These days, the image of the guitarist smashing his instrument into an amp or diving into the drum kit is mostly a relic of a bygone era in rock history. Not only do bands simply not make enough money these days to lay waste to precious instruments, but the gear itself is always becoming more specialized, expensive, hard to find, etc.
But that doesn’t mean that musicians don’t break stuff all the time (just not always on purpose), so we checked in with members of White Widows Pact, Toxic Holocaust, Night Birds, Vomit Fist, and more, to see if they have any hilarious or tragic stories about ruining a cherished (or shitty) piece of music gear. Check out the stories below:
Kelly Cook / January 14, 2016 5:55 pm
I threw an Ibanez on the ground at a show totally forgetting it wasn’t a Telecaster and it broke at the neck joint. It remained 100% in tune as the headstock didn’t fully come off so it actually still works…it just needs a new neck.
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Kelly Cook / January 14, 2016 5:58 pm
My guitarist’s Tele started acting up at the end of a set and he just saw red and threw it on the ground. It didn’t survive. This was the result. Luckily, he got a new one the following week.
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Sandy Aphid / January 15, 2016 8:28 am
My sweet SG, my first real electric. We were acting out on stage and I got carried away. Shattered the controls section. It was just dangling by the wires. In hindsight it was totally repairable. But I sold it for scrap.
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Johnny Quid / January 15, 2016 9:46 am
I never smashed my shit…but in one band I was in, I threw the pieces of my kit around like a little girl having a fucking temper tantrum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91zV8_pOf8E
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