Guitar and equipment smashing
Muse are a band that make use of guitar and equipment smash, especially in their early days. Matthew Bellamy explains in a interview in Japan [1] that the reason for guitar smashing is either bad concerts where they experience "negative energy" or sometimes just for fun. Or also sometimes if the guitar was not working properly or if it was a guitar which didn't feel good to play Matt Bellamy would smash it.
Matt has the world record at breaking guitars, he smashed 140 guitars at the Absolution tour 2004.
Ibanez guitars are always smashed or thrown into the crowd. So if you see an Ibanez guitar during a Muse concert you will know it's shouting for help.
Matt Bellamy usually smashes his guitar on his own or sometimes he jumps on Chris Wolstenholme's back and falls into the drum set like in Paris live at le Zénith during their Hullabaloo tour. Matt Bellamy also takes the drum apart one by one like he did in Earls Court in 2004. During 2001 in the Hullabaloo era a lot of equipment smashing was made with champagne splashing included.
The band still smash equipment today. In the first of the two V Festival gigs, at the end of Knights of Cydonia, Matt threw his Chrome Bomber Manson across the stage. And throughout the Black Holes and Resistance tours, Matt has been throwing his Glitterati Manson around too. This guitar met it's demise when it was pulled off one of the towers in the L.A Staples Centre gig.
Videos of guitar smashes
- Emex Londaxe Died at the Astoria
- Gretsch G1627 Synchromatic Sparkle Jet Must be noted that the guitar was not completely damaged by this as the guitar was used again
- Ibanez Destroyer An exampleof one of the many killed Destroyers
- Ibanez Iceman At the end of the video, an Iceman is throw, which hits Dom
- Manson Red Glitter This guitar has been the victim of throwing before. The guitar Guitar was thrown but has since been repaired.
- Manson Mirror At the War Child gig Matt smashed this guitar first into Dom's bass drum, then a few times into his Dickinson amp and finally across Dom's drum kit. Some pieces of the mirror cover can be seen detached during the impacts.
- Peavy Wolfgang
- PRS Billy Martin