Smash It Up

TheMarlin

I’ve done it....accidentally....

On stage, brand new super strat slipped off the strap and tumbled to the floor.   Stoved in the body and took off the headstock.  Was pristine, only a week old. 

Utterly gutted. 

Unlike me, the audience was very amused. 

I buy strap locks now!

icu81b4

I've seen the Who live, many years ago ( Moon on drums ) the ONLY thing that impressed me about Townsend was how he didn't shred his fingers up whilst windmilling (is that a word??) 

I admire his apparent helping the investigations into dodgy online media though. 

danishbacon

How about this? You can pre book your smashed guitar to take home. 

https://paulstanleyguitars.com/product-category/smashed-guitars/

danishbacon

Re reading OP, guitar feeding back was the end of a Queens of the stone age gig, with the lead stretched to its absolute max. Was a nice closer and left the whole place in tension. 

For some reason, we’ve come to accept what the assholes at the venue do next. Shut the feed from the stage down and fade in some casual pop music as the lights go up. Leave us in silence, let us process. 

hollywoodrox

I prefer Blackmore as a smasher upper , more showmanship and panache plus undoubtedly one of the top Early shredders Of the 20th century 

munckee

My first acoustic was sacrificed for my art after I fell on it while p1ssed trying to take my jeans off. 

Sassafras

I once smashed someone over the head with a Yamaha acoustc which broke into splinters, Wasn't at a gig though.

jdbwales

Justin Hawkins (of all people) once said guitar smashing was like buying a Ferrari then just driving it into a tree because you could. 

I hate guitar smashing, I absolutely know it’s not the point (Rock and roll twattery is)  but auction a celebrity-played guitar for charity or give it away to fans (like Green Day do) or even a local school in need of instruments. Ugh. 

richardhomer

Nitefly said:

TonyR said:

It makes me cringe every time I see it...

Me too!  It rather put me off The who for a long time.

That and Townsend’s browsing history....

JerkMoans

pigface

That Animal House scene is the only guitar-smashing I've ever liked. The pic on the cover of London Calling is OK, though :-)

axisus

Hattigol said:

imalrightjack said:

proggy said:

Rather than smash them up, he should have put a bit more effort into learning to play them.

I do think the smashing thing was a bit odd but he was a great player!

Was he? I'm not convinced he was anything more than a decent rhythm player. Please feel free to direct me to his 'high water' mark...

I remember reading a while ago that Townsend said he got up to his stage antics to compensate for the fact that he couldn't play guitar as well as he wanted to.

axisus

Jimbro66 said:

So you don't like performers smashing guitars. Fair enough but before slagging off Townshend try putting what he did into context.

The original teenage rebellion music, rock & roll, had lasted only a few years before being stifled by the establishment to be replaced by watered down pop made to appease the younger generation.

Then along came bands like the Stones playing their interpretation of blues standards in clubs like the Crawdaddy to mainly student audiences.

Then the mods and rockers period arrived with regular large-scale violent clashes. When The Who began performing at the Marquee club the audience was entirely made up of pill-popping, strutting mods. The Who were the first band to use high powered Marshall amps and stacks for instruments and pa. No bands had ever played at that volume level before. Nor had any played with such high energy. The mod audiences loved it. It was two fingers up to the establishment.

The Who completely represented their audience. They too popped indecent quantities of pills and got more high as the evening went on. The chanting crowd, the high energy performance and ear-splitting volume built to a climax where Townshend smashing his guitar into Marshall stacks and Moon crashing his drums across the stage was completely inevitable for all those present. There was no other way they could have left the stage.

Townshend also mastered the control of high-volume feedback long before others, including Hendrix, adopted it. So no, he wasn't a skilled player but he was a great innovator and pioneered many of the techniques later claimed by others as theirs.

Yeah, but still a twat who smashed guitars.

imalrightjack

axisus said:

Hattigol said:

imalrightjack said:

proggy said:

Rather than smash them up, he should have put a bit more effort into learning to play them.

I do think the smashing thing was a bit odd but he was a great player!

Was he? I'm not convinced he was anything more than a decent rhythm player. Please feel free to direct me to his 'high water' mark...

I remember reading a while ago that Townsend said he got up to his stage antics to compensate for the fact that he couldn't play guitar as well as he wanted to.

For me, as somebody who idolises the likes of Marty Friedman, I once was of the view that guitarists had to be flash and technical to be great. Townsend might not have been technically wonderful but I’d still argue a great guitarist. Innovation, feel, creativity, etc. 

Funkfingers

Already on to page 2 and nobody has mentioned The Damned. 

SPECTRUM001

Don’t they get a free pass for -

a) being The Damned
b) they were able to take the piss, whilst also doffing their cap to rock and roll heritage 

I thought Capt Sensible was a great guitarist - pure spirit.

Jimbro66

axisus said:

Jimbro66 said:

So you don't like performers smashing guitars. Fair enough but before slagging off Townshend try putting what he did into context.

The original teenage rebellion music, rock & roll, had lasted only a few years before being stifled by the establishment to be replaced by watered down pop made to appease the younger generation.

Then along came bands like the Stones playing their interpretation of blues standards in clubs like the Crawdaddy to mainly student audiences.

Then the mods and rockers period arrived with regular large-scale violent clashes. When The Who began performing at the Marquee club the audience was entirely made up of pill-popping, strutting mods. The Who were the first band to use high powered Marshall amps and stacks for instruments and pa. No bands had ever played at that volume level before. Nor had any played with such high energy. The mod audiences loved it. It was two fingers up to the establishment.

The Who completely represented their audience. They too popped indecent quantities of pills and got more high as the evening went on. The chanting crowd, the high energy performance and ear-splitting volume built to a climax where Townshend smashing his guitar into Marshall stacks and Moon crashing his drums across the stage was completely inevitable for all those present. There was no other way they could have left the stage.

Townshend also mastered the control of high-volume feedback long before others, including Hendrix, adopted it. So no, he wasn't a skilled player but he was a great innovator and pioneered many of the techniques later claimed by others as theirs.

Yeah, but still a twat who smashed guitars IMO

FTFY

Teyeplayer

I’ve been known to lob a telecaster around as part of the show (15 or so years ago), never smashed it though -it’s still in one piece and I’m convinced it’s indestructible. 

However, in my teens I used to borrow my Dad’s mates Marshall. Little did I realise at the time that it was an original 60s JTM45, pillar 2x12s with the Perspex logo...it was just an amp. After one gig I fell out with a mate and took a swing, he fell into the amp, the head fell, another friend dived and luckily saved it. There have been nightmares about that moment ever since.