Kurt Cobain MTV Unplugged 1959 Martin D-18E Guitar

Martin's electric experiment

The D-18E was C.F. Martin's early attempt at an amplified flat-top. It took the company's mahogany-bodied D-18 dreadnought and mounted two DeArmond single-coil pickups directly into the spruce top, with three control knobs, a pickup selector switch and a tortoiseshell pickguard. It was one of the first Martins with electric pickups, and it was made only briefly in the late 1950s.

Only 302 were made. Cobain's guitar, serial number 166854, is reported to be the seventh of them. Its body has mahogany back and sides, an Adirondack spruce top and a one-piece mahogany neck.

The factory pickups are also the reason the guitar sounds the way it does on record. Accounts of Cobain's rig say the stock DeArmonds did not sound good with bronze-wound acoustic strings, so a Bartolini 3AV pickup was added in the soundhole, a model Cobain had already tried on an Epiphone Texan.

Kurt Cobain's guitar

Kurt Cobain was born February 20, 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. With Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind and the single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' the band moved from the Seattle underground into the mainstream and made grunge the dominant rock sound of the early 1990s.

Cobain bought the D-18E in early 1992 at a vintage guitar shop in Los Angeles for a reported $5,000, together with a vintage hardshell case. He was left-handed and the guitar was built right-handed, so the shop recut the nut; the bridge was filled and rerouted for a new saddle slot, and a Bartolini pickup was added in the soundhole.

He customized the case too. It carries a flyer from Poison Idea's 1990 album Feel the Darkness, three baggage claim stubs and an Alaska Airlines sticker. When the guitar sold, the case still held a half-used pack of Martin strings, three picks and a suede bag decorated with a tiny silver spoon, fork and knife.

Cobain married Courtney Love on February 24, 1992, on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. Their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born August 18, 1992.

One take in New York

Nirvana taped its MTV Unplugged set on November 18, 1993, at Sony Music Studios in Manhattan. The band rehearsed for two days in Weehawken, New Jersey, sessions later described as tense and difficult, with Cobain suffering from drug withdrawal and nerves. Cobain asked for the stage to be dressed with stargazer lilies, black candles and a crystal chandelier. When producer Alex Coletti asked, 'You mean like a funeral?', Cobain answered, 'Exactly. Like a funeral.'

Pat Smear played second guitar and Lori Goldston cello, and Cris and Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets joined for three of their own songs. Unlike most Unplugged guests, Nirvana filmed all 14 songs in a single take, leaning on covers and deep cuts: David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World,' the Vaselines' 'Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam' and Lead Belly's 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night.'

The set was not strictly unplugged. Cobain ran the D-18E through his amplifier and effects pedals. Coletti later called the arrangement 'Kurt's security blanket' and said you can hear it on 'The Man Who Sold the World.' The episode premiered on MTV on December 16, 1993. Beyond the taping, Cobain played the guitar at a dozen documented shows between September 1993 and February 1994.

Cobain died in Seattle in early April 1994. The album MTV Unplugged in New York came out on November 1, 1994, nearly seven months later. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 310,500 copies in its first week, won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance in 1996, and was certified 8x Platinum in the US in 2020.

A family dispute, then a record

After Cobain's death the guitar passed to Frances Bean Cobain and was kept in a vault in Seattle. Its later path became the subject of a bitter fight. Frances and her husband, Isaiah Silva, split in 2016 after about two years of marriage. Silva kept the guitar, saying it had been a wedding present; Frances and Courtney Love said it was a family heirloom.

In a settlement reported in May 2018, a judge left the guitar with Silva, while Frances kept the couple's Los Angeles house and did not have to pay the $25,000 a month in spousal support Silva had sought. Silva then sued Love and her associate Sam Lutfi, accusing them of trying to kill him to get the guitar back, and Love sought a psychiatric evaluation of Silva in that case. These claims were made in court filings and were not proven.

In May 2020 the guitar was consigned to a music memorabilia auction in Beverly Hills, with a reported pre-sale valuation of $1 million. The seller asked to remain anonymous, though press reports said it appeared to be Silva.

