Guitar break-downs; for or against?

[Branislav]

Many guitarist break their guitars on the stage.
What do you think about it?
Are you for or against it?
Have you ever breaked one :)?

[lalimacefolle]

I think that a guitar was made by someone, somewhere, who has put his craft and dedication into it... (even the ****ty ones, someone has worked on it at some point of the making process)
I think that your guitar carries the emotions that you put in the music you have played with it.
I think that destroying your guitar, when some guys struggle for years to finally buy their beloved one, is a crime against human art...
Would someone burn a Picasso painting he has just acquired, for some reason?
Love your guitar. It is your instrument, and your media to let your heart speak. If you want to do something for the show, learn to do a sommersault from your marshall stack...

[Lordathestrings]

I think Tom Hyatt summed it up perfectly with his song "Perfectly Good Guitar". Check it out.

I''ve spent years seeking out guitars that have 'that special something' in their tone when I play them unplugged. No damn way I'm gonna bust one up just to thrill a bunch of drunks who couldn't tell music from sh*t!

I was once foolish enough to drill a couple of holes in the back of my treasured Brand X so I could do that ZZ Top axe-spin thing. Fortunately, I can hide my shame, but the holes are still there to remind me.

[Benoit]

Hate it,
Don't understand it,
can't stand it,
don't want to see it, almost cried once when one guy slammed a Les Paul to the ground :)

[mrcrowley]

In my opinion, musical instruments are almost sacred. Someone smashing their guitar, jumping on their piano, or kicking over their drums is committing an act of sacrilege.

An even worse form abuse is when someone takes a beautiful intstrument like the guitar and demeans it by playing completely artless and formless, a la Blink 182/Drowning Pool/Puddle of Mudd, music. If you're playing that garbage, you might as well break your guitar and put it out of its misery.

[Branislav]

I agree with you.
I also have something to be shamed for.
I saw Blackmore slamming his guitars on stage and I was curious about it, so I
took one old (unuseable :)) acoustic guitar from my friend and slammed it.
I don't know what I expected, but I felt "****ty" after that :(
Now, I can't understand Blackmore (and all others who break guitars) because they
"bite the hand which feeds them" and the guitar is noble instrument, it's a sin
to do such a thing.

Don't try anything similar :)

[lalimacefolle]

Originally posted by mrcrowley
An even worse form abuse is when someone takes a beautiful intstrument like the guitar and demeans it by playing completely artless and formless, a la Blink 182/Drowning Pool/Puddle of Mudd, music. If you're playing that garbage, you might as well break your guitar and put it out of its misery.

ART IS NEVER GARBAGE...MUSIC WAS GIVEN TO US TO CELEBRATE... I DO NOT LISTEN TO THOSE GROUPS, BUT I CAN'T AGREE WITH YOU... ANYONE WHO HAS PUT A SONG IN THIS WORLD HAS DONE THE MOST SACRED THING THAT WAS GIVEN TO US (apart from giving birth)

[Branislav]

Yeah, If someone listens it (not me) there's a reason for it's existance at all.

[Benoit]

I also have to agree. I don`t think a type of music can be garbage if it makes someone feel good.

I did think that some time ago but revised my opinion since I wrote my first song. I know now what it takes to make a song and respect the efforts of others.

[mrcrowley]

I got trounced for that last garbage comment, didn't I. Being a musician, I shouldn't have made such a statement in the first place. My frustrations were misplaced, and here's why:

When I hear bands like the ones I described as 'garbage' it makes me upset because these bands aren't doing anything to promote musical excellence. I know that's obviously not their goal, but when musicality isn't the emphasis of popular music, musicianship isn't encouraged amongst the greater part of society. In the 80's, despite the prevalence of the cheezy glam aesthetic, underneath the mascara somewhere was a great guitarist or a great drummer. Modern bands only have an aesthetic, and that's all.

Music has a huge impact on society. With that in mind, I sincerely believe that when musicianship and technicality are not encouraged in popular music, it can have negative effects on the quality of other parts of society.

So, in my frustration with the aforementioned situation, I called those other bands garbage.

Steve Vai once said:
"In the seventies, it was cool to be a good musician.
In the eighties, it was cool to be a virtuoso.
In the nineties, it was cool to be a hack."

I think that says it all.

I would really appreciated your input on all of this. I know that because you're all signed up to be on the website, you're all doing your part to promote musical scholarship. Let me know your feelings.

Thanks.

- Mr. Crowley

[PonyOne]

To be honest... I love Nirvana, and it pisses me off when I'm at a guitar store, or occasionally someone on this forum, knocks them for being simplistic.

Music has, in some senses, degenerated in the 90's. The top draws in music usually had nothing to do with the songwriting process at all, had no input into the backbeat... they just showed up and sung some cheesy lines along the course of "i love you so much/i love you so so so so so much/i want you back/please take me back/get down/uh huh" (all the girls scream).

