very entertaining❤️❤️❤️
WOW that sincerely means a lot and is an honor 🥹 thank you!
So beautiful this video, brother. Bring so many memories. Even if you are so young, you collect all the correct data we had from Kurt from the 90s. I am.a luthier from Argentina. So good job, man. Congrats.
Thank you so much!
One of your best videos, if not THE best.
Great video dude, as usual.
I always had the same theory about Stella in the friend of a friend verse¡¡ great video as usual =)
Glad to see someone else thought that too! I was worried people would think I'm crazy for presenting that lol 😅
im in the mood to play guitar now! your videos inspire me so much! looking to buy a jagstang 😄
Thank you for these history videos i love them so much
That really means a lot 🥹 They take a lot of time to put together, but I do it for the awesome supporters such as yourself! 🙏
It sounds quite soft, in a nice way. You don't really hear much string noise, and you don't really hear individual strings, it all just blends together in a really nice way. Probably why he loved writing songs with it, I imagine if you're singing while playing it, the chords feel more substantial
Awesome video man! Earned a sub
In regards to the color questions between yours and your friend's H912s, it sounds to me very similar to how the various Gibson Les Paul burst colors developed. When they initially released Sunburst Les Pauls, Gibson only made them in one color, but depending on how these guitars aged as they were used/not used, their bursts would look different, and Gibson would recreate these aged bursts for future guitars. Considering underneath the tailpiece is one of the only spots yours has that orange hue to it, my guesses are that yours probably either sat on a wall opposite a window with sunlight shining on it or had been played outside often prior to being its former owner's wall art. If it was a wall queen, the back being uniformly color aged to the front could be due to hanging on a particularly reflective white wall.
All that said, it's also entirely possible that Harmony just used whatever lacquers, stains, paints, and other finishing products were cheap and could produce results that looked vaguely similar to the photos in department store magazines. Part of the reason many people asked how poorly it played is because Harmony made things to cost, as did many other brands back in the day (Valco made guitars out of fiberglass to save money). My experience with this era of lower cost instruments, even in their intended usecase, is exactly like you've said: Temperamental. One day they can play and sound absolutely incredible, other days they're near unplayable.
Sorry for dropping a master's thesis in your comments, but i figured i'd put my two cents out there
Awesome video, thank you Eric!
I know a lot more about my guitar! I love it so much, that’s my first 12 strings ever and it’s the most beautiful and sounding thing I own 😋
Thank you so much Chris, that means a lot coming from you my friend! Your Stella does sound absolutely beautiful with the 12 strings on it 🤩 Makes me want to get 12 strings on mine after I'm done going full on Nirvana mode with it haha
@@NirvanaGuitars 😋
Another amazing video. Great breakdown
Much appreciated thank you!
Keep rocking. Nirvana is a sensitive subject (as you know) for us die hard forevers. You do it great justice. Can't wait for the next one!@@NirvanaGuitars
This is great work.....huge fan
amazing documentary, thank you
Thank you for watching! 🙂
Best video that nirvanaguitars ever made!!!
Wow thank you so much!! 🥹
thanks for playing and I love her!
Of course! Thinking I'll eventually cover it on it's own with the Stella 😉
@@NirvanaGuitars hey I might be making my own vandalism strat if you're interested in the process? I can send you pictures on Instagram
Amazing video man!!
Thank you so much my friend!
@@NirvanaGuitars of course man! Keep up the great videos
cant wait!
It saddens me that the person who previously owned that Stella had no idea who would buy it and how famous and important it got later on. Even the weird decision to put five nylon strings on it turned out to be quite important.
Similarly, I've seen a few Mosrites of the same model as Kurt's that, although they're sunburst, they aged differently. Some turned more Yellow-ish, while others still look Sunburst. It's usually the 65 - early 66 models (Ventures II version, not Mark V version) that went more of a mustard-y yellow.
Also similar to your Stella, I have a Silvertone 1448 Electric (60s.) It doesn't have an adjustable truss rod, but it has a rod in the neck. The guitar actually goes up or down in tuning depending on the weather. (Humidity related? It goes up in summer, & down in winter.)
A cheap Les Paul copy that I have also went up in tuning, but I only checked it after a few months. The Silvertone, though, can do this in under 2 weeks.
