Swedish shredder Yngwie Malmsteen is best known for his neoclassical take on heavy metal and impeccable shredding abilities, but he's also chosen to use his crowd-pleasing skills to smash a six-string or two in his day. Guitar makers Sandvik put the strong-armed virtuoso to the ultimate test with their "smash-proof" instrument, challenging him to try his best to break one of the all-metal guitars on stage.
The two-minute video proof of Malmsteen's efforts is a cinematic look at his attempts, from the performance footage in which he tosses the guitar high into the air and watches it crash into the stage, to his gleefully violent effort to destroy amps with his brute force and the indestructible axe. "When I was seven, I saw Jimmy Hendrix smashing a guitar on TV," the long-haired rocker claims in a sit-down clip tucked into the promo. "So I decided to start playing guitar so I could smash it."
Sprinkled throughout the chat are clips of Malmsteen throughtout his career, wildly bashing away at the end of his renowned performances. "I've probably smashed over a hundred guitars," he continues before clips showing the Sandvik engineers hard at work planning and constructing their unbreakable model.
Touted as "the strongest steel structure ever" with a "3D printed body in titanium," the instrument looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic battle to the death. Sleek and intimidating, Malmsteen weilds the guitar on stage and tries over and over to break it, ultimately giving up the battle when he realizes he's no match for the piece.
"Wow. I feel like I just came out of a boxing ring. 12 fucking rounds," he claims. "To break it is impossible, but you can break other things with it." The video ends with a triumphant Malmsteen raising the guitar high over his head while the crowd cheers on. Read more about the sturdy instrument here.
