Speaking of Ritchie Blackmore, I have to vent a little. Great player who definitely brought a lot of speed into the hard rock world, paving the way for shredders, but he smashed guitars in the weakest most pathetic manner. Most smasher guitarists used the thing like a pickaxe, but Blackers always limply threw the thing around by the neck then bounced the headstock off the stage until it broke. Pretty boring. I watched that Rainbow live video once, where he has Taurus bass pedals onstage and slowly, and tediously, smashes a black Strat.