I had no idea Kurt and Led Belly played Stella acoustic guitars. I own a Stella acoustic that I bought from a antique store about twenty years ago.
Rewatched this traveling on business. “Cobwebs in the Soundhole” is an inspiring title for a song 😊
i have one, surprisingly bought it on a online auction for 100 bucks. its really fun to play, i love it
my favorite acoustic has always been a 61' Harmony Master that I got at a small second hand guitar shop for 55$. I did a neck reset, fixed some cracks around f-holes, and replaced a few frets. I've always strung it with nylon core folk strings, and never really needed anything better
My fathers old guitar doesn’t quite look like the Stella but it sounds so CLOSE. unfortunately I broke one it’s strings (it was not the high E string) and I don’t think it’ll sound the same with new ones. Also AWESOME video!
I was wondering if you could try and do verse chorus verse and Old age. The tone on those songs have a special sound to it.
My recreation of Old Age is in my K Strat history video! That one will have it’s own dedicated tone video soon 🙂
By Far and Away some of the best value nylon string plywood violins were the Martin headstock copies from the mid to late 60s. I picked up one for $35 dollars covered in dust with the bridge rattling around inside of the body. Cleaned it, clamped it up and glued the bridge back down with Carpenter's glue, and put a fresh set of nylon on it. An absolute songwriting Beast I use it all the time. Kind of like my trigger. This Stella sounds like it was Kurt's trigger as well.
For people who want to tune their guitars to be more accurate to the Stella, set your tuner to 420hz and tune to Eb and you will get that darker and somber tone from SITW and most of the home recordings and demos (like Do Re Mi for example)
Hey Eric I love your channel!
Me Waiting for history of The Vandalism Strat.
Thank you I appreciate that! I do plan on doing a history video for the Vandalism Strat and the Jaguar, both are just gonna take a lot of research! There's so much to discuss with those two
you can hear it in the second verse of pennyroyal tea’s final mix. hauntingly beautiful
This is interesting because I also had a "junk shop" acoustic with exactly five nylon strings (it wasn't a 12 string though) to which I never added the little E string or changed any of them. My theory is that the previous owner wasn't very knowledgeable about guitars and so just put the wrong strings on. I also loved that guitar for some reason. It had this amazing warm sound to it, and I quickly realized how I could benefit from having only five strings. It may sound like a small difference, or that it isn't a "full guitar," but that lack of a string both can increase creativity by subtly changing chord voicings, and force you to compensate in ways that can lead to pleasant little riff discoveries. It's basically the same concept as experimenting with alternate tunings. Anyway, at the time, I had a regular steel stringed acoustic and an Ibanez electric, and yet I spent way more time on that particular guitar. Sometimes you just find that certain guitar that inspires you or that you're so comfortable with you end up writing a lot of neat stuff on it.
Also, it's no small wonder Kurt wrote a lot of his songs on nylon strings. Nylon acoustics sound badass when you play rock songs on them, especially power chords. They can have almost a gainy punch to them (at least as far as acoustics go) when compared to the same riffs on a steel string. A lot of power chord based songs (or otherwise) translate remarkably well directly to a distorted electric.
Edit: I wrote that before seeing most of the video. I wanted to mention that my five stringer *also* had fret buzz! It was slightly different though, because it was only on one string, which was either the B or G; I can't remember. Like yours, though, it was intermittent so I'd have good and bad days. The buzz was also coming from up there somewhere; either it was something wrong with the notch, or a fret or something. Certain strings would also come out of their notch while playing sometimes.
I also didn't have major problems with intonation or tuning, which is really lucky considering the tension related abuse it'd lived through. The neck may have been all kinds of warped, but I couldn't tell. I've had several guitars that either wouldn't stay in tune, or worse, where you'll have one chord sounding perfectly in tune, but then you play another one and it sounds out of tune; it's just not possible to tune it so all the chords sound in tune. That's the worst.
if I'm not mistaken, a lot of nirvana music is made with guitars tuned in 432hz like "come as you are" which is in "E flat" 432hz and "polly" which is in "E" 432hz
No way amazing video I once seen a Stella I wanted to buy it so bad but it was horrible contention and had marker marks all over.
