Smashing guitars

[rct]

It's right up there with fake guitars for me, I don't care. I don't wonder why others care, like with fakes.

rct

Ok, how about if before we go smashing, we put them in a case, and thrash that around?

rct loves cases too much, you may have crossed a line.

 

[laugh] [laugh] [laugh]

 

hmmff.

 

indeed.

 

rct

[pippy]

Hmmmmm…..I thought it was Jimi Hendrix was the first to smash is guitar before Pete Townsend….this was during the Monterey Pop festival. [confused]

I'm not going to claim no-one smashed anything on stage before Pete but the Who gig mentioned right at the start of the thread took place in 1964 - three years before the Monterrey gig.

 

Pip.

[pippy]

Isn't the 'net a useful resource!

 

http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/smashed.html

 

Pip.

[jdgm]

I will fight with my life to defend someone's freedom to smash their own guitar.

Er really?

Hmmm - with all respect, I don't think I'd bother.

 

Hendrix (AFAIK) smashed only ONE guitar - the Monterey Strat.

Townshend smashed many, some of which were glued back together by the roadies to be smashed again on another gig.

Beck smashed 2 or 3 Hofners in the film "Blow Up".

Black Oak Arkansas' guitarists used to smash 2 cheapies against each other at the end of a show, above the lead singer's head.

 

The John Hiatt song is called "Perfectly Good Guitar" and sums it up for me.

 

A bad workman blames his tools.......

[rct]

Beck smashed 2 or 3 Hofners in the film "Blow Up".

 

In 1977 he handed his strat to the audience at Spectrum in Philly. I was a couple rows back, I didn't get a piece of it, but about 50 other people did, they tore that thing apart!

 

rct

[LPguitarman]

I think it's one of the stupidest things I have ever seen. I don't care who you are, it's stupid.

[Rabs]

 

[Karloff]

smashing any kind of guitar has to be hard on the hands and wrists (and wallet)

[Pinch]

I've probably posted on this topic before, but it's worth reiterating.

 

I don't care if you're Hendrix. I don't care WHO you are. If you don't have more respect for the one invention that I TRULY revere - that means something to me on a highly spiritual level, and has been with me as both a player and a listener for decades and decades, sometimes as a listener only, sometimes as both a listener and a player, and in all shapes and forms and price ranges - then I think you're lacking in respect.

 

Not least for that welfare latch key kid in the front row, whom, if you gave him or her that guitar instead of smashing it, could possibly go on to even greater things than you, and make music that'll give someone ELSE out there a reason to carry on... or just make music that someone else will enjoy. Or even the one person who MAKES the song. Music is its own reward. IMHO.

 

To summarize: I can't tell people what to do with their guitars - if I could, I'd have a shitload of guitars - but if you smash a guitar, then someone's paying you too much, and it's tainted your character in a way that I think is very uncool indeed.

[RowdyMoon]

Doesn't bother me if a few acts do it...if all did of course that would be boring......now what really bothers me is when hollywood destroys a pristine 1965 Chevelle SS or a 55 chevy!!!

[stein]

Doesn't bother me if a few acts do it...if all did of course that would be boring......now what really bothers me is when hollywood destroys a pristine 1965 Chevelle SS or a 55 chevy!!!

I feel the same way when I see Cadillacs crushed at the wrecking yard or on the trucks.

 

I do kinda like watching old 70's and 80's stuff and seeing them get all beat up. Reminding myself of corse back then they were all over the place.

[deeman]

I have a bad memory...burnt out musician...go figure.

 

But I swear once I played a show in high school or shortly after. It was either a battle of the bands or some sort of VA hall type of gig. I seem to remember someone in another band bringing a crappy guitar like a squire or Yamaha or something for the specific intention of smashing it on stage. I think it was his first gig and he wasn't very good.

 

I could be making it up or it could have been a dream, but from what I remember when he smashed his guitar...no one cared. The reaction was like 'why is this guy breaking his guitar at this show where there were 15 people in the audience.'

 

Strange fellow....

[Pinch]

Another way of looking at it: Hendrix burned guitars.

 

He also mixed barbiturates with wine.

 

Logic follows that if you ruin guitars, you'll eventually OD.

 

Bad joke - a spoof on the scientific method - but I love this topic. I have a palpable problem with people ruining good guitars.

[Dennis G]

Townshend smashed many, some of which were glued back together by the roadies to be smashed again on another gig.

I've read something similar as well. Even so, one man's trash can ba another's treasure. It's just stupid.

[pippy]

I've read something similar as well. Even so, one man's trash can ba another's treasure. It's just stupid.

Interesting listening to the tiny snippet posted by Rabs on page 2...

 

Many years ago I read an interview with Pete Townshend and he was asked whether he regretted having smashed any and / or all of those guitars. His answer was something like not really as they were all just production-line fodder which could be replaced with another just the same for little (to him!) outlay.

