Kirk Hammett recently gifted Jack White one of his Gibson Greeny Les Paul signature guitars, and received the White Stripes legend’s wild Fender Triplecaster in return.
White made headlines a few weeks ago when he swapped signatures with Living Color’s Vernon Reid, after the pair had bumped into each other at the airport.
Now, White has given away another one of his wild Fender Triplecasters to the Metallica guitar maestro, but this time it wasn’t as part of a random encounter in a public place – it was done “in the interest of reciprocity”.
In a post on social media, White – proudly posing alongside his new Gibson ‘Greeny’ Les Paul – explains that Hammett had kindly sent him his signature Gibson Les Paul, which immediately made an impression on the gear experimentalist.
“Guitar slaying maestro Kirk Hammett of Metallica was kind enough to send me one of his new remakes of the famous "Greeny" guitar the original of which now resides with him,” he writes.
“Owned by Peter Green, and Gary Moore, it is well known for its accidental out of phaseness from the neck pickup being upside down and wired "wrong" etc. You really can hear it up around the 15th fret in my opinion, that's where it sings.”
Now, a few different variants of the Greeny Les Paul have been reissued over the past few years, but it looks as though White is now the proud owner of the widely accessible Gibson Les Paul Standard version.
Unlike the $50k Collector's Edition or $20k Custom Shop Standard models, this particular example – which costs just shy of $3k – doesn’t come with any of the relic’ing or artificial aging that attempts to recreate the aesthetics of Hammett’s OG model. Instead, its Greeny Bust finish is entirely unblemished.
To say thanks for the gift, White parted ways with another of his own Fender Triplecasters, which was sent to Kirk Hammett – who now seemingly can’t put it down.
“Thanks so much @officialjackwhite for such a great cool innovative, fun Triplecaster guitar,” Hammett wrote in a reply post. “I love it so much Greeny is getting a bit jealous!!!”
The Triplecaster arrived last year as part of a bumper drop of Jack White signature Fender products. A spiritual remake of his Custom Shop Telecaster, the Triplecaster was one of 2024’s standout launches, with three different pickups and a host of curious specs.
Whether either guitarist will play their new instruments live on stage or in the studio any time soon remains to be seen…
