Get an up-close look at the tone wizard’s rig for his action-packed 2024 tour.
It’s been a busy year for Jack White. The enigmatic artist and Third Man Records boss rolled out his sixth solo album, No Name, this summer, first as secret, unmarked vinyls distributed to Third Man customers, then with a full-blown digital release on August 2. He celebrated the record with a tour of last-minute-notice, small-room gigs around the U.S., proving that mystery and randomness can still exist in the world of algorithms and overblown marketing.
That’s not all. In September, Fender and White launched a line of signature products that were years in the making, including the eye-popping Pano Verb amplifier and feature-packed Triplecaster. PG’s John Bohlinger scored an invite to White’s Nashville headquarters to do a full walk-through of White’s current touring rig, courtesy of tech and collaborator Dan Mancini.
Here’s a sneak peek at some key pieces of White’s arsenal, but you’ll have to watch the full rundown to catch Jack’s custom Jazzmaster with some Mancini-executed “redneck engineering,” his new Triplesonic Acoustasonic model, and a cameo from the Third Man himself—right after Bohlinger accidentally breaks one of his guitars.
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This Jack White Triplecaster Telecaster is the culmination of White’s career of tinkering, tweaking, and optimizing his favorite pieces of gear. This Frankenstein’s monster is packed with features, like a kill switch on the lower bout, a Bigsby B5 Vibrato, a Hipshot Xtender to jump into drop-D tuning, and a three-way switch that can kill the signal or bypass the guitar’s tone circuit. White’s personal model, though, also counts a B-bender system he started using on the Raconteurs’ 2019 tour, which doesn’t come with the production-line models.
White worked with Fender pickup guru Tim Shaw to build the three-pickup arrangement. The custom Jack White Humbucker in the bridge was inspired by a Shaw-built pickup Jack heard in his wife’s guitar; the middle JW-90 is a Shaw-voiced, P-90-inspired unit; and the neck bears a Jack White Cunife Wide-Range Humbucker.
Two other Triplecasters, finished in sparkle blue, lurk near at hand, too. They’re all strung with .010–.046 strings.
A special, Mancini-modded Fender Jazzmaster in sparkle blue also figures into White’s current rotation. It’s loaded with Tim Shaw Firebird pickups, and Mancini managed to squeeze the guts of an Electro-Harmonix Pitchfork pedal into the body, along with the required controls. It takes .011–.049 strings.
Kay.O.
According to Mancini, White has had this vintage Kay Archtop since he was 20 years old—he shares its origin story in the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud. With 25 years of service to one of rock’s most heavy-handed guitarists, it’s been through the ringer. Mancini has executed fix-ups over the years as needed, including a binding patch he whipped up at BBC’s Maida Vale studios using old console knobs.
For other acoustic-ish set pieces, White calls on his signature Triplesonic Acoustasonic Telecaster, strung with .012–0.53s.
Jack White's 2024 Pedalboard and Amp
White’s signature Fender Pano Verb combines some of his favorite amps into a dream scenario, where the best vintage elements are housed alongside modern capabilities. Influenced in large part by his 1964 Fender Vibroverb, the 70-watt Pano Verb uses two 6L6 and two 6V6 power tubes to deliver its stereo sound, which is realized via one 15" Jensen C15N and one 10" Jensen P10R speaker. The onboard spring reverb can be sent to both speakers, or just the P10R for a different flavor. The tremolo can be split up to run in either stereo or mono, and there’s a built-in boost to drive the amp even harder.
Currently, White has three Pano Verbs onstage, and runs one amp at a time: The center-stage amp for his electric, the stage-right one for his Kay, and the stage-left box as a backup.
White builds on that substantial base sound with what Mancini describes as a “modular” pedalboard setup, consisting of two boards. The first is White’s “burger and drink” board, the things he has to have; the other is his “fries and milkshake” board, the things that would be nice to bring along but aren’t 100 percent necessary.
There are a few prototype and unreleased boxes that Mancini skips over, but aside from those, White’s stomp setup, from nose to tail, includes a Boss TU-3W, Radial BigShot ABY, Dunlop Cry Baby, DigiTech Whammy, MXR x Third Man Hardware Double Down Pedal, rehoused Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, Donner x Third Man Hardware Triple Threat, rehoused Klon Centaur, ISP Technologies Deci-Mate, CopperSound Pedals Triplegraph, Anasounds La Grotte, Eventide Knife Drop, Union Tube & Transistor Bumble Buzz, Third Man Records x Mantic Flex, and Third Man Records x Gamechanger Audio Plasma Coil.
Shop Jack White's Rig
Jack White Triplesonic Acoustasonic Telecaster
Jack White Triplecaster Telecaster
Third Man Records x Gamechanger Audio Plasma Coil
The body shape of this 6-string seems surprisingly ergonomic, but that perception changes when you hold its neck!
And so it goes that I pondered this proliferation of Virgos and Libras, and my hypothesis came into focus. Were we all the result of our parents’ Christmas and New Year’s celebrations?! I have to say, there was a camaraderie discovered among my fellow party babies when I presented my findings to them. Now, being born in the early ’70s also had me thinking of the culture of the times. Hippie life was fading as young people started to realize they had to get a job, and alas, long hair and beards were being replaced by staid 9-to-5 gigs that could slowly suck the life out of you. So, given the cultural mores of that era, I thought that this month I should write about the Sorrento Swinger.
“Hippie life was fading as young people started to realize they had to get a job.”
Born around 1967—maybe in September—these Swingers hailed from the “crazy” design period of the Kawai Co. Kawai produced some of the coolest guitar designs from 1967 to ’69, and there were some very creative guitar designers there on the job. Kawai had poached some of the finest employees from the wreckage of the Shinko Gakki factory (Pleasant, Intermark, etc.) and through the purchase of the Teisco brand. In this era, Kawai usually used three different standard pickups and they all sound great, plus the units are always wired in series, which is just awesome.
For a 25-buck, Japan-made guitar from the ’70s, the Swinger has an elite-looking headstock—and, on this example, most of its tuners.
Now, the Swinger (and similar Kawai-made guitars) came from an era where U.S. importers would order small batches of instruments that were often unique and extremely gonzo. The guitars might have been destined for medium-sized music stores or direct-order catalogs, but whatever the case, the importer usually gave the guitars names. In this instance, it was Jack Westheimer who featured this model as an “exclusive” design. In Westheimer Corporation catalogs from the time, the Swinger carried the A-2T model name (there was another one-pickup model called the A-1) and sold wholesale for $25 in 1967! As the catalog mentioned, these were “priced for the teenaged trade.” This particular guitar featured the Sorrento badge, and was sold through some sort of music store that’s probably long out of business, but all the Swingers were the same.
The Swinger’s large mahogany neck (sans truss rod) is robust and beefy in all the nicest ways. Like, when I was a kid, I was considered a “husky” fit. That’s this neck: husky! The striped pickguard is a Teisco holdover and the controls are as simple as it gets. Two knobs (volume, tone) and two pickup selectors is all there is, but the beauty is in the body. That lower bout is shaped like some sort of 1969 lounge chair. The strap pin is totally in the wrong place, but the big bottom swoop is worth it. Yep, the Swinger was ready to bring in the dawn of the 1970s, but alas, the guitar came and went in a blink.
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