is smashing a guitar cliche?

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im sure he was thinking...oh no pete townsend has done this before ..what to do what to do????
 
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rayc said:
It's been done.
To do it again would require a new reason for doing it.
Townsend did it when he was cranky and then because he was expected to.
Hendrix did it as part of a pyrotechnical show that doesn't seem to have been done before him and he got passed doing it pretty quickly.
Since then has anyone advanced to a new way or reason.
I guess it's exciting for some strange solo isolated singular person who's not seen/heard/known of it before but like it's been aisd - if it's not a decent, real expensive instrument then it's a hollow pastiche - to that end why not use a nice papier mache' jobbie or go the whole hog and develop the guitar piniat solo that ends up with lollies for everyone.
It's also not good for the world, what with repair, reuse, recycle et al.
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In the interviews I saw...it was so they could leave after a set and not have to worry about playing encores...but they also rashed the amps drums and everything else.

I remember that Nugent used to take a flaming bow and arrow and shoot his guitar with that.

And Gibson gave Kiss anything they needed so they made that part of the show.

Fun fact; Led Zep had the same deal with Gibson to only have thier pictures taken with gibson guitars...but Jimmy Page prefered a Telecaster to a les paul.
 
dogonjon said:
In the 70's my brother and I saw Deep Purple. Richie Blackmore would beat the crap out of 3 strats every show in those days. Electric Light Orchestra was sharing the bill on that tour and they one upped Blackmore by blowing up both their cellos. I mean blowed up real good. That was so cool.
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ELO had the most awesome stage show...the flying Hamburger was classic...lol.

I also saw Parlament Funkadelic do a similer thing with their light truss...but they would come down to the stage as if they were on a UFO and a door would come down and the band would come on stage that way.
 
darrin_h2000 said:
ELO had the most awesome stage show...the flying Hamburger was classic...lol.

I also saw Parlament Funkadelic do a similer thing with their light truss...but they would come down to the stage as if they were on a UFO and a door would come down and the band would come on stage that way.
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I saw the percussionist in the polyphonic spree climb up a lighting truss. He got to the top, lost his footing and fell - he was at the back of the stage so none of the band saw, but all the audience did. He picked up the huge gong he'd climbed up and smashed it as hard as he can a few times. Was funny.

Andrew
 
zazz said:
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im sure he was thinking...oh no pete townsend has done this before ..what to do what to do????
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yeah. he's definitely thinking: "I'm totally unoriginal, a walking cliche. This is so foolish." You can see it in his posture.

I didn't smash my guitar the other night, but I did throw it off the stage and kick it around on the floor. It got positive reviews.
 
So the Thing is a piece of shit but you are willing to use it to play live and smash at the end of the show?? it can"t be that much of a piece of shit if you are willing to play it live on stage!!! or are you going to play your regular guitar and just smash the POS at the end of the Show?? if you do that it sort of looses any credibility that smashing a guitar has, don"t you think....

On another note, I have been Playing a heavilly modified Epi SG for years now and it sounds and Plays AWESOME....I got rid of the Crappy Bridge and put in a Fender Style bridge , I then routed out a hole in the body and Put in another Humbucker in the Neck position, then I added some DIY active electronics....It is one of the best Guitars i have played and has an extremely high output (up to 4v) and is light as a feather (maybe 5 pounds) so no fatigue when playing long shows......


Cheers
 
here's an original Idea...versus stealing the old tired smashing guitar idea...

someone should just shit on their guitar...see what the crowd thinks.

please report back with pics.
 
ggunn said:
it breaks my heart to see those stars
smashing a perfectly good guitar
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I know that in instances where the star in question was expected to smash a guitar, the guitars were made specifically to smash. They were useless as a guitar, they were just show props.


Buy the way, musicians making political statements from the stage is cliche. Add smashing a guitar to that and you would be adding insult to injury.
 
COOLCAT said:
here's an original Idea...versus stealing the old tired smashing guitar idea...

someone should just shit on their guitar...see what the crowd thinks.

please report back with pics.
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G G Allen beat you to it.
 
darrin_h2000 said:
In the interviews I saw...it was so they could leave after a set and not have to worry about playing encores...but they also rashed the amps drums and everything else.

Fun fact; Led Zep had the same deal with Gibson to only have thier pictures taken with gibson guitars...but Jimmy Page prefered a Telecaster to a les paul.
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Good tactic by the who. Screw encores :D

That's pretty amusing..that Zeppelin fact. Made me chuckle :D
 
starbuck26 said:
yeah. he's definitely thinking: "I'm totally unoriginal, a walking cliche. This is so foolish." You can see it in his posture.

I didn't smash my guitar the other night, but I did throw it off the stage and kick it around on the floor. It got positive reviews.
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What, you or the guitar?

In any case (to answer the original post) I'd smash the fucker. I mean Townsend said: "Hope I die before I get old." And he ain't young no more.
New Generation! "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss". Time Repeats. Re-invent the wheel. "The more things change the more things stay the same." Outa cliches.
JUST DO IT!

K.
 
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darrin_h2000 said:
I remember that Nugent used to take a flaming bow and arrow and shoot his guitar with that.
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What Nugent did the time I saw him in a tiny club in Louisiana in the early 70's was to leave the stage while a drum/bass instrumental break was going on and return in a loincloth and warpaint. I was sitting with my feet on the stage and didn't see him running up behind me. He literally jumped over me onto the stage.

He had a bow and quivver of arrows, and a stage hand had set fire to a styrofoam wig head that he put up on top of one of Nugent's two stacked Twins over Dual Showman cabs. He successfully put an arrow into it from about 10 feet away after putting two arrows into the wall behind the stage. He wasn't that good a shot.

He was playing a Gibson Birdland for that show, which is a rare and expensive guitar. There's no way he would have shot that one with an arrow.
 
muttley600 said:
Funniest guitar smashing moment ever. Unless anyone has a better one??

Thread closed.
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I can't find that video of Ywngie Malmsteen taking 5 minutes to set fire to his guitar any more, before losing it (his temper) and just trashing it (the guitar). That always made me laugh.

Andrew
 
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