You never what condition you'll find these guitars in, especially vintage ones!
I’ve never had any trouble with harmony guitars. They’re affordable and sound fine.
It’s not about the guitar anyway. It’s about the inspiration of the player.
the reason yours is orange instead of red is because the red dyes used in most old guitars get washed out by UV light. just look at pictures of '59 les pauls, they all started as cherry sunbursts but depending on how much sunlight they were exposed to they tent to turn more amber/yellow.
I still can't believe I played the same guitar when I was visiting Chris @khristore in France. This guitar sounds magical. Especially when it has all 12 strings on it
How can a video be this interesting
I feel a connection to this guitar purely because you responded to my short about it😂
The connection is real 😉
Good story on Kurt’s five string favorite acoustic.
Very awesome video as always buddy. I have owned a few Stella’s over the years. They always have that Aweosme haunted ghost tone.
The finish seems to vary on these guitars also. I always assumed Kurt’s was more closer to a red burst than a honey
I love this guitar
I have a 1950s Silvertone that belonged to my great grandmother, which has wear marks where her fingernails pressed into the fretboard. I learned how to play guitar on it, and I still have it to this day, and it has a great folksy, bluesy sound, especially in open tuning. It's a bit of a struggle to get it in tune, but it's worth it.
I also have a 1980s Japanese guitar my dad found in a dumpster. I cleaned off the gunk myself, and it sounds great. The tuning peg for the low E broke off a few years ago, so I have to tune that string with a needlenose plier. I call it "The Dumpstercaster".
EDIT: I forgot that it's actually Korean
Honestly man, many of those 70s and 80s Japanese made guitars were better than the American counterparts of the era. Good find.
@@seanmckelvey6618 Oops, I forgot it's actually Korean! Sorry about that.
Thank you for the video. I have one. We call it all by it's other name, H666. We ignored the Cobain history and tried to set it up as a 12 string. We took out the nut and the saddle and replaced them with bone which we cut dead properly. I work with a serious luthier who is the third generation of luthiers in his family. I have also worked with Carlo Greco if that means anything to you. We are not guitar snobs and have a thing for Teiscos and Guyatones. I am happy to play my Gretsches next to any of my restored Japanese guitars understanding what they are meant to do or can be set up to do. We love it.
However the Silvertone has been a bear. It does not like 12 strings. Mind you we are running 12 steel strings. Micah, my partner, and the real luthier between us, says that the neck should be reset. We would do that but we are not sure the guitar was built with hyde glue. So we backed off and I'm about to list it on Reverb.
The thing is that what you are telling me in this is that Cobain used nylons on the neck and that should release tension. I did not know that. That's exactly what we want. We see this all the time in West Virginia. People buy nice classical guitars, put steel strings on them and wonder why the action sucks. We take them home, destring them, let them sit and they often stretch back to shape. I have lost count of how many classical guitars I have found in thrift stores for 10 bucks. The last one I bought for the quality case for 40 bucks. It wasn't until I got it home and realized that it was an early Aria with rosewood sides and back and an early National 5 pole acoustic PU.
So maybe there is hope for this Silvertone. We will destring it, cut another saddle and nut and see what happens. But I'm still going to sell it. Please let me know if you know anybody who might be interested.
i loved the video and the facts and i know it's off topic but have you considered buying a DOD Grunge pedal to recreate tones of Live and Loud?
Use a piece of rolling paper on the nut or bridge to stop the buzzing. I've got a silvertone f hole (probably 40s). It's like an old farm truck: duck tape, twist tie wire, bastard file...bringing one to a luthier would be like taking a timex into jewelry store.
Leadbelly actually had at least three guitars; his last one (the one in the museum), his one he had in prison; and a plain, likely Harmomy model that he was photographed with in Time Magazine.
And as far as the Harmony Stella;
The H922 was introduced in 1940 (only five years after the last Oscar Schmidt Stella 12) with a different (very curvy, figure 8) body, and a thick, baseball bat neck. No truss rod. No pickguard. Old style Stella logo. Very pretty guitar.
Around 1952ish, the body was changed to a more squared shape. I have a 1956 H922, square body but old style, very fat 30s style neck carve and old logo.
