SubscribeWhile analyzing Jack White's guitar playing, there are certain techniques and points of interest I have come across that are helpful when playing his songs. Certain tabs become much easier to comprehend with a basic understanding of the way Jack plays guitar.
IMPROVISATION
There is a fair amount of improvisation in White Stripes recordings, and on stage they do not often play a song the same way twice. Some of their most complex songs aren't suitable for detailed, unabridged tabbing because they are meant to be improvised. As a result, I tend to tab songs like "Death Letter" and "Little Bird" more on the basis of technique than perfection, supplying the tools and the directions and letting you build the song. The White Stripes play blues, and their most important trait is contextual honesty, not musical accuracy.
MINIMALISM
A good rule of thumb when playing White Stripes is that Jack is a minimalist; that is, he generally plays intuitively and does not do anything fancy or unnecessary. Any of his riffs that can be played with open notes, or low on the neck as opposed to high, usually are. Any fifth ("power") chords that can be played lower on the neck, such as A5 and B5, are usually played that way (unless they are accompanied by higher chords). He doesn't usually play full chords when they aren't necessary. He'll bar an A major chord as long as the high e isn't sounded, and hold only the fragments of chords that are sounded. Jack also has a peculiar way of holding high fifth chords, with his index finger on the root note and his little finger on the fifth or barring the fifth and octave.
TUNINGS
GUIDE TO OPEN TUNINGS
Jack uses the standard three blues tunings: Open D, Open G ("Spanish" tuning), and Standard, though Jack's guitar is often tuned up (Open E and Open A). I use a few other tunings when transposing piano songs, but they are open to interpretation. The main difficulty with Jack's tunings is that, especially on his earlier tracks, he is simply not in tune. Since he isn't playing with any other tonal instruments, it isn't a concern. He is so often a half step up or down (or somewhere in between) that, as long as it seems unintentional, I do not notate it in my tabs. As Jack once said in an interview, "I love when my guitar is out of tune." If you would like to play along to the recordings, it is easiest to tune your guitar from his bass note.
EQUIPMENT
It is important to keep in mind that every piece of equipment in a given setup affects the final sound. Jack's equipment will not necessarily sound the same through a different setup.
On stage, Jack PLAYS:
Two 1964 JB Hutto Montgomery Airlines
A Harmony Rocket
A 1970's Crestwood Astral II
A 1950's Kay Hollowbody
Which he PLUGS INTO:
A 1970's Fender Twin Reverb
Two 100-Watt Sears Silvertone 6x10 combos
Using at least the following PEDALS:
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff (Distortion / Sustainer)
Digitech Whammy (Octave divider)
Boss CS-3 (Compression / Sustainer)
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posted by ageispolis at 8:31 PM on July 5, 2007