Fender Venus Owned by Courtney Love ex Hole Surf Green 1994 Custom Shop Guitar

Here for sale is a Fender Venus in Surf Green Custom Shop guitar from 1994 built by master guitar builder Larry Brooks.

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This is a very special guitar one of the few times Fender produced a brand new body shape which is designed in collaboration with Courtney Love. It takes design styling from a Rickenbacker and a rare model played by Courtney called a Mercury and the end result is the Venus, a true goddess of the guitar world. The finish is a beautiful Surf Green and it has an exquisite neck with a stunning grain. It has a matching Surf green headstock and Sperzel locking tuners. The guitar is very distinct as it does not have a volume or tone knob at Courtney's request, so when playing live there was less to go wrong or knocked onstage and diving into the crowds! Courtney adorned the guitar with very eye catching glitter hearts which can be seen on stage with her at Hole's famous MTV Music Awards in 1995. The guitar has a string through body and currently has a Schaller Bridge which was used for more adjustability as well as the original Japanese made Tunomatic stye bridge. It also features creamy white binding around the neck reminiscent of the classic mid to late '60's Jazzmasters and Jaguars. The guitar is very rare as these Fender Venus' were only ever made for Courtney Love herself and Fender made a run of Squier Venus' which have been very collectable in their own right. The Squier Venus Surf Green model is based on this very guitar. The guitar comes with its original G & G USA made case which was used when it was not in Courtney's touring guitar rack and includes the signed Larry Brooks letter. This guitar was kept with Courtney at her famous Lake Washington home she shared with Kurt Cobain. It even has the last strings on it that were played by Courtney Love also has all of the original pick scratches and other play wear from Courtney. There is a small paint chip on the back of the guitar near the top and a couple of surface dings on the back. At one concert the guitar suffered a partial headstock face split which was carefully repaired by her guitar tech and is completely stable. The neck itself is completely intact and is made of beautiful birds eye maple. A time capsule piece and a genuine piece of Rock 'n' Roll history, used on numerous legendary performances such as the 1994 Lollapalooza tour, the MTV Video Music Awards 1995 performance and the Reading Festival in 1995, tracks from which can be heard on the Hole 'My Body the Hand Grenade' album.

Watch the MTV performance here:

Here is what Larry Brooks had to say about the guitar:

Courtney Love's Fender prototype Venus guitar from the 90's, played during her days with Hole shortly after the passing on Kurt. This guitar was rocked out with by her! Built at Fender USA Custom Shop (Artist Relations) It was toured with Hole and kept at home by Courtney at Lake Washington house that Kurt and her had purchased in 1994.

This is a rare guitar and a historic piece as Courtney and Bonnie Raitt were the fist two women to have fully custom guitars built for them from the custom shop. It was built by Mr. Larry Brooks (one of the first at the Fender Custom Shop, and the head of Fender Artist relations). His builds are some of the best Fender Custom Shop builds ever. Before this project with Courtney, he worked with Kurt Cobain to build the Fender Jag-Stang which is an iconic guitar.

This is from the included signed letter by Larry Brooks (Fender master-builder--built the guitar):

"Regarding Courtney Love’s guitar: I was the Artist Relations Builder at Fender during the 90’s when I built/designed this guitar, serial number CN402003. It was owned and played by Courtney Love. I worked closely with her to build this prototype. It was 1 of 3 guitars that were built for her during that time period. Fender model “Venus” is what ensued.

Courtney played this guitar during many of her shows, including Lollapalooza (see photo). During one show the guitar was dropped/broken and someone, presumably her guitar tech, re-glued the headstock. The guitar has been left as it was when it came to me.

I designed this ballsy-toned guitar to include many custom aspects, like the bound custom shaped neck, matching painted headstock, absence of a volume knob, custom shape pick-guard, custom body shape, and strings that flare over the tune-o-matic bridge through the body. I designed the custom body shape. At the request of Courtney’s manager, a volume knob was left out of the build because she apparently would keep turning it up louder and louder.

I used Fender U.S.A. Custom Shop decals with my name on it for artist guitars. There is one on Courtney’s guitar underneath the finish on the back of the headstock."