Around ~1960, the logo was changed to the more modern script, the neck carve was changed to a fat D/C shape, and a truss rod was added. The finish this entire time was a brown tobacco burst. In around ~65, the H912 was introduced. Same guitar, mostly, but a slimmer neck, slightly different bracing, tailpiece, and finish, and the truss rod is now adjustable as prior it was not.
Always thought I heard an acoustic during the final portion of "All Apologies"! Almost sounds like a percussion instrument.
😮 I'll have to relisten for that!
Very good
Thanks!
never noticed the stella in the 2013 mic of serve the servants wow
For a little while at first I thought it was a cello, but now I'd bet on it being the Stella in the left channel. Really sounds like it to me!
I wish you would make some guitar tutorials for some of the more obscure Nirvana songs
Mate really diggin ur channel can I ask what strings u ended up using on this guitar. Cheers
Something in the ways guitar sound on nevermind is so dark and incredible
You should do the I ❤ Courtney love tele or the blue sg both are my favorites
I have a 1966 Del Rey guitar from an local auction less then $50.00 its in my bedroom leaning on a magazine box, its a sunburst color it will need new nylon strings cause it was stored in a basement in the heat, but its stll ok. Its in good shape, it needs a good cleaning and tuning and its ready to go. It was made in Japan.
I had a 1971 red Guild guitar my mom had bought me on the cheap one Christmas. It had the floating bridge with metal dials for tension. Sure was a twangy thing, but, nobody elses guitar sounded as good , or even anything like it. Probably because it was acoustic/ electric. I had to sell it for $50 during a divorce for gas money to get to work. Life sucks.
Could u do a cover off poison gone I love the tone on that song and wondered wut guitar he used love ur content
Kurt would use pliers to tune up/down by gripping the shaft of the key because the plastic buttons had disintegrated.
Not because the tape was tight as you mentioned.
I've always loved the sound Kurt got from the Stella as it was a piece of garbage nylon string that I "learned" to play on, it also only had five strings.
Those nylon strings last forever and always sound good.
@NirvanaGuitars What Nylon strings did. you use? I’m getting a normal 6 string 70’s Stella and I want to put Nylon strings on it. I don’t know if the Fender Nylon strings are long enough for the guitar (I’ve also never used Nylons before so please help im clueless) and I want to make sure I buy the right ones. Thank you!
this is really random but does anyone know what the machine kurt plugged into his vinyl player in montage of heck?
I don't think that the Stella was recorded seperatelly in Serve The Servants, it's probably a vocal overdub that Kurt recorded with this guitar, it is very common in studio recordings to have multiple tracks recorded with the same vocal line (guitar line, other instruments, etc), it makes the song sound bigger, so not only the electric guitar was overdubed but the vocals as well, of course this is a guess, we cannot know for sure, but it makes sense to me
The unattached bridge design is simillar to Cellos, violins, etc. That's why early jazz guitars also tend to have a arched top.
I always thought that the original version of "Friend of a friend" was recorded with the Stella.
so i’m thinking about getting an h912 to recreate it as well- do you happen to know if there is a tonal or asthetic difference that is unwanted with the reissue as to the original?
Could you do a cover or breakdown on "Big long now" ?
What strings did you use for this? I have an old Kay Music Note I want to bring back to life but the high e string is almost falling off the neck. It might be cool to try this setup on it for fun.
I'm looking forward to October they will release more than 50 new songs and two shows
I don’t believe there will be any new songs, but that the 53 live tracks are new in the sense that they’ve never been released before
Fully agree, it has to be the guitar on Old Age.
Can i ask?
What song is in the last part? (The bit about his stella)
I’m looking to buy a Yamaha acoustic, what strings should I use to get Stella sound?
on one of the deluxe nevermind records, theres a mix of lithium with acoustic guitar in the verses
***disc 2 - Lithium - Smart Sessions
Nice
i love ur videos
Thank you 🥹
I’m not sure if I’m right about this but it could also be on Do Re Mi, All Apologies, and ykyr demos on with the lights out and on the other version of do re mi on montage of heck. I’m closer to being sure about do re mi (with the lights out) because we hear Kurt strumming all of the strings and there is no high E