Kurt Cobain wasn't the greatest guitarist ever. He wasn't Vai, he wasn't Hendrix, he was himself. And he may not have been a virtuoso but he didn't suck. And he wrote great lyrics, I don't think anyone can dispute that. He was a lot more real, a lot more tangible than the guys from Poison or Crue. They had intricate sets that looked like hell, the finest in women's designer clothing, Lamborghini's, tigers, fireworks, etc.

Enter the 16-23 year old starving musician living in somewhere that isn't LA or NYC; it could've been a rural/suburban dump somewhere in generic America, or Manchester, England, or anywhere really. He plays guitar but doesn't grandstand solo. He wants to make his point, he wants to do it hard, but he lacks the money to buy a custom B.C. Rich that spews blood and fire, he drives a busted up Datsun, and wears jeans & T-shirts, and as such, feels like he can't hold a candle in the music industry and doesn't try. He gets cynical and hateful, and ends up swilling beer and going to punk shows where he knocks into people.

One day Smells Like Teen Spirit comes on the air, and he likes it. He sees something on them in Spin or Rolling Stone and they look like real people, they're caught up in real guitar guy problems (addicted to smack, no money to buy; or at least they were when they made the record).

Grunge was a reaction to the glam that made it impossible to be cool as a normal person in the 80's. There was some great music that came out of the time period but everyone playing looked retarded, and a lot of the musicians back then acted like retards too. Nirvana and Screaming Trees never threw 16-hour drug orgies with the "finest" strippers Hollywood can offer and then went and wrecked a $250,000 car.

Grunge rekindled an appretiation for simplicity and reality in music... sadly it became pop and you had a plethora of bands that went and did these half-ass "i hate the world and i'm in flannel" things; look at Pearl Jam. Sell outs, not grunge rock, they never were, they just saw an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon.

[mrcrowley]

PonyOne,

The seminal grunge bands: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, etc. were great. Alice in Chains is amongst my favorite bands.

While Nirvana's music may not have very technical, Kurt Cobain still pioneered a new form of music with his genuine melancholy and despair.

However, the 90's bands I was 'railing' against are the ones that have degenerated quite a bit from the grunge style. The original honesty is gone, as is the lack of care for an aesthetic. It's as if modern music has taken the worst of the glam era and grunge - all aesthetic with little technicality.

Indeed, Motley Crue and Poison did act (and look) like a bunch of clowns, but I wasn't interested in their act, I was simply interested in the music. I liked their attitude of 'go out and have a great time.'

[lalimacefolle]

Originally posted by mrcrowley
Steve Vai once said:
"In the seventies, it was cool to be a good musician.
In the eighties, it was cool to be a virtuoso.
In the nineties, it was cool to be a hack."


Last time, I saw an issue of Guitar world, and I had to check twice to see if it wasn't a World Wrestling Federation mag!! Those guys were wearing masks and stuff like that!!

Sorry if we were hot on this issue, but I see you have enough insight to have understood your first comment was kind of 'off', I would love, too, seeing great musicians on TV at reasonable hours (not at 2 in the morning on a cable TV)but right now, you have to go and fetch them on the internet or in special store... I hope people will start having some taste for music a little more dedicated to its craft...

[Raskolnikov]

I think both simplicity and technical mastery all have their time and place in music. I'm listening to Scissorfight right now, Morphine is my favorite band, but in ten minutes I might decide to put on some Primus, Frank Zappa, Charlie Hunter, or Buckethead. The best acts know when to keep it simple and when to lay in with everything they have. What's most important though is to play what you feel, write about what's on your mind, and communicate with people. If all you can think about and all you love is barbituates, Star Trek, and rodeo finals then that's what you should write about. Tell us how it moves you, how it makes you feel, and why Bodacious was the baddest brama bull ever.

On a side note, I think Pearl Jam started out quite honest and did a lot of great work. You don't hear Smells Like Teen Spirit on the radio, rework/rewrite all of your material, remarket your band, rebuild your fan base, and get signed in that short ammount of time. What I think has happened with Pearl Jam is that over time they've lost track of where they aught to be and are foundering. Kinda like Korn.

I also don't call Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains "grunge." Nirvana is grunge, Mud Honey is grunge, not those guys.

[mamamalabass]

You hit it on the head rask.If you are honest and write about what you feel see whatever, then you are bound to reach somebody. Isn't being a musician about communication?
As for how I feel about guitar breaking,I disagree I am presently helping a luthier(I am the shop rat) and I see how much work is involved.The people who want to break their guitars can feel free to send them to me if they are that anxious to get rid of them.

[Raskolnikov]

Oh yeah, this thread started out being about breaking guitars..

I'm with John Hiatt too:
"I don't know who these stars think they are
"smashing a perfectly good guitar"

[Parrot Head 1970]

Are you out of your F******* mind?

There's a kid somewhere in your city, town, country, that will be the next great that doesn't own one. Go ahead, break it.

The people that are breaking them today are mimicking people of the late 60's and 70's that were so out of their heads on substances they couldn't play the damn things anymore that night anyway.

Just pissed off here in Canada....

All the best!!!!!! :cool:

[Branislav]

I don't like crushing guitars, too, i wanted to know what other people think.
Why swearing?