Everyone loves a good fail video, right? This week I spent some time trawling the furthest reaches of the interwebs (aka YouTube) in order to showcase 25 of the funniest videos of guitar fails around.
Most of these clips are of musicians falling over and/or hurting themselves (or their guitars), but there are also a few pranks and bizarre moments thrown in for good measure.
You might even learn a thing or two that’ll help you to avoid your own fails in the future. Grab a cup of coffee and get ready for some hearty belly laughs!
Funny Guitar Fails
Guitar Spin Fail Videos
We’ll start off the list with some classic guitar spin fails – you just cannot go wrong with recording your friends attempting to throw their guitars over their heads. Oh no, wait, you definitely can…
This next guy is attempting to perform his first-ever guitar flip. And the pressure is on, as he’s trying it in front of all of his friends.
He’s so incredibly pumped when he manages it that you can’t help but feel terrible for him when he subsequently fails.
In the next video, the guy is feeling super confident about safely pulling off the maneuver as he has just installed some new strap-locks. The strap locks performed their job admirably, but unfortunately, the strap itself let the team down.
Luckily, it looks like the guitar survived the ordeal in one piece. However, who knows if it was still playable!
Guitars Being Launched
You’d think that a guitar flip would be even harder to execute with a bass due to the instrument being longer. Nonetheless, this player gives it a solid go.
After failing spectacularly and almost taking out the drummer in the process, this bassist simply walks straight off stage. Presumably to scream into a pillow…
This next video is made all the funnier by the fact that he’s attempting to spin his guitar in a park. Which you’d think is a pretty good place to practice…
He’s surrounded by grass which would soften the blow if he were to drop the guitar. In a classic guitar fail twist, he manages to launch his axe into the only hard landing place in view – the picnic table!
This next video has to be one of the most spectacular guitar spin fails ever. The guy absolutely launches his axe into the stratosphere! Needless to say, the guitar did not survive its unexpected flight. #RIP.
Guitar To The Face
In all of these videos so far it is the guitar that has taken a beating. However, in this next video, the guitar finally gets its revenge and absolutely beans the singer in the face. Ouch!
To his credit, the frontman takes it in his stride and carries on with the show. The guitarist also couldn’t seem to care less – maybe it’s a regular occurrence.
Here’s another funny guitar video where it’s the player that injures himself rather than the instrument.
After nailing the move the first time, on his second try, he manages to almost give himself a nasty concussion!
Air Guitar Fails
Because you really should master the guitar god poses before moving on to playing at the same time, right? This video very quickly goes from being fairly bizarre, to utter carnage and mayhem.
Musicians Falling Over
If you’ve got two left feet it might be best to avoid the on-stage acrobatics.
Whilst recording a music video, this bassist manages to fall off his amp, landing squarely on his ass. The drum kit was super close to being demolished as well!
In this next video, the guitarist is trying to get back onto the stage. After hopping up from the crowd, he accidentally trips and stumbles headfirst into his amplifier.
It looks like his guitar might have taken more of the brunt of the impact than the amp though!
In this next funny guitar video, the guitarist is giving it the full rock-god pose with one foot on his floor monitor.
Unfortunately for him, the monitor topples over into the crowd, sending him tumbling to the floor. How embarrassing!
In the following clip, the bassist makes a mightily impressive leap onto the top of his enormous bass cabs. Quite the feat!
Sadly, he fails to keep his balance and immediately tumbles off the back and takes a rather large plunge into whatever is lurking behind. Looks like a painful one for sure!
Pro Guitarists Failing
Because even veteran musicians can screw up sometimes…
In this first video, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl accidentally trips and takes a huge fall off the stage. Ultimately, he broke his leg but still managed to finish the show – what a legend!
Keep your eyes on the kid in the blue top and yellow pants in this next one. Metallica’s Kirk Hammett is too busy kicking giant balls into the crowd to realize that the child is standing behind one of them.
Needless to say, the kid gets launched… Oops!
Here’s another Metallica fail, this time from frontman James Hetfield. The guitar James is using has some electrical issues, resulting in a comically weak-sounding intro to their track Fade To Black.
Being the professional that he is, James has fun with it and gets a giggle from the crowd. Nice save, James!
In June 2022, while playing in front of over 70,000 people at Hellfest, DragonForce shred guitarist Herman Li managed to break his guitar in half live on stage.
To make matters worse, the guitar he broke was a $30,000 private stock PRS!
Nick Jonas Guitar Fail
And who can forget this absolutely classic Nick Jonas guitar fail? The meme lords and ladies were truly blessed that year…ouch!
So bad I gave this live disaster its own section!
Ready, Set, Recor…ah S#%T!
Failing before you even start your video performance…priceless!
In this first video, the guitarist’s chair gives way, sending him and his Les Paul tumbling into the piano where he immediately becomes stuck. Warning – there are plenty of profanities in this one!
In this next funny guitar video, the player is about to record his next YouTube masterpiece when his strap gives way.
The guitar crashes to the floor, leading to that noise that every guitarist hopes they never hear!
Who can forget the Treeman, aka the angriest guitar player in the world? Watch him try (and fail) to play a specific section of this song. There’s plenty of swearing, temper tantrums, and even a broken guitar!
The good news is that he did eventually manage to learn the piece, and included it on his next EP release.
You might think twice about abusing the tremolo arm on your Stratocaster after watching this next video. This guitarist’s whammy bar lets him down right in the middle of a tasty jam session!
It had to take some amount of force to snap where it did! Who knew that could even happen?!
Guitar Prank Videos & Other Guitar Fails
Ah, the good old crank your amp to 11 and scare the absolute crap out of your sleeping buddy prank.
This guy must be an incredibly deep sleeper if the sound of that super loud amp switch didn’t wake him up first!
And the reward for the most bizarre guitar fail video in this definitely goes to this next guy. For whatever reason, he records himself trying to break his acoustic guitar by repeatedly slamming it against his head.
Comically, after finally achieving his goal and collapsing on a heap on the floor, his mother seems more concerned about the mess he has made of her house rather than her now no doubt concussed son.
Finally, who can forget this viral video from 2013?
In it, a non-guitar player attempts to build an electric guitar by combining a guitar and electricity. For this reason, there are many belly laughs contained within this video.
More Guitar Fails
Itching for even more guitar fails to watch? Presently, there’s a great channel on YouTube called RockStar Fail that you can follow for regular round-ups of funny guitar videos.
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Thumbnail image credit: Joshua Spitsbergen/YouTube
