1,623 Canadian Guitarists Fail to Break Guinness World Record
6/9/2009 By Greg Pratt

I wouldn’t call it a letdown when a mere 1,623 people get together to try to break the world record for most people playing guitar at once, but the sticklers over at Guinness (who make the book, not the beer) would.

In 2007, a shocking 1,802 folks gathered to play Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany (which incidentally also hosts the German Playing Card Museum). This past weekend though, 179 less convened in Toronto to jam Neil Young’s “Helpless,” reports the Guardian [via the Daily Swarm].

But, as impressive as the numbers were, a Guinness judge who flew in to observe the proceedings in Toronto — as is his job — declared it not quite Guinness material.

The event was looking to be a hit, with over 3,000 people downloading the song’s tablature to learn it. But the number that showed up was significantly less.

And the organizers must have known it wasn’t quite what they were hoping for from the get-go: once the guitarists entered the fenced-in area, they weren’t allowed to leave. Helpless, indeed.

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