Jack White never wanted to use a Stratocaster because they were “overused” and “indicative of white boy blues”
When you think of the most quintessential electric guitars, the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul invariably come to mind. But as Jack White explains in a new interview with Reverb, their ubiquity turned him off the idea as a young guitarist.
Instead, the White Stripes man was attracted to less conventional guitars at the time, like Silvertones and Airlines.
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“[In my late teens], I decidedly hated anything to do with Stratocasters, Les Pauls – any of the common instruments that you see everybody use,” White says.
“I just thought it’s so overused, and so indicative of ‘white boy blues’ if you had a Stratocaster, or you’re heavy metal if you use this kind of guitar.
“It just seemed like, I would rather try to find something that didn’t have any connotations already thrown on it. So I was attracted to Silvertones and Airlines and things that you just didn’t see on TV or on videos.”
The guitarist does admit, however, that the popularity of a particular guitar model depends heavily on the time period.
“In the ‘90s in general – if I had a Silvertone guitar, to me, in Detroit, I never saw anybody use that guitar,” he continues. “I never saw anybody on TV, definitely nobody playing shows or anybody I knew that owned one. So when I was using it, it felt very unique.
“But then you start talking to older people, and it’s like, ‘When I was a kid, that’s all anybody had, was Silvertones. Nobody had enough money to pay for a real guitar.
“[It’s] different time periods, you know – now you can obviously see everything, but in your own zone, it’s just [about] trying to find a uniqueness; a new voice for yourself. I didn’t wanna use the same tool that everyone else was using.
“I’m glad I did that. I’m glad I had that desire to carve something out. Because once you do that, then you can rewind, and put on one of those more common guitars and get something out of it.
Watch the full Reverb interview below:
The post Jack White never wanted to use a Stratocaster because they were “overused” and “indicative of white boy blues” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
