Meg White

Seen throughout the Michel Gondry-directed music video for, "Hardest Button To Button". Articles on both Pitchfork and MusicRadar have featured Meg White's Ludwig Accent drum kit as being up for auction to help support a Detroit friend, Jim Shaw suffering with cancer.

In this pic, you can see Meg playing the (i believe to be) "Downbeat" edition of the Classic Maple Kit. She can be seen playing this kit in the recorded preformances in both 2005 and 2007. The only difference between the two kits from 2005 and 2007 is that they have different bass drum skins. Also, in the book "Pictures From Icky", there's a pic of the regular version of the kit. We can easily come to the conclusion that Meg used that kit for recording "Icky Thump".

In the YouTube video "The White Stripes Live At Rock Am Ring 2007 Full" by White & White, Meg White can be seen using Zildjian 5A Nylon Black Dip Drumsticks during her performance.

In a performance by The White Stripes on "The Daily Show," visible in a YouTube video by The Naked Howl, Meg White uses the JingleMute Drumstick. This innovative drumstick allows drummers to seamlessly integrate tambourine sounds into their playing without altering their technique, effectively adding a new dimension to their percussion setup.

In this image from the CD booklet of The White Stripes' 6th album "Get Behind Me Statan", you can see her, Jack, and 2 little girls that I don't know anything about in a room together. You can clearly see Meg playing a 2P Airline guitar, but with the neck pickup and the 4 tuning knobs picked off it. The previously mentioned 2 little girls are playing the same guitar as Meg, but with the neck pickup and the 4 tuning knobs still intact.

Used for the bass drum on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10."

This is restated by Chiccarelli in this October 1, 2007 Mix Online interview.

As far as miking Meg White's kit, Chiccarelli kept things straight ahead: An AKG D-12 on the kick and a U47 as an overhead run through a Fairchild compressor. It was rare that he miked the snare, but when he did it was a U47 through a Fairchild. When she used a bigger kit, Chiccarelli put a 57 on the snare top and a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom. The toms were not miked, but he used an assortment of mics as overheads and in the room. “I set up a lot of different room mics, maybe eight,” Chiccarelli explains. “Depending on the song, I could go smaller, tighter and punchier, or wide and open. Sometimes, I would use old funky cheap mics as room mics and distort them. Other times, it was a pair of Coles, maybe combined with a pair of 87s far up in the room. We did things with drums like pumping them through the reverb chamber or pumping them through guitar amps.”

On this page of Paiste's official website, it states that Meg White uses the 2002 22 inch ride.

beginning in 2006 she also used a pair of Paiste 14-inch (36 cm) Signature Medium Hi-Hats

Meg can be seen playing a Truetone K100 in the White Stripes last performance. It is Truetone Vanguard Model. The truss rod cover is missing in the product picture.

Used on the Elephant Tour for the hi-hats and as an overhead, as stated by monitor engineer Eric Baecht in this July 1, 2003 Mix Online interview.

Drum mics include Neumann KM184s for overheads and hi-hat, Sennheiser 604s on toms and snare, and a ne602 on kick.

Used on the Elephant Tour for the bass drum, as stated by monitor engineer Eric Baecht in this July 1, 2003 Mix Online interview.

Drum mics include Neumann KM184s for overheads and hi-hat, Sennheiser 604s on toms and snare, and a ne602 [sic] on kick.

The article precedes the 2007 release of the e 602-II by four years.

Used on the room mics for Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The Trident at Blackbird Studio D was used for monitoring, and also some guitar microphones, plus most of the room microphones. Some room mics went through an API 512, and a few through a crazy old RCA OP6 tube preamp. Most of the other close mics went through various Neve 1073, Brent Averill API 312 and Chandler TG2 preamps. Jack loves the sound of ribbon microphones, so we used a lot of them, on guitar amps, vocals, and as room mics: Coles 4038, Royer 121, AEA R84. I would have six to 10 room mics up, and would chose a stereo pair from them."

Used on the room mics for Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The Trident at Blackbird Studio D was used for monitoring, and also some guitar microphones, plus most of the room microphones. Some room mics went through an API 512, and a few through a crazy old RCA OP6 tube preamp. Most of the other close mics went through various Neve 1073, Brent Averill API 312 and Chandler TG2 preamps. Jack loves the sound of ribbon microphones, so we used a lot of them, on guitar amps, vocals, and as room mics: Coles 4038, Royer 121, AEA R84. I would have six to 10 room mics up, and would chose a stereo pair from them."

Used for the snare drum on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10."

This is restated by Chiccarelli in this October 1, 2007 Mix Online interview.

