It says something about the way we unconsciously pigeonhole artists that it was a little shocking to see Jack White use a customised EVH Wolfgang guitar to perform the track Lazaretto on the US TV show Saturday Night Live in October 2020. Just like the movies, the world of guitar has its tropes and clichés, and one of these is that alt-rock guitarists should play painfully hip pawn-shop relics and turn their nose up at anything with the mark of shred upon it. White played the EVH partly as a gesture of tribute to the late master. “I won’t even insult the man’s talent by trying to play one of his songs tonight,” he said prior to the show. “[But] Eddie was very kind to me and saw to it that this guitar was made for me to my specs…”
And while some might be surprised to learn that indie-rock’s champion of primal blues lines and the late, lamented heavy rock virtuoso were so sympatico, it makes terrific sense on many levels. In addition to decades of knocking out album after album of wicked riffs and potent solos, both
