Guitarist: Jack White

Effect used: DigiTechWhammy pedal

It’s not often the NME gets embroiled in a debate about FX pedals, but that’s exactly what happened when The White Stripes released the lead single from their number one album Elephant. The duo’s ‘no bass’ ethos was seemingly shattered by the intro riff to this pulverising blues number: until Jack White revealed he’d used the octave setting on a Whammy pedal with his regular red Airline guitar. The Stripes’ ‘no bass’ rule had been preserved, and all was well with the world…

Did you know?

White rates this riff as one of his best: “If I ever got asked to write the next James Bond theme,” he says, “that would be the riff for it.” [For the record, since making this statement, White did write a James Bond theme - 2008's Another Way To Die with Alicia Keys - and it didn't sound like Seven Nation Army]