As far as miking Meg White's kit, Chiccarelli kept things straight ahead: An AKG D-12 on the kick and a U47 as an overhead run through a Fairchild compressor. It was rare that he miked the snare, but when he did it was a U47 through a Fairchild. When she used a bigger kit, Chiccarelli put a 57 on the snare top and a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom. The toms were not miked, but he used an assortment of mics as overheads and in the room. “I set up a lot of different room mics, maybe eight,” Chiccarelli explains. “Depending on the song, I could go smaller, tighter and punchier, or wide and open. Sometimes, I would use old funky cheap mics as room mics and distort them. Other times, it was a pair of Coles, maybe combined with a pair of 87s far up in the room. We did things with drums like pumping them through the reverb chamber or pumping them through guitar amps.”

Used on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10."

Used on "Icky Thump", as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

• Drums: Neve 8078 EQ, APSI EQ, Chandler TG1, API 2500, Chandler Zener Limiter and Curve Bender EQ

“The moment I heard Meg play that drum beat during tracking I knew that this song would call for a big, heavy drum sound, so I had to scramble to get the drums sounding as big as possible. I might have added some low end, perhaps 80Hz, to the kick, some mid around 4k to the snare, and some air, 15k or so, to the overheads. Adding 4k gave the snare some more crack and made it cut through better. I also used an old APSI graphic EQ on the kick drum — settings -2 at 35Hz, +2 at 75, and +4 at 3.5k. APSI was a ’70s offspring from API. I may also have added some bottom to the overheads with a Chandler Curve Bender, which has great low end. I loved it so much, I ended up buying one. In terms of the mix, in most cases the room microphones were not really processed.

“As far as compression is concerned, I applied a couple of drum submix compressors, probably API 2500 and Chandler Zener. On other songs I also sometimes used the SPL Transient Designer and sometimes an [Empirical Labs] Distressor. I set the API to fast attack and fast release, to get a bit of a pop to the snare, and blended that back in with the original. The Chandler has more of a round, warm, vintage sound. I set it to heavy limiting with a fast release, and blended that in to give the drums more character. I would say that the compressors were used on this album to make a statement, so I wasn’t shy of using extreme settings. I also may have sent the snare via loudspeakers to Studio A’s live room and blended that in to give more ambience.”

Lot #32 in the August 26, 2020 Third Man Records auction.

Rare is it that any White Stripes musical equipment has been made available to purchase and this cymbal is prime for that fan who has EVERYTHING (we're looking at you Frank A.)

CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY WITH ORIGINAL SIGNATURE BY BENJAMIN BLACKWELL

On offer here is a 19" Paiste Full Crash cymbal. After developing an edge crack (notice the arrow pointing to it in the picture), this cymbal would've been removed from Meg's kit almost immediately after its appearance.

From my recollection, Meg did NOT break cymbals often, and the ones that did crack were almost always just shipped back to Paiste.

There's no telling how long Meg had used this cymbal, but at the VERY least, I would expect it to have been used for the preceding week of shows in Australia and New Zealand, as part of the Big Day Out Festival. It's not too far-fetched to think the cymbal would have been used even longer than that, but it's impossible to verify.

Written in marker on the underside of the cymbal is "killed by Meg, 1/28/06 Melbourne, OZ" in an unknown hand.

Seriously, I think this is the coolest item available in this auction. Bid confidently and with the understanding one may never seen ANY other piece of Meg's iconic stage-used drumset available ever again. Rest assured we do not have a pile of destroyed Meg cymbals just laying around, and even if we did, none would be so properly documented as this one.

Sincerely,

Ben Blackwell

White Stripes Archivist

1997-present

SHIPPING AVAILABLE. APPROXIMATE COST $75 IN U.S. FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING WE WILL TAKE TO UPS ON YOUR BEHALF**

Meg White is associated with the Paiste Signature Power Crash 19" cymbal, as noted in the "Equipment" section of her Wikipedia page.

Used on the Elephant Tour for the toms and snare, as stated by monitor engineer Eric Baecht in this July 1, 2003 Mix Online interview.

Drum mics include Neumann KM184s for overheads and hi-hat, Sennheiser 604s on toms and snare, and a ne602 on kick.

Used for the bass drum on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10."

This is restated by Chiccarelli in this October 1, 2007 Mix Online interview, which adds that the microphone was also used for the snare as an overhead.

As far as miking Meg White's kit, Chiccarelli kept things straight ahead: An AKG D-12 on the kick and a U47 as an overhead run through a Fairchild compressor. It was rare that he miked the snare, but when he did it was a U47 through a Fairchild. When she used a bigger kit, Chiccarelli put a 57 on the snare top and a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom. The toms were not miked, but he used an assortment of mics as overheads and in the room. “I set up a lot of different room mics, maybe eight,” Chiccarelli explains. “Depending on the song, I could go smaller, tighter and punchier, or wide and open. Sometimes, I would use old funky cheap mics as room mics and distort them. Other times, it was a pair of Coles, maybe combined with a pair of 87s far up in the room. We did things with drums like pumping them through the reverb chamber or pumping them through guitar amps.”

