windmills and impalement

[Kevin Winn <kwinn@steptech.com>]

Mike Hanley writes:
>There was a radio broadcast in Canada, from CFOX in Vancouver the night
>after Pete Spiked his hand.  They talked about it in detail.
>According to Roger, "It was on the last note of Won't Get Fooled Again".
>Then he muttered that the local attending doctor said if he was asked to   
put
>an object through a hand with minimal damage, he'd be hard pressed, but   
Pete
>managed to do it.
>(no encore, i guess)  :--)

I was there.  TacomaDome.  Rog was correct - it was on the last note of   
WGFA.  I was watching Pete windmilling through the final chords (big   
surprise), and he sort of crumpled up on the last one.  He then reached   
up with his left hand, tore the guitar off, tossed it on the stage, and   
RAN off stage, doubled over, holding his right hand against his body,   
before the rest of the band had even noticed there was nothing more than   
noise coming from the guitar.  Bewildered looking, the rest of the band   
left the stage.  After several minutes of thundering applause Roger, John   
and the orchestra came back out, and Roger said something like "Pete's on   
his way to the 'ospital, but we still wanna play..." to which the crowd   
went nuts and they started into "Hey Joe" or "Born On The Bayou" (can't   
remember which was first).  They played an encore but it was "Pete-less."


Michael Mullins adds:
>Did he actually put the bar all
>the way through his hand?  It's difficult for me to imagine exactly how   
that
>would happen; the tip of your average Fender tremolo arm being covered   
in a
>semi-rounded plastic casing, one would think that, if anything, it would
>simply knock the heck out of both your hand and the bar in a glancing   
impact.  But I
>guess if you get your arm moving fast enough....

The report I heard was that he did run the thing all the way through.  I   
think he was using Schecter equipment at that time (JeffW help me out   
here), and their tremolo arms (known to the less-cultured as Whammy Bar   
or Twang Bar) didn't have that knob on the end, and were slender machined   
aluminum of about 3/8" diameter, with a little point on the end.  It   
would not be too difficult (especially considering the velocity and force   
that PT can generate) that he could put one through his hand.

There's also been some speculation about the violent windmilling and   
whether or not PT is actually hitting the strings.

Having Pete and John as primary musical influences, and having the   
opportunity in college to play in the local club scene, I've been   
windmilling on guitar and bass for years. It's not that tough to hit the   
strings.  One thing I've noticed about Pete is that he doesn't always hit   
the strings with the pick - you can sort of bounce your fist off the   
strings and get a decent sound.  Hell, just thumping the body of the   
guitar with a chord fretted will produce a decent soun.  Any source of   
vibration to those strings is going to be transferred to the pickups.   
 I've seen him fret some windmills, but (most often) I've seen him   
actually contact (in some form or another) the guitar or strings   
themselves.

In case you're wondering, it IS a real kick in the butt to windmill on a   
Rickenbacker bass.  Especially when it's played through a 100-watt   
Hiwatt....   :)

OK,
KLW