 

But he DID say there was one guitar he regretted having launched into the air. As is well known he had numbers stuck on his various LPs so the roadie could hand him the 'right' guitar for whichever song was up next. One show, for the 'smashing' track, the roadie mucked it up and handed him the 'wrong' guitar. It was only when the guitar was 20 feet in the air that Townshend realised it was the '59 'burst which he had just bought and, unfortunately, it was a bit too late by then to save it.

 

Pip.

[merciful-evans]

I saw Ritchie Blackmore do this about 1970. Ian Paice also wrecked his drums. I liked heavy music in those days but this made me wonder if I should be taking these people seriously.

 

Within a couple of weeks someone wrote into Melody Maker (music paper) complaining about Deep Purple's drummer's abuse of his kit. Paice replied next issue saying 'They're my drums and I'll bloody well bash 'em'. He was acting a part. I know that, but it sounded like a moronic reply all the same.

 

 

 

Ravi Shankar witnessed Hendrix burning his guitar at Monterey '67and described it this way

 

"Then, some others and what really disturbed me was the hard rock ...

 

I had heard so much about Jimi Hendrix. Everyone was talking about him. When he started playing...I was amazed...the dexterity in his guitar playing. But after two, three items, he started his

 

antics. Making love to the guitar, I felt that was quite enough. Then, all of a sudden he puts petrol on his guitar and burns it. That was the leaving point. Sacrilegious. I knew it was a gimmick. Then, The Who followed, started kicking the drums and breaking their instruments. I was very hurt …"

[rct]

Pop stars gonna be pop stars.

 

rct

[Pesh]

Can't agree with smashing an instrument of any kind. Why destroy a good guitar or even a cheap guitar, when someone in the world would get so much joy from having something you want to break and render useless? Nonsense, IMO.

[deeman]

Can't agree with smashing an instrument of any kind. Why destroy a good guitar or even a cheap guitar, when someone in the world would get so much joy from having something you want to break and render useless? Nonsense, IMO.

 

if there is a demand for guitars to be broken, the market will meet it. I don't think some poor soul will be without a guitar because some shmo breaks a guitar.

[Pesh]

if there is a demand for guitars to be broken, the market will meet it. I don't think some poor soul will be without a guitar because some shmo breaks a guitar.

 

Of course I know that; perhaps I'll rephrase. I've seen a fair few people smash up a guitar for no more reason than "I didn't want it anymore". Which is fair enough; we all fall out of love on occasion and a guitar that you liked last year is not the guitar you like this year. It's more the fact I've said in reply to these people; sell it rather than smash it. That thing you've smashed because you think it looks cool could have been a great starter guitar is a second hand shop, or someone else's holy grail or ideal project.

[OldCowboy]

if there is a demand for guitars to be broken, the market will meet it. I don't think some poor soul will be without a guitar because some shmo breaks a guitar.

In a direct sense, likely not. I get thinking about endangered wood, the shortage of traditional materials for luthiery, and it disturbs me. Very few professional craftsmen disrespect the tools of their trade - an instrument may wear out, eventually, and be replaced the same as any other tool, but trashing one intentionally? Seems to me that kind of behavior is less message than symptom.

[dc3c46]

Well, guys, I'll add a sad and true story here.

Many moons ago I had a "smashing" experience of my own:

Returning from an outing with friends I arrived at home and found

my three guitars and my stereo smashed into pieces on the living room floor.

They were not high end instruments at that time,

a Ibanez acoustic, a Vox 12-string and a LP black beauty knock-off

by Ibanez.

But I loved these guitars.

My ex wife was the culprit.

Ergo: within the hour I packed the rest of my belongings into my old Mini Cooper

and left for good, never to see her again.

This probably saved me from a life in misery.

Today as we speak I have a kind and supporting wife and a $hitload of great

instruments from Gibson, Fender, Gretsch and Rickenbacker.

And I play them through a Vox AC15 and a Mesa Lonestar Special.

Now life is great.

[vangoghsear]

Years ago I read that the first time Townsend smashed a guitar they were playing in some hall with a low ceiling, he went to shove the guitar into the air and the neck hit the ceiling and cracked or made an awful sound through the amp, the audience reacted, so he just carried on and smashed the thing.

 

Yup. Here's story:

 

His first public guitar smashing, where he cracked the headstock of his guitar on a low ceiling, pulling it out and realizing the damage, he smashed the remainder in disgust, then turned to pick up his Rick 12 and continued playing. The next gig at the Railway, the crowd expected him to smash a guitar again.

 

Townsend guitar smashs

[cody78]

I'm with you Sparky. I HATE seeing guitars smashed (or any instruments destroyed for that matter).

 

It would be better of giving an instrument to a kid who can't afford one or to a charity of some kind. Incidentally, I was never a big Hendrix or Townsend fan and not because they smashed their guitars, they just never much inspired me as a player.

[cody78]

*double post*