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Smashing guitars aftger gig's.


Syrma

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The single-most stupid thing I've ever seen a musician do on stage. One reason I'll never be a Pete Townsend fan, no matter what.

 

What are they trying to prove? That they're tougher than their guitars?

 

Some kid working his *** off at McDonalds would've loved that (those) guitars. He would've been a lot classier if he'd have given it away to some deserving fan.

 

Jimi Hendrix lit his guitar up at Monterrey and it served it's purpose, but to my knowledge he never did it again.

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I don't think it's drugs... more the anger of youth. I believe the story goes that at one of their earlier performances Townsend accidentally jumped up and cracked the neck. He got pissed of and destroyed the rest of his equipment, bringing the show to a halt. However, it became insanely popular, so they kept it going.

 

While it is an act of violence, or at least anger, I don't think it's any worse than smashing up nice cars in movies... etc. People blow up a lot of -good- stuff for entertainment purposes all the time.

 

And besides, giving it away? Seriously? From the stage? People would die.

 

The only safe way to get rid of a guitar is to sell it, which means it becomes an auction (since someone will always offer more) and then give away the money to charity for music education. That's -definitely- better than smashing the guitar, but in the end it's their money to waste. Rockers are known to burn through cash like it's candy, and their equipment is probably a small percentage of their wasted revenue. It would be nice if rockers didn't waste their money and gave it all to charity, but I don't see that happening, so I'll let them waste their $$ however they choose.

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Yeah, but eventually Townshend paid for his folly: the sick seventies arrived and Gibson changed the SG design and he didn't like the new ones and now he couldn't buy the original ones anymore. He actually had Gibson custom-make a bunch for him but apparently they were the shizzle too.

 

...then there was Paul Stanley of KISS; at the end of the show he came scrambling out on stage again to smash a brand-new Gibson Marauder. He hadn't used it at all in the show; Gibson was sponsoring the band at the time and I guess they gave him these guitars just to be smashed. Kind of weak.

 

John Hiatt said it best:

 

'it breaks my heart to see those stars

smashing a perfectly good guitar

i dont know who they think they are

smashing a perfectly good guitar'

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I used to think this was sooo cool when I was in my teens' date=' but since realised over the years, some beautiful guitars have been wrecked by bands like Nirvana, and the who...[/quote']

 

I personally can't stand nice equipment being destroyed. By the way Syrma, you gotta be excited about that VC15 Laney you have coming. What a sweet amp!!

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Didn't Zappa have one of the strats that hendrix burned re-done? I have a one word explanation for it....DRUGS.

 

Actually, there was a non drug related reason for the Who & Hendrix destroying their axes. The legend is that Townsend had just got a brand new Rickenbacker, which he dropped at the end of a performance. Like the first time he used it. The Rick broke, I think the headstock snapped off, and old Pete got so pissed that he picked it up and started smashing the poor guitar on the ground. The crowd went wild, and people started showing up at their gigs to see the madman smash his guitar.

 

Pete knew a good thing when he saw it, so he incorporated into the act. The one problem was that it was early on their careers, and they didn't have a lot of money. Their manager would hit the various music stores, buy guitars on credit, Pete would smash them and never pay off the loans. Word quickly spread throughout London, and no one would sell on credit or rent equipment to them.

 

The Who were familiar with Hendrix when they played Monterrey, and they did not want to go on after Jimi. So there was some back & forth Who was going to close the show. Hendrix knew Townsend's act, and I believe his burning the Strat was his way of upstaging Pete.

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...then there was Paul Stanley of KISS; at the end of the show he came scrambling out on stage again to smash a brand-new Gibson Marauder. He hadn't used it at all in the show; Gibson was sponsoring the band at the time and I guess they gave him these guitars just to be smashed. Kind of weak.

 

 

I remember seeing some show that did a story on KISS on tour. They showed Stanley "smashing" a Marauder. He literally hit it ONCE on the floor. It snapped at the neck joint, and then he handed it to somebody in the front row.

 

I'm not a fan of smashing guitars either, but if you're going to do something, put some effort into it, wiil ya?

 

...of course it WAS only a Marauder...

