Guitar Exibition

I´ve been aksing my self, is it possible to throw my guitar wich is Epiphone Les Paul around my body like Yngwie usualy do with his fender strat our Vai with his Ibanez guitars.

It´s a really cool stuff but does it work with evry guitar and how big is the risk to fail and evidentlly hit your self?

I would say.. ...99,2% chance that you'll hit yourself.
Especially since the LP is so heavy.

I think I´ll skip that one than. But still, 0.8% there´s a possibilty.

that's a sweet trick. i saw Tobin Esperance(bassist)of Papa Roach do that with his bass in the 'Between Angels and Insects' music video. my friend had it on tape and i must have watched that little segment 20 times. i was dying to learn it but i would never try it with my guitars! and i don't even have enough room in my room anyway. that's kind of ironic how my room is called a 'room' but there is no room. but then again it's a 'bedroom' and there's just enough room for a bed(but i have other crap in the big cracks).
ah well, i don't think i'm the only one with a tiny room.

Originally posted by Dejan Sajinovic
I think I´ll skip that one than. But still, 0.8% there´s a possibilty.

Hell no, dont skip it!
You will probably hurt yourself the first times, but once you get the hang of it it will be awesome!
Just try to figure out how the guitar will rotate and how hard and what angle you have to throw it, and then throw!
4 tips though:
1) Dont do it with your favourite guitar, and dont do it with a heavy guitar.
2) If you dont have strap-locks, buy them.
3) When you've thrown it, dont chicken out, then
you will REALLY hurt yourself. Its like 720 on snowboard, if you chicken out in the air you will get hurt.

I tried this once with a Tanglewood strat, I was pretty badly injured after a couple of times, but it worked!
I'll never do it again though ;)

Either be tall, or keep your strap short enough! You don't want your guitar-neck to slam into the floor! ;)

I'd realy like to do this trick one day , but I won't even think of doing it till I have as many identical guitars so that I won't care about losing one of them in case of accident.

I don't think that hurting yourself is the problem, but the fear of losing your fav guitar is like a nightmare.

If you insist on doing this trick, make sure that your strap is perfectly locked into your guitar with a "Schaller" or similar lock system, and that there's enough space for your guitar to rotate.

And be carefull not to hit your bass player :D , Good Luck !

I've always detested all the Inguwie stage tricks...even more than his playing... they all seem like old fashioned 80's bullsh!t.

Dejan, before you try this, get a good set of strap locks so you don't launch your axe into the nearest wall! :eek:

Thanx a lot evrybody for the information. I actally did it once with an old Morgan ****ty guitar but it went straight down to the floor but didn´t break. I swear those garbage guitars are pure iron. You can do whatever you want with them they just won´t break. I remember, we (guys from my band) used the guitar to clean the snow from the road to our rehersal local, a very fun experience, I tried to learn how to play with my feets and crazy stuff like that. But when it slamed into the floor I thought it was over but, no. I figured that I better let it be ´cause the strap locks were bad but I´ll buy some good ones and use that sh*itty Morgan just for stage exebition ´cause it´s impossible to play on it. One of the guys painted the whole neck. He wanted a motiv but it turned into disaster.

[Edited by Dejan Sajinovic on 01-18-2003 at 05:38 PM]

I agree with most of what people are saying on here. I wouldn't do it with a good guitar at first, and I profusely recommend strap locks. This trick is actually not that hard and there isn't much to doing it correctly. I can actually do it with my bass, so weight really isn't a factor. You can swing a 10 pound bucket of water around and around, and all long as your have enough momentum. No water falls out; it's the same with this trick. When I first wanted to do it myself, I was a little timid too. Then one day I studying guys doing over and over and said screw it. If I hurt myself oh well, I have done stupider things. Tried it and did it right the first time. :cool: I'm the shizit, I know. Just kidding. Ok, here's a sort of step by step way of doing it.

1. Take your strumming hard and grab the top of the headstock, and lay your other hand down to your waist. ! Lay your other hand down to your waist! Unless you want the guitar to come back and cut it off. :) Tip: As an extra safely precaution you should arch your shoulder up a bit.

2. Now swing the hand holding the guitar back with a lot of force. Not too hard to where you can't control yourself, and not too soft to where it doesn't have enough momentum to carry itself around. Momentum is the key, if you push it hard enough. It will go all the way around. If not, well it's not going to work. OK, now when you swing you hand back you extend it all the way out to where you upper back has to bend forward. <~VERY IMPORTANT KEY This will protect your head and give the strap/guitar a nice rounded surface (your back) to swing on. Don't bend over to far or you'll lose your guitar, about 10-15 degree from straight is enough. Pretty much a natural bend, you should be able to figure this out.

