Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

[WhoFan]

Hey check out what some luckly bidder could take home... A bit of glue and a few clamps it'll be as good as new.....

www.petetownshend.co.uk/diary/display.cfm?id=115&zone=pr

I know that a broken guitar makes a lot of us cringe... but the odd part is when it comes to crazy fans with lots of cash that are collecting stars instruments at auctions, a Broken Townshend guitar brings in a lot more money then one that is still in one piece.... It has become his trade mark.... On Petes site he has been trying to sell a new Gibson SG for $10,000 British Pounds... It is one of 10 prototypes that Gibson gave him when they were working on the PT signature SG... It has not sold in the last few years! He sold 9 but that last one has not sold....

It's all for charity anyways....

WhoFan

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

Gibson could put that in a case, ship it to the nearest GC, sell it, and the customer probably wouldn't be surprised. They'd just start another "Gibson QC Issue" thread! :laugh2:

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

Gibson could put that in a case, ship it to the nearest GC, sell it, and the customer probably wouldn't be surprised. They'd just start another "Gibson QC Issue" thread! :laugh2:

That would be good for a laugh..... on a another site i have a hard time telling a Gibson fan how bad the setups are on a lot of new Gibsons... I unpacked some new SG's once and the saddles were all over the place.... no intonation done at all... This one guy does not believe that Gibson would ever ship out a guitar that was really far off spec!

WhoFan

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

he looks really upset and full of regret after smashing it :laugh2:

 

[big_black]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

Good for Pete if he can raise some money for charity, but I find the idea silly and an utter, pointless waste. Why not just sign it? The fact he did it back in the day was revolutionary and dangerous, but it's just silly and cartoonish today.

 

[mnbaseball91]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

Just goes to show how strong Gibson neck joints are these days. It only took one hit!

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

he looks really upset and full of regret after smashing it :laugh2:

Looks to me like he's trying to remember where he keeps his gas and matches

 

[gripweed]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

Gibson could put that in a case, ship it to the nearest GC, sell it, and the customer probably wouldn't be surprised. They'd just start another "Gibson QC Issue" thread! :laugh2:

I wonder how longg it will be that some enterprising person smashes a guitar and puts it on ebay as one that Pete smashed

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

Good for Pete if he can raise some money for charity, but I find the idea silly and an utter, pointless waste. Why not just sign it? The fact he did it back in the day was revolutionary and dangerous, but it's just silly and cartoonish today.

Well i think it would of been better if he had smashed at a performance.... But these days he only uses Fender guitar and amps for Live Electric guitar playing... He uses a bunch a Gibson J200's for acoustic work and he has smashed them too.. On David Letterman he killed a J200..... I have a video of Pete smashing a Clapton strat in 2000 and he had a hard time getting it to break! Kind of funny to watch... Those strats are tough!

The idea is to get music artists, and some movie stars to sign, or paint Gibson guitars for the Charity.... check Guitar Center for some of the other Gibsons in the charity signed and painted by others.... This is just Pete's way of adding his well known touchs to a collectors item...

Any Smashed Les Pauls from Pete's 70's Who days are worth a small fortune!!!! Most of Pete's smashed guitars were repaired and smashed again and again.... The Who always had the best techs around... Pete is extremely handy with repairing guitars as well... In the 60's before they had money he had to repair his guitars for the next show, which was sometimes 5 shows a night like in NY on their first vists to America.... You can see photos of Pete with Teles with strat necks and Strats with Tele necks.... They got really good at glueing guitars back together... Even the smashed SG from Woodstock that Pete threw out into the audience was taken away from the audience by The Who's Roadies and used again. It is now in the hands of The Hard Rock...

Oddly most of Pete's favourite studio guitars have been broken and repaired.... His Les Paul Deluxe from the Kids movie has been smashed 2 times but he still has it and plays it, His 1957 Gretch Chet Atkins was broken on the Top Of The Pops in 1973... One of his favourite acoustics is the neck from one guitar and the body from another...

Pete is a strange dude

WhoFan

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

I wonder how longg it will be that some enterprising person smashes a guitar and puts it on ebay as one that Pete smashed

It's been done before!!!! Lots of fake stuff on EBAY.... I was laughing oneday when i saw a seller had lots of albums by different bands signed by the artists.. He had 1982's It's Hard signed by all 4 members of The Who..... Including Moon who died in 1978!!!!! Kenny Jones was on It's Hard and Face Dances... I would never buy that kind of stuff off EBAY. A friend of mine bought a bunch of rare Who acetates that turned out to be fakes.... $1000 down the drain..... Crazy! I'm a huge Who Fan but i will not spend huge sums of money to buy stuff the band signed or owned in the past.. Seems pointless to me unless i have met the artist face to face..

WhoFan

 

[B2D]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

Good for Pete if he can raise some money for charity, but I find the idea silly and an utter, pointless waste. Why not just sign it? The fact he did it back in the day was revolutionary and dangerous, but it's just silly and cartoonish today.

I agree 100%

Such wasteful behavior makes me angry.

 

[gripweed]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

I agree 100%

Such wasteful behavior makes me angry.

Pete got awfully sick of it too for the same reasons I think. But I don't think its wasteful at all. People want it and it makes $$$ for charity. Seems like a win/win to me.

 

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

On a sidenote - That looks to me like a long neck tenon, am I right?

So much for people saying how the glue is stronger than the wood itself - Look it broke right out of the body. Didn't splinter or anything.

 

[big_black]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

On a sidenote - That looks to me like a long neck tenon, am I right?

So much for people saying how the glue is stronger than the wood itself - Look it broke right out of the body. Didn't splinter or anything.

I doubt that is a long tenon- it's a Studio. A long tenon extends into the neck pickup route and probably would no have broken so easily or cleanly.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Don't loan Pete your Les Paul

Pete got awfully sick of it too for the same reasons I think. But I don't think its wasteful at all. People want it and it makes $$$ for charity. Seems like a win/win to me.

Ya Pete got tired as in the 60's he felt that the audience was coming to see them just to watch them smash their gear at the end of My Generation... Pete's first guitar breaking was an accident. The who playing a show in 63 or 64 where in a club with a low ceiling.... Pete had accidently broke the headstock off a RIC on the ceiling .... embarrased he smashed what was left of the guitar and picked up his spare. The next week playing the same Club, The Railway Hotel, Was packed with people. From then on the Who's managers kept asking him to break guitars. Pete really felt breaking a guitar was art... at Art school in London he found an artist that would break things and frame them. This artist was quite popular at the time. Pete couldn't understand why some people are drawn to seeing something get damaged, broken. But it helped make the Who stars... The reason behind art is to create a feeling of some sort thru the art... People get alsorts of different feelings seeing a guitar break... Pete called it POP ART in the 60's....

On the 71 Who's Next tour he started to break less and less guitars..... By the mid 70's the only time he smashed a guitar was after what he saw as a bad night or if he was in a bad mood.. Or if he was really happy too.... The 1973 Xmas shows in London England saw pete in an extremely happy mood smashing 2 Les Pauls in a single show... same thin gat Philly Dec 1975.... But in New York Pete had a nervous breakdown almost while on stage... Pete and Moon went on a rampage and Moon helped Pete smash 4 Les Pauls and the Hiwatts and the drum kit..

WhoFan