Jack White has had a remarkably busy lockdown. If he’s not releasing a ground-breaking new octave pedal, he’s paying tribute to EVH on SNL, or buying guitars for buskers. And now, the 21st-century guitar hero has posted a new video that further cements his workaholic credentials, showcasing his perpetual work in progress: the Three-Wheel Motion Low Rider Fender Telecaster.
As the video above explains, the guitar began life as a B-Bender Telecaster given to White as a gift, but he soon began efforts to change it beyond recognition to suit his playing with the Raconteurs.
Fender Custom Shop builder Chip Ellis was the man tasked with making White’s dreams a reality, and boy, did he have a task ahead of him.
Aside from the fact that it already has a built-in B-bender – where shifting the strap bends the B string only – the Low Rider’s USP is an after-market Hipshot B-bender bridge, which adds an additional G and high E bender, as well as a switch that drops the low E down to a D.
The pickup configuration is unusual, too: a Lace Sensor single coil in the bridge, middle-position P-90 and a humbucker taken from a Fender Telecaster Thinline – most likely a Wide Range.
Despite the tonal potential, White opts to keep things simple with a three-way selector switch, while a kill switch is also on hand for stutter effects.
The guitar’s second iteration replaces much of the black hardware with white versions, adds an extended Cabronita pickguard, moves the killswitch and removes the E-bender. Just a few changes, then.
You can hear the Telecaster’s unique bending action on The Raconteurs’ Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying) below.
Who knows what it will look like next…
