Guitar Smashing: Love it, hate it, indifferent?

brianlux

While posting a few times about Stone smashing his guitar years ago I thought about asking this in Musicians and Gearheads but I'm just as curious about the non-musicians take on this topic.

I have to admit to having thoroughly been thrilled to watch a few guitars get smashed. I saw the Who in 1968 (San Jose Civic Auditorium) but Pete only bounced his Gibson SG off the stage floor a few times. This was in the Who's earlier years so maybe he didn't have as many back ups. Then in 1970 I saw Jimi Hendrix at Winterland. His Marshall stack kept acting up so at the end of the show, in the middle of Foxy Lady he flashed the audience the peace sign and charged headstock first into his speaker cabinets and tore everything up. Thrilling to see! The last time was again an unplanned, equipment-failure provoked incident. It was at a Paul Westerberg show at SF's Great American Music Hall in 2005. Paul was playing a beautiful (both looks and sound) double cutaway Les Paul and his amp kept cutting out. In one very swift movement he whipped the guitar over his head and shattered it on top of his amp. Again, thrilling to see but really sad too because that guitar just sang and Paul received a nasty cut over his temple. A friend in high school had the right idea- he played his Les Paul Jr. and switched to an old beater for the last song of each gig that he smashed and repeatedly glued back together. It got easier and easier to smash!

dcfaithful

The fact that you saw Jimi Hendrix is just simply fucking awesome. :shock:

I can't describe my jealousy right now.

The unexpected smashing from Paul Westerberg is cool too.

I'm all for it!

he.who.forgets

while it surely is pretty cool to see live and it definitely amps up the crowd, imagine how cool it would be to give the guitar to a fan instead...that could make someone's day, week, month, year, life!!! Especially from Pete or Jimi...you've seen some epic musicians in the flesh btw

DS1119

he.who.forgets wrote:

while it surely is pretty cool to see live and it definitely amps up the crowd, imagine how cool it would be to give the guitar to a fan instead...that could make someone's day, week, month, year, life!!! Especially from Pete or Jimi...you've seen some epic musicians in the flesh btw

All that would lead to is more people bitching about the Ebay flippers.

And btw I'm for the guitar smashing if it's an in the moment type of thing. If it becomes too scripted then not so sure. This guitar smash was pretty much a fail. A for effort...F for results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDzL_WU3mmE

dcfaithful

DS1119 wrote:

he.who.forgets wrote:

while it surely is pretty cool to see live and it definitely amps up the crowd, imagine how cool it would be to give the guitar to a fan instead...that could make someone's day, week, month, year, life!!! Especially from Pete or Jimi...you've seen some epic musicians in the flesh btw

All that would lead to is more people bitching about the Ebay flippers.

Anybody who owns a guitar given to them by Jimi Hendrix and flips it has absolutely no soul whatsoever.

markin ball

Eh, Its been done. I'm over it.

vanisle09

Love it. Nobody better than Pete!

SatansFuton

Sometimes I think it's cool, but it seems like such a waste.

I think the lamest thing I have ever seen was when I saw Smashing Pumpkins back in '97 and after the set the rest of the band left the stage and Billy was walking around swinging his guitar like he was about to smash it. He strutted around, swinging it over his head for a good 1-2 minutes, and finally he doubled fisted it around the neck and swung down like the fucking thing was an axe.... and stopped right before it hit the ground, stood up straight and placed it on a guitar stand then walked off stage. So dumb.

F Me In The Brain

I dig it.

Agree with some of the posts that timing can make or break it as far as how cool it is.

The first time I saw NIN I had never heard of them. (Lolla 1 in 1991) I was fucking blown away at their set and knew I was going to like this band -- damn was their lead singer f'd in the head! The topper was seeing him demolish, piece by piece, every instrument his band was using as part of their last song. I had no idea if they could even afford new instruments it just seemed to be the pinnacle of his anger and it went so well with the set they had just rocked us out with. They totally stole the day up until Jane's melted the entire place with an epic closing set.

12345AGNST1

I never liked it. I had a horrible childhood experience relating to that. I was watching a MTV Nirvana performance and I saw Kurt smashing his guitar into his amp and all I remember hearing were these horrible distorted guitar noises. the sound and act of him doing it frightened the shit out of me. I don't really know why other than the fact that I was like 4-6 yrs old.

It still slightly disturbs me.

edit: yea... this shit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HO2bhaHHcM

Just yet another reminder why I don't like Nirvana. Kurt was such a disturbed human being. can't even watch that shit

vanisle09

I just watched that and I thought it was awesome. Look at the how crazy the crowd is going. What a great finish to a really hard concert!!!

81

Smash it....as long as it is the moment

chiquimonkey

I can see being swept up in the moment. But it does seem like a waste of a perfectly good instrument.

Seeing Jimi is amazing, how lucky!

I'd want to smash a xylophone...that'd be my big rock n roll moment. AH YEAH

neilybabes86

i would love to personally break one

its also been cool to see mikey do it a few times

musicismylife78

the classics like jimi, and nirvana, the who are all great. but seeing someone do it live, and in person is a hell of a buzz. i saw ed and mike smashing their guitars during the finale of San Fran III in 2006, Ed riding on the smashed guitar like a surfboard.

i also saw a local band, in a small venue, a band of teens, and at the end of the show, they had confetti thrown around the stage, and they smashed their instruments and then did some insane guitar effects with the remnants.

as i said, seeing that type of stuff is a rush

musicismylife78

12345AGNST1 wrote:

I never liked it. I had a horrible childhood experience relating to that. I was watching a MTV Nirvana performance and I saw Kurt smashing his guitar into his amp and all I remember hearing were these horrible distorted guitar noises. the sound and act of him doing it frightened the shit out of me. I don't really know why other than the fact that I was like 4-6 yrs old.

It still slightly disturbs me.

edit: yea... this shit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HO2bhaHHcM

Just yet another reminder why I don't like Nirvana. Kurt was such a disturbed human being. can't even watch that shit

thats odd, this to me is symbolic of why i love nirvana.

dcfaithful

neilybabes86 wrote:

i would love to personally break one

Ah, me too. It might be worth going to the pawn shop to get one and then smash it to hell.

All Those Yesterdays

Do what you want to do, but I personally am against abusing my own stuff. I abuse it, but it will be back to play another day.

Thoughts_Arrive

12345AGNST1 wrote:

I never liked it. I had a horrible childhood experience relating to that. I was watching a MTV Nirvana performance and I saw Kurt smashing his guitar into his amp and all I remember hearing were these horrible distorted guitar noises. the sound and act of him doing it frightened the shit out of me. I don't really know why other than the fact that I was like 4-6 yrs old.

It still slightly disturbs me.

edit: yea... this shit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HO2bhaHHcM

Just yet another reminder why I don't like Nirvana. Kurt was such a disturbed human being. can't even watch that shit

Serious? I love this!

uninnocent-

If an artist is into their music enough that they want to express themselves through a good smash, all the power to 'em. I've seen it happen a couple times at shows and I've felt the intensity.

On a personal note, I smashed my first acoustic guitar eight years ago while camping. It was a cheap garage sale guitar, nothing special. Some days I miss it, others I don't.

Dru_Cortez

dcfaithful wrote:

Anybody who owns a guitar given to them by Jimi Hendrix and flips it has absolutely no soul whatsoever.

Word.

As for this particular thread,
the only equivalent I have is
seeing Mike Dirnt (sic?) of Green Day
destroy his drum kit with a hospital crutch.
Outdoor festival in Winnipeg,
summer of '96 I think.

Cheers.