3. The guitar should swing itself all the way around. The strap should flow between your neck and shoulder. Remember to arch the shoulder, if you relax it the guitar will fall to the floor. Dejan, you may have forgot this. Always, you will feel it, so once you feel it going around. Bend your upper back up and the guitar should rest where it was before. You don't have to catch it with a free hand. For one the momentum shouldn't have enough swing itself back up your shoulder, plus the weight on the guitar should hold it down. Tip: When you swing your arm all the way out, you should pull it back within a split second. You will feel it, and know when to straighten yourself out. If you’re still unsure, you can keep your upper body bend over a bit. But if you do it like this live, it looks rather goofy. hehe

Very Important: Don't be timid if you try this, your must push the guitar back rather hard. It's better to push it too hard than too soft. :D

[Edited by noticingthemistake on 01-18-2003 at 05:44 PM]

hell, i throwed my Randy Rhoades around my body once, got a very odd spin to it though, and due to the position of my strapholders, the guitar went into my hands with the strings against my body. :)

i'm just terrified about the guitar!! forget me! i could lose everything but my guitar and my arms and be a happy man. i just can't risk damaging my guitar, and besides, i don't have any strap-loks.

Strap-Locks ain't the problem, they're affordable... But even with them, you're still in risk of losing your guitar.

No guts, no glory!!!!

I´ll just place a tonn of C4 below the stage and at a certain point i´ll blow me away - couldnt think of a cooler death infront of 500,000+ peeps *LOL*

So, back when I were a lad, at Christmas-time, my Parents gifted to me very first bass guitar - a black “Hohner Rockwood”, with white scratch plate.

 At this time my sisters and I were constantly glued to MTV, and ”Between Angels & Insects” had not long been out, and as a teenager, and complete novice at playing the instrument, I became fascinated by the bassist and his guitar…in fact I became fairly obsessed by the fact he had a 5 string bass, and it looked dead sexy…..moreover I couldn’t contain my sanity when I saw him fling it around his shoulder!!!

I had also joined my first proper band…We were called STAG , and I developed this really cool notion that if I pimped out my new bass with black scratchplate, it would look awesome….and then, the question of flinging over my shoulder, because in my teenage stupidity, I believed that this would be the pinnacle of my band reputation….the other guys n gals would be blown away!

So, brand new black scratchplate, and locking catches for my strap…I was ready to try out my “POWERMOVE”…..although not with my parents and sisters around….and my initial indoor trial made me quickly realise that this would have to be an outdoor experiment.

On a bright sunny morning a week or so later, I found myself at home all alone. The rest of the fam had gone out for the day.

Feeling pretty confident and also excited, I ventured into the garden, carrying my pride and joy bass guitar, looking all black and shiny with chunky locks on a chunky leather strap…..

so…

here we go…..

BIG SWING……AROUND SHE GOES…..

         OH S**T!…………

as the bass passed about 130deg, almost at the apogee/apex, the screws holding the front locking catch ripped out of the body, and as I was still propelling the bass around the pivot point, it then proceeded to freely launch itself like a ballistic bass guitar, over the hedge and out of sight into next doors garden.

I stood for a while in silence, I think mainly to listen out for any loud thuds, or manic screaming (the instant image of someone being impaled by a bass guitar sprang to mind as it gently soared over the neighbours hedge. 

Instead, I heard an altogether different sound - quite an unexpected sound…intriguing, but equally alarming….

I gingerly knocked upon the door of the elderly neighbours, and tried my best to explain that a piece of my equipment had “popped off” it’s mounting, and accidentally flew over the hedge, and would they mind awfully if I could nip over and retrieve said item. Bless them they allowed me through their house, and led me outside into their garden.

In front of me was a magnificent pond, complete with lily pads, flowering plants, concrete statues and some petrified fish cowering along the edges, and drifting in the middle of this pond was my lovely bass guitar.

The elderly neighbours turned and looked at me with a strange state of confusion….I think in their heads they were taken by surprise by the particular tool that I had lost, and what kind of procedure was I undertaking in the garden.

I never had the guts to explain this to them, and left in a hurry with the hope that they may possibly forget about it providing I lay low, and crucially, they don’t have any contact with my parents or sisters…that way they might just forget about it…

my bass on the other hand was pretty f-d.

The ‘lectrics were drenched, so I stripped them out, dried them out, along with the guitar body and shoved them under the bed for a day or so…I was really worried that my parents might find it or ask me to play some bass for them, but thankfully they never did, and up until now they are still blissfully unaware…assuming that my sisters haven’t ratted me out!

one day they might read this post and twig….until that day, I rest in peace, reassured in the knowledge that swinging a bass guitar (even a cheap one) around in any kind of forceable way is not good for the instrument or one’s wallet.

When the corrosion, damp and smell rendered my bass unplayable, I upgraded to a student Yamaha.

Please take my story on board….

If you like bass guitars and enjoy playing them, do not attempt this manoeuvre.

On the other hand if having a damp rotting smelly rusty bass guitar floats your boat, then this is a great way to start!

By some idiot in Cornwall