JB Hutto Montgomery Airline
From Stripespedia
Ever since the beginning of the White Stripes' career, Jack White has used at least two 1964/65 JB Hutto Montgomery Airlines, and has since become practically synonymous with the Airline guitar. The Airline is in the band's signature colors (red, white, and black), and is also usually connected to Jack's amplifiers with a peppermint-striped guitar cord. It is nearly always in standard tuning, and it has twenty frets. Jack's main Airline is all-original except for the tuning pegs, and only the bridge pick-up works.
As stated by a user on The Little Room, "The Airline that Jack plays has one of the most offbeat and angular silhouettes ever seen in the history of American-made budget electric guitars. The helter-skelter angles of its Res-O-Glas (fiberglass) body seem to conflict with its "Gumby"-style headstock, and the installation of control knobs on the bass side of the body (a Valco trademark) adds to its "lopsidedness"."
History
Airline Guitars were a brand of electric and acoustic guitars made in the United States from 1958-68 by the Valco Manufacturing Company, and sold through the Montgomery Ward mail-order retail company. The Valco company is known for its flagship National and budget Supro guitar brands, which were in production up until the companies' demise in 1968. In the early to mid 2000s, the Eastwood guitar company acquired the rights to use the "Airline" brand-name; however, the Eastwood guitar company has never been directly affiliated with the long defunct Valco company. Original Valco Airline guitars were all made in the United States, whereas today's Eastwood Airline guitars are made in factories based in South Korea or China.
The angular red Airline model associated with Jack White is usually referred to as the "JB Hutto" model, after the blues artist and slide guitarist J. B. Hutto. Hutto was one of the first notable musicians to regularly use the guitar (although he primarily used the near-identical Supro Airline, which lacks the Gumby-style headstock). It famously appears on the cover of his album Slidewinder. J.B. Hutto's nephew Lil' Ed Williams also regularly uses the original Hutto Airline.
Jack's use of the guitar (along with its scarcity) is arguably one of the reasons why the original Res-O-Glas Airlines are so valuable today. Originals in excellent condition are known to sell for as much as $1,500-$3,000 US. Aside from Jack, other notable Airline users include David Bowie, PJ Harvey, The Cure, and Calexico.