Used for overheads on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10."

Used as a room mic on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10."

This is restated by Chiccarelli in this October 1, 2007 Mix Online interview.

As far as miking Meg White's kit, Chiccarelli kept things straight ahead: An AKG D-12 on the kick and a U47 as an overhead run through a Fairchild compressor. It was rare that he miked the snare, but when he did it was a U47 through a Fairchild. When she used a bigger kit, Chiccarelli put a 57 on the snare top and a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom. The toms were not miked, but he used an assortment of mics as overheads and in the room. “I set up a lot of different room mics, maybe eight,” Chiccarelli explains. “Depending on the song, I could go smaller, tighter and punchier, or wide and open. Sometimes, I would use old funky cheap mics as room mics and distort them. Other times, it was a pair of Coles, maybe combined with a pair of 87s far up in the room. We did things with drums like pumping them through the reverb chamber or pumping them through guitar amps.”

Used on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10."

Used for the snare drum on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 1, 2007 Mix Online interview.

As far as miking Meg White's kit, Chiccarelli kept things straight ahead: An AKG D-12 on the kick and a U47 as an overhead run through a Fairchild compressor. It was rare that he miked the snare, but when he did it was a U47 through a Fairchild. When she used a bigger kit, Chiccarelli put a 57 on the snare top and a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom. The toms were not miked, but he used an assortment of mics as overheads and in the room. “I set up a lot of different room mics, maybe eight,” Chiccarelli explains. “Depending on the song, I could go smaller, tighter and punchier, or wide and open. Sometimes, I would use old funky cheap mics as room mics and distort them. Other times, it was a pair of Coles, maybe combined with a pair of 87s far up in the room. We did things with drums like pumping them through the reverb chamber or pumping them through guitar amps.”

Used as a room mic on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 1, 2007 Mix Online interview.

As far as miking Meg White's kit, Chiccarelli kept things straight ahead: An AKG D-12 on the kick and a U47 as an overhead run through a Fairchild compressor. It was rare that he miked the snare, but when he did it was a U47 through a Fairchild. When she used a bigger kit, Chiccarelli put a 57 on the snare top and a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom. The toms were not miked, but he used an assortment of mics as overheads and in the room. “I set up a lot of different room mics, maybe eight,” Chiccarelli explains. “Depending on the song, I could go smaller, tighter and punchier, or wide and open. Sometimes, I would use old funky cheap mics as room mics and distort them. Other times, it was a pair of Coles, maybe combined with a pair of 87s far up in the room. We did things with drums like pumping them through the reverb chamber or pumping them through guitar amps.”

Used for the drum submix of "Icky Thump", as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

• Drums: Neve 8078 EQ, APSI EQ, Chandler TG1, API 2500, Chandler Zener Limiter and Curve Bender EQ

“The moment I heard Meg play that drum beat during tracking I knew that this song would call for a big, heavy drum sound, so I had to scramble to get the drums sounding as big as possible. I might have added some low end, perhaps 80Hz, to the kick, some mid around 4k to the snare, and some air, 15k or so, to the overheads. Adding 4k gave the snare some more crack and made it cut through better. I also used an old APSI graphic EQ on the kick drum — settings -2 at 35Hz, +2 at 75, and +4 at 3.5k. APSI was a ’70s offspring from API. I may also have added some bottom to the overheads with a Chandler Curve Bender, which has great low end. I loved it so much, I ended up buying one. In terms of the mix, in most cases the room microphones were not really processed.

“As far as compression is concerned, I applied a couple of drum submix compressors, probably API 2500 and Chandler Zener. On other songs I also sometimes used the SPL Transient Designer and sometimes an [Empirical Labs] Distressor. I set the API to fast attack and fast release, to get a bit of a pop to the snare, and blended that back in with the original. The Chandler has more of a round, warm, vintage sound. I set it to heavy limiting with a fast release, and blended that in to give the drums more character. I would say that the compressors were used on this album to make a statement, so I wasn’t shy of using extreme settings. I also may have sent the snare via loudspeakers to Studio A’s live room and blended that in to give more ambience.”