The guitar sold on June 20, 2020, the second day of the sale; some reports give June 19, the date first announced. Peter Freedman, the Australian founder of RØDE Microphones, bought it for $6,010,000. That was the most ever paid for a guitar at auction, far above the previous record of $3,975,000 for David Gilmour's 'Black Strat' in June 2019. Freedman said he would show the guitar in galleries and exhibitions around the world and put the proceeds toward the performing arts.

The record stood for almost six years. On March 12, 2026, in a single auction of a private music collection, Gilmour's 'Black Strat' sold again for $14,550,000, Jerry Garcia's 'Tiger' for $11.56 million, and Cobain's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' Fender Mustang for $6,907,000, which also passed the D-18E as the most expensive Cobain guitar.

How to know it

This is a single, documented object, not a type. Its identity rests on the serial number 166854, the left-handed conversion of a right-handed D-18E (recut nut and rerouted bridge), the added Bartolini soundhole pickup alongside the original twin DeArmonds, and the decorated black hardshell case with its contents.

Later photographs suggest the bridge saddle has since been reversed back to right-handed orientation, so a picture of the guitar today may not match its 1993 setup exactly.

Other D-18Es exist, about 300 of them, and they are not this guitar. The value here sits almost entirely in provenance: Cobain's ownership and the November 18, 1993, performance, the night the world saw it.

The numbers

MTV Unplugged taping

November 18, 1993, Sony Music Studios, New York; 14 songs in a single take

Album release

November 1, 1994; debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200

First-week sales

310,500 copies

Sales by March 1995

6.8 million copies

US certification

8x Platinum (2020)

Grammy

Best Alternative Music Performance, 1996

Timeline

1. 1959

   Martin builds D-18E serial number 166854, reported as the seventh of 302.

2. 1992

   Cobain buys the guitar in Los Angeles for a reported $5,000; the shop converts it for left-handed play and adds a Bartolini pickup.

3. Feb 24, 1992

   Cobain marries Courtney Love in Hawaii.

4. Aug 18, 1992

   Frances Bean Cobain is born.

5. Sep 1993

   First of a dozen documented shows with the guitar through February 1994.

6. Nov 18, 1993

   Nirvana tapes MTV Unplugged in one take at Sony Music Studios, New York.

7. Dec 16, 1993

   The Unplugged episode premieres on MTV.

8. Apr 1994

   Cobain dies in Seattle.

9. Nov 1, 1994

   MTV Unplugged in New York is released and debuts at No. 1.

10. 1996

    The album wins the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.

11. 2016

    Frances Bean Cobain and Isaiah Silva separate; Silva keeps the guitar.

12. May 2018

    A divorce settlement leaves the guitar with Silva.

13. May 2020

    The guitar is announced for auction with a reported $1 million valuation.

14. Jun 20, 2020

    Sells for $6,010,000 to Peter Freedman, a record for any guitar at auction.

15. Mar 12, 2026

    Gilmour's 'Black Strat' sells for $14,550,000, ending the D-18E's run as the auction record.

The world in 1993

• Jan 20, 1993

  Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd president.

• Feb 26, 1993

  A van bomb explodes beneath the World Trade Center's North Tower, killing six.

• Apr 19, 1993

  The 51-day Waco siege ends in a fire that kills 76 people.

• Jun 11, 1993

  Jurassic Park opens in theaters.

• Jun 20, 1993

  The Chicago Bulls win a third straight NBA title.

• Nov 1993

  NAFTA passes the legislatures of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

• Dec 2, 1993

  Space Shuttle Endeavour launches to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Kurt Cobain MTV Unplugged 1959 Martin D-18E Guitar is number 14 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (10 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Martin made only 302 D-18Es; this one is reported to be the seventh built.
• Cobain's 'unplugged' guitar was plugged in: he ran it through his amplifier and effects pedals.
• The guitar is right-handed; it was converted so the left-handed Cobain could play it.
• Cobain asked for stargazer lilies, black candles and a chandelier on the Unplugged stage; when the producer asked if he meant 'like a funeral,' Cobain said, 'Exactly.'
• The case still held Cobain's half-used strings, three picks and a suede bag with a tiny spoon, fork and knife when it sold.
• The $6,010,000 price was roughly 1,200 times the $5,000 Cobain reportedly paid in 1992.
• Its record fell in March 2026, when three guitars, including another of Cobain's, sold for more in a single sale.