Decades on from Pete Townshend doing it, smashing an electric guitar onstage still causes quite a kerfuffle for people. Except it's even more divisive now in these times of social media court and jury. Some are thrilled, many are outraged. And when the artist plans it in advance, is it any less impactful? Well, Phoebe Bridgers probably doesn't care about that but she was kind enough to let Danelectro known in advance that she was going to smash one of their guitars on Saturday Night Live last week.
At the climax of an impressive two-song airing from last year's superb Punisher album with a seven-piece band, Bridgers set about trying to destroy her Danelectro 56 as you can see above.
It seems Danelectro knew this wouldn't be a simple task as Bridgers revealed in an exchange with Jason Isbell after the performance. And the company was right – the guitar held up well to a beating over a monitor.
I told danelectro I was going to do it and they wished me luck and told me they’re hard to breakFebruary 7, 2021
Isbell was defending the act against outraged guitar fans who can't fathom why anyone would smash an instrument. But it also begs a question, where can Jason Isbell get $85 Danelectros from and can he send us a link please?
But we're not sure if Bridgers is joking to fellow musician Kathleen Edwards about the monitor being fake, or if we can process that right now.
they made me a fake one to break lolFebruary 7, 2021
Check out Bridgers' proceeding SNL performance of her song Kyoto below. It's good.
“There’s three of us playing guitar in Foo Fighters… A lot of tone details can get lost, which is what drew me to the Cleaver – that P-90 cut”: Chris Shiflett on how he found his weapon of choice with his Fender Cleaver Telecaster Deluxe
“Notes dance rhythmically, almost creating a reverb diffusion. Those notes are held together with tape-style effects”: Keeley Electronics and Andy Timmons unveil the Halo Core – same modulated dual echo magic, simplified controls
“There’s three of us playing guitar in Foo Fighters… A lot of tone details can get lost, which is what drew me to the Cleaver – that P-90 cut”: Chris Shiflett on how he found his weapon of choice with his Fender Cleaver Telecaster Deluxe
“Notes dance rhythmically, almost creating a reverb diffusion. Those notes are held together with tape-style effects”: Keeley Electronics and Andy Timmons unveil the Halo Core – same modulated dual echo magic, simplified controls