Used for the overhead mics on "Icky Thump", as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

• Drums: Neve 8078 EQ, APSI EQ, Chandler TG1, API 2500, Chandler Zener Limiter and Curve Bender EQ

“The moment I heard Meg play that drum beat during tracking I knew that this song would call for a big, heavy drum sound, so I had to scramble to get the drums sounding as big as possible. I might have added some low end, perhaps 80Hz, to the kick, some mid around 4k to the snare, and some air, 15k or so, to the overheads. Adding 4k gave the snare some more crack and made it cut through better. I also used an old APSI graphic EQ on the kick drum — settings -2 at 35Hz, +2 at 75, and +4 at 3.5k. APSI was a ’70s offspring from API. I may also have added some bottom to the overheads with a Chandler Curve Bender, which has great low end. I loved it so much, I ended up buying one. In terms of the mix, in most cases the room microphones were not really processed.

“As far as compression is concerned, I applied a couple of drum submix compressors, probably API 2500 and Chandler Zener. On other songs I also sometimes used the SPL Transient Designer and sometimes an [Empirical Labs] Distressor. I set the API to fast attack and fast release, to get a bit of a pop to the snare, and blended that back in with the original. The Chandler has more of a round, warm, vintage sound. I set it to heavy limiting with a fast release, and blended that in to give the drums more character. I would say that the compressors were used on this album to make a statement, so I wasn’t shy of using extreme settings. I also may have sent the snare via loudspeakers to Studio A’s live room and blended that in to give more ambience.”

Used for the drum submix of "Icky Thump", as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

• Drums: Neve 8078 EQ, APSI EQ, Chandler TG1, API 2500, Chandler Zener Limiter and Curve Bender EQ

“The moment I heard Meg play that drum beat during tracking I knew that this song would call for a big, heavy drum sound, so I had to scramble to get the drums sounding as big as possible. I might have added some low end, perhaps 80Hz, to the kick, some mid around 4k to the snare, and some air, 15k or so, to the overheads. Adding 4k gave the snare some more crack and made it cut through better. I also used an old APSI graphic EQ on the kick drum — settings -2 at 35Hz, +2 at 75, and +4 at 3.5k. APSI was a ’70s offspring from API. I may also have added some bottom to the overheads with a Chandler Curve Bender, which has great low end. I loved it so much, I ended up buying one. In terms of the mix, in most cases the room microphones were not really processed.

“As far as compression is concerned, I applied a couple of drum submix compressors, probably API 2500 and Chandler Zener. On other songs I also sometimes used the SPL Transient Designer and sometimes an [Empirical Labs] Distressor. I set the API to fast attack and fast release, to get a bit of a pop to the snare, and blended that back in with the original. The Chandler has more of a round, warm, vintage sound. I set it to heavy limiting with a fast release, and blended that in to give the drums more character. I would say that the compressors were used on this album to make a statement, so I wasn’t shy of using extreme settings. I also may have sent the snare via loudspeakers to Studio A’s live room and blended that in to give more ambience.”

Used on "Icky Thump", as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

• Drums: Neve 8078 EQ, APSI EQ, Chandler TG1, API 2500, Chandler Zener Limiter and Curve Bender EQ

“The moment I heard Meg play that drum beat during tracking I knew that this song would call for a big, heavy drum sound, so I had to scramble to get the drums sounding as big as possible. I might have added some low end, perhaps 80Hz, to the kick, some mid around 4k to the snare, and some air, 15k or so, to the overheads. Adding 4k gave the snare some more crack and made it cut through better. I also used an old APSI graphic EQ on the kick drum — settings -2 at 35Hz, +2 at 75, and +4 at 3.5k. APSI was a ’70s offspring from API. I may also have added some bottom to the overheads with a Chandler Curve Bender, which has great low end. I loved it so much, I ended up buying one. In terms of the mix, in most cases the room microphones were not really processed.

“As far as compression is concerned, I applied a couple of drum submix compressors, probably API 2500 and Chandler Zener. On other songs I also sometimes used the SPL Transient Designer and sometimes an [Empirical Labs] Distressor. I set the API to fast attack and fast release, to get a bit of a pop to the snare, and blended that back in with the original. The Chandler has more of a round, warm, vintage sound. I set it to heavy limiting with a fast release, and blended that in to give the drums more character. I would say that the compressors were used on this album to make a statement, so I wasn’t shy of using extreme settings. I also may have sent the snare via loudspeakers to Studio A’s live room and blended that in to give more ambience.”

Used on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“As far as compression is concerned, I applied a couple of drum submix compressors, probably API 2500 and Chandler Zener. On other songs I also sometimes used the SPL Transient Designer and sometimes an [Empirical Labs] Distressor. I set the API to fast attack and fast release, to get a bit of a pop to the snare, and blended that back in with the original. The Chandler has more of a round, warm, vintage sound. I set it to heavy limiting with a fast release, and blended that in to give the drums more character. I would say that the compressors were used on this album to make a statement, so I wasn’t shy of using extreme settings. I also may have sent the snare via loudspeakers to Studio A’s live room and blended that in to give more ambience.”