THE GREAT WHITE WAY
WHEN WE CELEBRATED Jack White as one of our 25 guitar innovators in the April 2022 issue, we found ourselves in a dilemma. Should we acknowledge him for helping to popularize the use of cheap vintage axes from the 1960s, a nod to his early years of success with the White Stripes? Or should we honor him as one of modern rock guitar’s leading gear customizers and the man behind an in-demand line of effects pedals built by his Third Man Hardware with companies like Gamechanger Audio and Union Tube & Transistor?
In the end we decided to celebrate the former achievement, and with good reason. We’d learned that Jack had granted Guitar Player exclusive access to his gear collection, a mouth-watering assemblage of custom guitars and pedals — not to mention, the celebrated 1964 “JB Hutto” Montgomery Ward Airline guitar from his White Stripes days. It was a trove worthy of its own cover story and gear spread, which is what we bring to you this month.
I’ve been working to have Jack in our pages for some time. He is a singularly unique guitarist whose style bridges garage rock, electric blues, art rock, country, folk and the same kind of proto-punk energy that fueled the MC5, the Stooges and other seminal rock groups from his native Detroit. His use of guitars and pedals to create a fireball of primal bent-string screaming is as refreshing as his desire for analog simplicity, whether recording to tape or plugging his guitar into a Whammy IV set for one octave down to mimic a bass guitar. And there’s just something inspiring about an artist who makes do with whatever is in the room, even if that means — as the guitars and pedals in this issue demonstrate — sometimes modifying them to meet your latest sonic and visual objectives. In White’s music, gear and career, punk unrest meets the classic American can-do spirit, the result of which is not only an impressive catalog but also his own Third Man record label and pedal company.
Credit for this issue’s insightful cover story goes to James Volpe Rotondi, who has returned with a deep dive into the Jack’s collection and the numerous modifications made to finishes, hardware, electronics and more. In addition, we’re thrilled to welcome to these pages the work of esteemed photographer Eleanor Jane, who shot Jack’s collection at Third Man Records in Nashville. You’ll be seeing more of her photography in future issues as we continue to present artists and gear collections from around the world.