vic
X-rated Bob wrote:
tentop wrote:
The only message I ever get from it is "I'm so f***** rich I can smash $3 000+ instruments. Hahaha look at me! I don't care about money biatches!"
Pete was doing that before he had made mega bucks.
Legend has it that in the early days he would "take a guitar on appro" and then smash it and never walk into that shop again. Word got around and every music shop in England said "thanks, but no thanks" to Pete.
If ever there was a legend then this is it imho.......just imagine someone (who is not nearly famous) doing that (especially on more than one occasion) would either be certified outright and sent to you-know-where or get chucked into jail. I mean it's not like stealing the odd banana at a Porra shop... ?
vic
just had to copy this from the Practical University (Hobbie courses)... ?
Guitar Smashing for Beginners
Okay, so you’ve learnt how to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, but you’re not concert-ready yet - you still have to learn how to smash your guitar on stage. Nothing is quite as embarrassing as standing centre stage, whacking your guitar up and down to no avail. During this course we will study the techniques used by pioneers like Pete Townsend, rock legends such as Kurt Cobain and finally the methods of modern maestros n*sync. You will also learn how you stand insurance-wise if a piece of your axe happens to connect with the skull of a member of the audience.
Gearhead
Good choice, those Tele's. Beats (no pun intended) whacking a heavy thick LP in the destructability department I'd say. Maybe fit it with a large headstock CBS Strat neck for better grip at the neck end? 8)
vic
from an interview with Pete...
Q; Was there ever a time over the years when you said to yourself, “I wish I hadn’t smashed that (fill in the brand name and model) guitar?
Once. Just once. It was probably around 1968. We were around Detroit about to play at the Grande Ballroom. I had no guitar. I went to the local pawnshops and bought two Strats. One was recent, the other was much older, probably from the first year of manufacture. They were not expensive. The dealer had no idea what he had. On stage, I started with the older of the two guitars. It was almost certainly a guitar that belonged to Buddy Holly. I sounded like Buddy Holly. I felt like Buddy Holly. The sound was superb, off the map, bell-like, silky, just sublime. When the time came to smash the guitar, I switched it for the newer one, and a boy at the front of the stage protested. “No,” he shouted. “Smash the good one, not some fake.” So I switched back, and to my shame smashed the guitar over his hands. I still wait for him to sue me. He would have a perfect right, but I was pretty angry with him. However, this entire guitar-smashing thing is my fault, my thing, my idea, my artistic statement, my absurdity. I have no doubt that guitar is sitting in someone’s home now, and probably plays okay. I hope the same can be said for that poor guy’s hands
MIKA-the-better-one
I would so smash a guitar... a nice one an old one.......... as long as its the right reasons...... you dont just do it to be cool or cuz you planned it before the show and it shouldnt become a gimmick............ but it should be sorta built up in the excitement.
I have however yjought about buying a little squire bullet strat and hoping that in the last song of every show i get this compulsion to smash it.
Sometimes i do get a bit excited and start getting real overboard with my jhn mayer strat but then i go "mike calm down this is your very special guitar... breath"
needleshy
that guitar must've been one of those neck heavy Les Pauls everyone talks about.
funny thing is as much as i love guitars, i also wanna join in on the fun. especially when i struggle to work something out on it.
anyone wanna donate a guitar for me to smash at a gig? ?
singemonkey
This was Pete's thing. Hendrix did it in Monterey specifically to upstage The Who. Some people have done it out of frustration. I don't think it bears discussion as a potential statement for a modern guitar player. It would be no statement at all. Boring. Ho-hum. Been there. Done that. Right?
Let's put it this way, vocalists don't discuss stripping naked, taking a crap on the stage and rolling around in it and broken bottles because G.G. Allen did it... (thank goodness he's dead ? )
Joofy
I shudder when people smash air guitars.. ☹
vic
MIKA the better one wrote:
I would so smash a guitar... a nice one an old one.......... as long as its the right reasons...... you dont just do it to be cool or cuz you planned it before the show and it shouldnt become a gimmick............ but it should be sorta built up in the excitement.
I have however yjought about buying a little squire bullet strat and hoping that in the last song of every show i get this compulsion to smash it.
Sometimes i do get a bit excited and start getting real overboard with my jhn mayer strat but then i go "mike calm down this is your very special guitar... breath"
and what might that be...? please explain... ???
nicovlogg
If you smash the neck off a strat, wouldn't it be a pretty simple thing to fix it back up again? Not perfectly of course, but a lot easier than a set neck?
vic
nicovlogg wrote:
If you smash the neck off a strat, wouldn't it be a pretty simple thing to fix it back up again? Not perfectly of course, but a lot easier than a set neck?
...but WHY would one try to fix it again....? :?
nicovlogg
vic wrote:
nicovlogg wrote:
If you smash the neck off a strat, wouldn't it be a pretty simple thing to fix it back up again? Not perfectly of course, but a lot easier than a set neck?
...but WHY would one try to fix it again....? :?
Hey, I'd take a smashed strat played by Hendrix anyday.
vic
nicovlogg wrote:
vic wrote:
nicovlogg wrote:
If you smash the neck off a strat, wouldn't it be a pretty simple thing to fix it back up again? Not perfectly of course, but a lot easier than a set neck?
...but WHY would one try to fix it again....? :?
Hey, I'd take a smashed strat played by Hendrix anyday.
OK...that makes sense. But would you fix a strat that say Mika has smashed...? ☹
MIKA-the-better-one
If i smashed my strat I would probably be on the side of the stage crying "what have i done" i would be trying to talk it back to life :'(
nicovlogg
vic wrote:
nicovlogg wrote:
vic wrote:
nicovlogg wrote:
If you smash the neck off a strat, wouldn't it be a pretty simple thing to fix it back up again? Not perfectly of course, but a lot easier than a set neck?
...but WHY would one try to fix it again....? :?
Hey, I'd take a smashed strat played by Hendrix anyday.
OK...that makes sense. But would you fix a strat that say Mika has smashed...? ☹
Hey, that depends on how hard he can smash it! ?
