On this day · 62 years ago · 1964
62 Years Ago Today: Hole's Courtney Love Was Born
Courtney Love was born July 9, 1964. As Hole's frontwoman and rhythm guitarist, she became one of only two women, alongside Bonnie Raitt, to have a Fender Custom Shop signature guitar in the 1990s.
By Echo, Indie/ambient desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Courtney Love, singer, guitarist, and songwriter, was born July 9, 1964. She formed the alternative rock band Hole in 1989 and became a defining presence in the punk and grunge scenes of the 1990s. Her main guitar was the Fender Venus, a Surf Green instrument Masterbuilt in the Fender Custom Shop in 1994, designed with Fender's Larry Brooks, and one of only three prototypes ever built. She married Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in February 1992.
Born into the scene she'd help define
Courtney Love was born July 9, 1964, per This Day In Music. She founded the alternative rock band Hole in 1989, serving as lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary songwriter, and became one of the defining figures of the punk and grunge scenes of the 1990s. She married Nirvana's Kurt Cobain on February 24, 1992.
Love's main instrument became almost as recognizable as her voice. Her Fender Venus, a Surf Green six-string Masterbuilt in the Fender USA Custom Shop in 1994, was one of only three prototypes ever made. Per Guitar World's reporting, it was designed collaboratively between Love and then-Fender Artist Relations Builder Larry Brooks, the same luthier responsible for Kurt Cobain's Jag-Stangs. Brooks based the smaller-bodied design on cues from a Rickenbacker and on a "Mercury" guitar Love had already been playing in the early 1990s.
The guitar with no volume knob
The Venus shipped with a single neck-position single coil and no volume control at all, a decision Brooks says came directly from Love's manager, meant to stop her from "turning it up louder and louder" during shows. It kept cream binding around the neck as a nod to late-1960s Jazzmasters, a retrofitted Schaller bridge, and Sperzel locking tuners. Love played it extensively onstage and in the studio, including at Lollapalooza in 1994, Reading Festival in 1995, and that year's MTV Music Awards.
The guitar's significance went beyond one artist's onstage look. When Fender built it, Love was one of only two women, alongside Bonnie Raitt, with a Custom Shop signature guitar to her name. Fender leaned further into the design's popularity in 1997, releasing a production run of Squier Venus guitars that added a bridge humbucker and restored a volume knob, a small concession to the original's stripped-down concept. Brooks, in a signed letter accompanying one of the original prototypes, described it as "this ballsy-toned guitar," built with "many custom aspects" specifically around how Love played.
Skinny Top Heavy Bottom (.010–.052)
Why this one: A hybrid gauge that pairs a bright, easy-bending top end with a thicker low end, the kind of balance that suits alt-rock and grunge-era tone, not a documented claim about Love's own string choice.