Who holds the record for the longest guitar solo?
A guitar solo can be a magnificent thing, elevating a song to boundless heights and leaving a considerable impact on the listener. Guitar solos have the ability to transcend listeners to another listening plane, wrapping us up in lucid rhythms and mind-bending technical skills.
However, guitar solos can also be incredibly over-indulgent. We’ve all been there – watching an overly-enthused guitarist play a solo for a few moments too long, turning what should be a short burst of excellence into an excessively extravagant chance to show off.
There are many popular rock songs, however, that contain overly long guitar solos, which hasn’t stopped them from becoming beloved hits. Songs like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Free Bird’ and Credence Clearwater Revival’s ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ are noted for their lengthy solos, becoming certified classics for that very reason.
For some, playing an incredibly long guitar solo is the ultimate challenge, testing their technical and creative abilities. This was the case for Austin-based musician David DiDonato, who challenged himself to set the world record for the longest guitar solo ever played in 2012. He succeeded, playing non-stop for 25 hours and 55 minutes.
DiDonato had played the guitar for over 20 years before attempting the record-smashing challenge, beginning his career in bands like Jolly Mortals and Ultimate Dragons. He live-streamed the miraculous feat, making sure to provide audiences with plenty of entertainment.
He told Richmond Magazine, “I did a couple things where I pretended like I was going to pass out and stuff. It was for the people. I got most tired in the early afternoon. Like around lunchtime. I had no idea if anyone was even watching. I found out afterwards there were over 40,000 people who tuned in.”
When prompted to discuss the state of his fingers after playing for over a day straight, DiDonato explained, “They’re actually totally fine, which is surprising. They’re not even really calloused or anything. My wife, she was great during this. She brought me food. She’s a nurse, so [afterwards] she was like, ‘You need to ice this and keep it elevated.'”
To keep playing interesting, the musician said he “tried to switch it up as much as I could.” To do so, he “used five different guitars plugged into four different amps. And so for each one of them, it was a sort of a different kind of style.” He continued, “One was a seven-string guitar that I tuned all to E and A and plugged it into a bass amp so I could strum that and make it drone — so that nobody could say, ‘Oh, he stopped.’ There were some mean Internet comments, but nobody ever said that.”
Watch a clip of DiDonato’s live stream below.
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