Kirk Hammett has done the impossible; he might just have made Jack White’s Fender Triplecaster even cooler.
The Metallica lead guitarist ordered up a custom version of White’s factory-Frankenstein’d Tele signature guitar that reworked the Triplecaster’s body as a Thinline in the classic fashion, i.e. complete with f-holes. And Hammett had the Fender Custom Shop make one for White, too.
White has been building himself an arsenal of bespoke electric guitar gear in the past few years, with his Third Man Hardware brand racking up collaborations with the likes of Donner, Anasounds, Coppersound, MXR, Gamechanger Audio, Eventide and of course Fender – a collection that also includes an PanoSonic hybrid acoustic electric guitar and the Pano Verb tube amp combo.
But the former White Stripes frontman has been sharing the wealth, offering swaps and gifts of his Triplecaster with whomever he meets. When he bumped into Living Colour’s Vernon Reid at the airport, they agreed a swap; White’s Triplecaster for Reid’s Reverend Totem Series signature model in Mystery Tramp graphic finish. Reid was a childhood hero of White’s.
White then had Joe Glaser install a G Bender in one Triplecaster before darting off across Tennessee to drop it off with country phenom Brad Paisley. Paisley then let him play his original Broadcaster. When he was in Tokyo, White gave one to Yoyoyoshie from Otoboke Beaver. The man can’t stop giving them away.
So maybe it was fitting that someone would get one for him, too. Enter, Hammett. White had Olivia Jean demo this Hammett custom job on his Instagram and explained how this gnarly Triplecaster remix came into his possession.
“Notice something different about this here Fender Triplecaster that the Detroit style guitar slinger Olivia Jean is riffing on? This was dropped off to me yesterday by the Fender Custom Shop in Nashville,” wrote White. “Why? Because Kirk Hammett (another great Filipino American guitar player like Mz. Olivia here, you may have heard of him) asked them if they could make him a Thinline version of the Triplecaster and if they could also ‘Make one for Jack too.’”
That, they did. What’s kind of cute in all of this, besides the joy White is taking in this guitar, is that Hammett felt the need to ask White’s permission first. For the record, White does not simply approve of modding his signature creation – he actively encourages it. And he wants to see others embrace the modding spirit and make this their own.
“Kirk asked me if I approved and I of course fully endorse ANY mods done to any of my designs, let alone from the great Hammett,” continued White. “And this one is especially cool because a lot of folks don’t know that the Triplecaster is already chambered!”
As it ships straight from Fender’s Corona, California facility, the Triplecaster has a body of chambered ash, a bolt-on maple neck with a Soft V profile, no f-holes, but thereafter it gets weird. It gets very Jack White.
All that was needed at the Custom Shop was to get the patterns out for the F hole and voila
There’s the trio of electric guitar pickups, from which it gets its name, with a CuNiFe humbucker at the neck, a Custom Jack White JW-90 single-coil in the middle, and a Custom Jack White humbucker at the bridge, and the controls are pretty far-out, too.
There is a “Stutter” switch, an arcade-style kill-switch for staccato effects. We also have a three-way switching that lets you mute the guitar, run it as normal, or bypass the tone/volume controls to send it direct to the jack for extra oomph.
But there’s a lot of bespoke hardware on this design. There’s the Bigsby B5. Those Fender-branded tuners have been augmented by a Hipshot Xtender drop D tuner – a sort of of Eddie Van Halen powermove from White, drop D on the fly. There is also a metal banjo-style armrest, all of which is finished in powder white. That’s a lot of metal, hence why White had it chambered to bring the weight down. This made Hammett’s mod easier.
“All that was needed at the Custom Shop was to get the patterns out for the F hole and voila,” writes White. “Cool mod, and thank you Kirk for getting me one too, a great match with the CuNiFe wide range pickup like the old ’72 tele. Can’t wait to dig into this today (that is IF I can snag it back out of Olivia’s hands though!).”
Are these modifications sacrilege? This is a radical overhaul of the Telecaster – the world’s first mass-produced electric guitar, one with a ton of history behind it – and this is guitar, ergo, some of the cork-sniffers might take umbrage at all this radicalism. If so, good, says White. He wants you customise his guitar as you see fit.
“I hope this pisses off some more Tele purists!” says White. “We have enough 'regular' boring guitars out there right folks? Haha, Y’all send me photos of your Triplecaster mods, I want to see them, and maybe I’ll post ‘em here too.”
Just remember, at £3,499/$3,679 street, it ain’t cheap. If in doubt, leave the serious mods to the pros. But wait, that fourth pic shows Hammett also kitted this out with a Glasser G/B Bender, too – and that Fender has called it the "Fender Triplecaster Whammett". Incredible.
With Bigsby, a Glasser Bender, three pickups, kill-switch, Hipshot Xtender… This guitar can do anything. And it’s still in keeping with what White said when the Triplecaster got launched last year.
“We found the best of the old, with the best of the new and mixed innovation with the history of Fender to do something that we think Leo Fender would have been very proud of if he was alive today,” said White.
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