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Saw the Who in concert once, and Townsend was whacking his guitar on it's edge into the stage, so he wasn't really doing much damage, if any.

 

Then the guitar body split right in half, and you should have seen the look of dismay on his face!!!! LMAO.....

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Actually' date=' there was a non drug related reason for the Who & Hendrix destroying their axes. The legend is that Townsend had just got a brand new Rickenbacker, which he dropped at the end of a performance. Like the first time he used it. The Rick broke, I think the headstock snapped off, and old Pete got so pissed that he picked it up and started smashing the poor guitar on the ground. The crowd went wild, and people started showing up at their gigs to see the madman smash his guitar.

 

Pete knew a good thing when he saw it, so he incorporated into the act. The one problem was that it was early on their careers, and they didn't have a lot of money. Their manager would hit the various music stores, buy guitars on credit, Pete would smash them and never pay off the loans. Word quickly spread throughout London, and no one would sell on credit or rent equipment to them.

 

The Who were familiar with Hendrix when they played Monterrey, and they did not want to go on after Jimi. So there was some back & forth Who was going to close the show. Hendrix knew Townsend's act, and I believe his burning the Strat was his way of upstaging Pete.[/quote']

 

As Pete describes it, he accidentally put the headstock through a low ceiling, breaking the headstock.. He felt foolish because there were several people in front of the stage laughing at him, so he smashed it up in embarrassment... In a "I meant to do that" gesture...

 

After that, he tried to only smash his guitars up a little bit, so that he could repair them to a usable state after the show... Sometimes, he would have a "dummy" Rickenbacker stage-side that was un-serviceable and smash that up instead.. Then he would glue it all back together for the next show.. Townshend admits that it was a bit of youthful bravado and swagger to be seen publicly destroying expensive guitars when he couldn't even afford his own apartment or car at the time.. I don't think anybody got a guitar through "hire purchase" after that..

 

Eventually, he took to smashing Teles, because they were sturdier than Rickenbackers and easier to fix..

 

pt-telerepair.jpg

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I have a friend who lived in China for a year. He came back with about a dozen fake Teles.

 

I was at one of his shows and he decided to smash it. He asked me before the best way to do it... I had no idea, so he ended up loosening all of the screws in the body.

 

The pickguard came off, the neck broke at the heel, and the body split in two. It was a surprisingly high-quality guitar, too... solid wood, not plywood.

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Some kid working his *** off at McDonalds would've loved that (those) guitars. He would've been a lot classier if he'd have given it away to some deserving fan.

 

I'd probably hand off my guitar/amp pretty easily unless it was like my absolute favorite ;p

 

Smashing? Are you crazy?

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I never said he'd have to give it away on stage. He could've done it later, after the show.

 

And as much as I'd like to defend Hendrix with regard to drugs, it's a known fact that he ate two (or 3) hits of Owsley before he went on stage at Monterrey.

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Didn't Zappa have one of the strats that hendrix burned re-done? I have a one word explanation for it....DRUGS.

 

Probably. :-) I remember reading an Hendrix interview. His explanation was he could feel the love from the crowd and wanted to make a gesture. Setting fire to his guitar was like a ritual offering. Quite beautiful I think.

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When was the last time you set a piano on fire?

 

"I never did - that's a bunch of baloney. I destroyed a piano once - with my bare hands. Pushed it off a stage, pushed it down a road, pushed it in the ocean. I did that many, many years ago in Florida. This piano wasn't no good - so I just took care of it. It ended up in the ocean. Made a big splash."

 

Jerry Lee Lewis to Adam Higginbotham, Blender.com, December 2006.

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When was the last time you set a piano on fire?

 

"I never did - that's a bunch of baloney. I destroyed a piano once - with my bare hands. Pushed it off a stage' date=' pushed it down a road, pushed it in the ocean. I did that many, many years ago in Florida. This piano wasn't no good - so I just took care of it. It ended up in the ocean. Made a big splash."

 

Jerry Lee Lewis to Adam Higginbotham, Blender.com, December 2006.[/quote']

 

Yeah and he also F&*%$d his cousin.

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