Whenever you consider the most quintessential electrical guitars, the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul invariably come to thoughts. However as Jack White explains in a brand new interview with Reverb, their ubiquity turned him off the thought as a younger guitarist.

As a substitute, the White Stripes man was drawn to much less typical guitars on the time, like Silvertones and Airways.

“[In my late teens], I decidedly hated something to do with Stratocasters, Les Pauls – any of the widespread devices that you just see everyone use,” White says. 

“I simply thought it’s so overused, and so indicative of ‘white boy blues’ for those who had a Stratocaster, otherwise you’re heavy steel for those who use this sort of guitar. 

“It simply appeared like, I might moderately attempt to discover one thing that didn’t have any connotations already thrown on it. So I used to be drawn to Silvertones and Airways and issues that you just simply didn’t see on TV or on movies.”

The guitarist does admit, nonetheless, that the recognition of a specific guitar mannequin relies upon closely on the time interval.

“Within the ‘90s usually – if I had a Silvertone guitar, to me, in Detroit, I by no means noticed anyone use that guitar,” he continues. “I by no means noticed anyone on TV, undoubtedly no one enjoying reveals or anyone I knew that owned one. So once I was utilizing it, it felt very distinctive. 

“However then you definitely begin speaking to older individuals, and it’s like, ‘After I was a child, that’s all anyone had, was Silvertones. No one had sufficient cash to pay for an actual guitar.

“[It’s] totally different time durations, – now you possibly can clearly see every little thing, however in your individual zone, it’s simply [about] looking for a uniqueness; a brand new voice for your self. I didn’t wanna use the identical software that everybody else was utilizing. 

“I’m glad I did that. I’m glad I had that need to carve one thing out. As a result of when you do this, then you possibly can rewind, and placed on a type of extra widespread guitars and get one thing out of it.

Watch the complete Reverb interview beneath:

Sam is the Affiliate Information Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Completely immersed in music tradition for almost all of his life, Sam has performed guitar for 20 years, studied music know-how and manufacturing at college, and likewise written for the likes of Guitar World, Whole Guitar, Steel Hammer and MusicRadar.