Perfect Pitch

[Mike Nye]

PERFECT PITCH . . . I'm really surprised that nobody's mentioned Mary Ford . . .

Imagine what it must have been like being spot on pitch on 12 vocal harmony tracks ! ! !

[Mike Nye]

Well then there was the time someone asked Chet what he thought of Pete Townshend smashing his guitars onstange and he said "Some guitars need smashing!"

What could he care . . . Rickenbacker always made sure he had at least 2 backups ! ! !

[RandeDager]

Well, then there's still the emotional element. I wouldn't smash a guitar just because someone else was willing to replace it! I'm sure that many on this forum own guitars that they wouldn't have the nerve or the desire to smash just because someone was willing to replace it. We all have different sensitivity levels. Mine is kind of high......lol.

[Norm]

Smashing guitars as a regular part of an act is truly playing to the lowest common denominator and speaks volumes about the people who enjoy such antincs.

[David Elliott]

Smashing guitars as a regular part of an act is truly playing to the lowest common denominator and speaks volumes about the people who enjoy such antincs.

Not to mention their "taste" in music...

[Mike Nye]

So, you're gonna tell me that if Chet or Les Paul smashed their guitars after each show that Gibson wouldn't be runnin' with a new one to replace it ? ? ?

[Norm]

...if they, like Townshend, tried to make it a part of the act for every show I doubt it.

I don't think Townshend only broke rickenbackers, either, seems to me he broke whatever he had on hand, fenders and such. He even broke his 6120 once, something he truly regretted. That one he had to pay to get fixed. Gretsch didn't 'come running' to replace it. Townshend didn't endorse guitars, he broke them. It was the only thing that kept him from being Just Another One Hit rock musican.

People didn't buy certain model guitars because they were just like the ones Pete broke. People didn't care. They bought tickets to watdh this spoiled mutt break a perfectly good guitar that some kids yearned to own. I worked in a music store when all that was going on. Some of our less fortunate customers greived because they couln't afford to buy what he so stupidiy smashed. It was a celebration of Waste.

People bought Les Pauls because some very popular rock guitarists used them. (Les Paul's were originally unpopular because they were so heavy.) People bought whatever Chet played because Chet played them. I doubt Chet or Les deliberately smashing their endorsed product woudl be good for sales.
Wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't in the endorsement contract that the artist is forbidden to disparage the product

[Mike Nye]

I had a poster of his broken Rick 330/12 in my woodshop for years. Rickenbacker usta give 'em away at NAMM years ago . . .

[Norm]

All I'm saying is that rickenbacker isn't the only guitar pete broke.

Gibson and Gretsch gave Chet as many guitars as he wanted. Chet got so many he gave most of them away. Gibson gave Les a lot of guitars. Judging from the auction of his stuff going on now he kept most of them.

Again, Townsheng broke guitars. I read somewhere when he discussed how he got 'restocked' but have forgotten the specifics

[Norm]

Amazing what a little research will get you...[/b
http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/smashed.html
[b]Here, the tour manager tells about buying cheap guitars for Pete to smash
Ron Blackmore (tour manager):
I was out there trying to find guitars every day from guitar shops. I’d loosen the neck and try to get it ready, and hope that Pete could just drop it so that it fell in half, and didn’t smash it completely, because we couldn’t replace the bits.

Here, Pete indicates some of the smashed ones were repaired and smashed again
Pete in Melody Maker:
“I smashed up two guitars at the end of the show, because one I was using had recently been repaired and broke as I came on stage, so I played another one I use for recording. At the end, I though, ‘What the hell,’ and smashed them both. The Gibson Stereo cost £200 and the amps, which were borrowed, will cost about £20 each to repair. I can’t put it down to tax because when I say I use 70 guitars a year, they don’t believe me.”
I used to break a guitar every performance — if not two sometimes —
Pete in Anyway Anyhow Anywhere:
After one retake, there was an anxious moment when Townshend’s falling Les Paul grazed a young extra’s head. “There was blood everywhere, and she was carried off to hospital. But she came back a few hours later and told us she was ‘very honoured’ to have been smashed over the head by Pete Townshend’s guitar. I gave her the guitar.”

The site listed people witnessing gutar smashings but how many were what they appeared is hard to say. They could have been junk copies. How are you going to tell with all the lights and the noise from the show floor?
Bottom line, in the quotes from Pete, they had to provide their own breakables