Custom Guitar Picks. At Gil Southworths shop. It was a very collaborative we worked together, wrote together, thought things through, and we were even together when we werent playing. The 64 Strat. I use the 67 on [So You Want To Be A] Rock N Roll Star. That guitar has the tone. Well, I think that has been exaggerated I think I said that in a very tired moment one day, and its become something thats hounded me all year (laughs)! Contact our experts for a recommendation of great alternatives. There was a whole different viewpoint for me. As we begin our nearly two-hour conversation, Mike Campbell admits that even after more than 40 years as the lead guitarist in the venerable Heartbreakers band, the pressure is still on him. Ever loyal to their roots, both Petty and Campbell play through very cool looking Vox Super Beatle amps, jazzed up with Echoplex and MXR Dyna Comp. With more than 80 million albums sold worldwide, and countless anthems from Refugee to American Girl and Free Fallin to Mary Janes Last Dance under their belts, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Famers are in the DNA of an audience that encompasses all ages and walks of life. One guy had a Gibson, one guy had a Fender, so youd learn the differences and how to use them. And all of those Beatles records always have beautiful solos, with good tone and not much noodling; every note serves a purpose to the song, not to the players. I have a 50-watt Marshall that I really like, a little 60s amp in red. And no episode of The Collection would be complete without the obligatory 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard the Holy Grail guitar. But I dont really buy anything unless I think Im going to use it. I dont think you need more than one. What are the differences between making a solo album and a Heartbreakers album? Campbell and Petty connected, and he became a member of Mudcrutch, Pettys band at the time who were part of the burgeoning Southern rock scene (and who reunited for an album in 2008). So Id like the opportunity to live a somewhat normal life for a while; our life has really been either on the road or in the studio, and very little else. Mike Campbell was best known as Tom Petty 's right-hand man for decades. Tom Petty &The Heartbreakers 2014 Hypnotic Eye 2 Guitar Picks Campbell is famed for the wide variety and sheer number of guitars he brings along to a show. You cant just walk away from a dot-neck 335 that nice.. A good example is You Got Lucky, which was rather high-concept in an era when artists were largely doing performance videos standing in front the camera, pretending to play or sing along. My dad put that all together I didnt have much to do with it. But I liked that book because it had chord diagrams, along with his hands showing how he actually made the chords. But for recording, I like the smaller Fenders Deluxes and Princetons. Im told your guitar collection includes a Rickenbacker that has so far avoided full identification. , A Guide to Essential Effects Plugins for Your Home Studio, ESP Announces LTD Kirk Hammett Signature Series KH-V, Epiphone Introduces the 1958 Korina Flying V and Explorer, Building a Pro-Level Home-Studio Mic Closet. Through that experience, I got some records and really got interested in 50s rock. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halens Panama. Ill take it. And so we formed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers around that group of people. Did you hold your finger on the label as it would spin? Tom was in interesting head space at that time we were young and idealistic, so there are a lot of songs about hope. On days off, wed go to pawn shops and guitar stores, and buy anything good. Campbell wasn't always a Gibson man. But George is probably my pinnacle of inspiration he and people like him. So far, has everything on tour gone as planned in terms of crowd response, especially to the new tracks? Well, like the best of us, Campbell is a long-term sufferer of Gear Acquisition Syndrome, and they're running out of storage at the Heartbreaker Clubhouse. From most interviews that I have read, it looks like the Blackface Princeton and Tweed Deluxe do most of the heavy lifting. Yeah, its a mid-60s model with three pickups. Free UK Delivery! I want to play good instruments, and I dont have much patience with new instruments. Oh, and of course Full Moon Fever is one of my favorites the first album we did with Jeff Lynne. Photo by Lindsey Best Do you need specific headspace? Its just like heaven. Those few years of collaboration really made me come back to the band with a more experienced, wider scale of music to work with. Tom Petty and Mike Campbell change guitars like some people change radio stationsafter damned near every song, but they do have certain favorites that they keep returning to: Les Paul Gold Top, Fender Strat, California "This is the input right here. The acoustics were all Martins the Tom Petty signature models which we had just got. 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So, many of the solos are on a tiny amp in a big room. This is really solid and it's for W "It's an original Camel Toe. Thats one of my favourites as well, but the Broadcaster is the one. They're kind of hard to find, but they play really well.. Just lays around the house all day doin' nothing. Thank you for reading 5 articles this month*, US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year, UK pricing 2.99 per month or 29.00 per year, Europe pricing 3.49 per month or 34.00 per year, *Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription. Many of your videos are today considered groundbreaking, in retrospect. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited. He tunes the guitar down a whole step, and has been using it on the Hypnotic Eye tour for "American Girl". It reminded me of Jerry Garcia. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, when it formed, was essentially the conglomeration of prior groups Mudcrutch (Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench) and Road Turkey (Stan Lynch and Ron Blair). I'm currently building a Mike Campbell inspired . Like with Bob, wed worked together for years at that point. Bath Do you have any specific plans or goals for the Heartbreakers for the next few years other than finishing the various projects? The Mike Campbell II features a so called "Destruct Knob" placed at the lower cutaway, which enables you to boost the signal by up to 10db, controlling distortion and feedback at any time with the touch of . Mike from Indianapolis Good interview! We think whoever had it filed the horn down to make it look like Johns and painted it black. Each instrument includes a small number of guitar picks used by Mike Campbell on the last Heartbreakers tour. So I thought, Well, okay. Loves the long road and on through the set," says Mike Campbell's guitar tech ab "That's a custom tweed. And weve gone full circle back to using them again. Aug-16-2009, 3:58pm #4. Mike Campbell (musician) - Wikipedia In your view, what makes a good bass player? Id really like to find one of those. Mike Campbell is also in my opinion one of THE most tasteful guitar player ever alongside George Harrison. They made a thousand of them, then kept making them, but without calling them Tom Petty models. Like Neo., See Eric Clapton make a surprise guest appearance with Jerry Douglas to pay tribute to Jeff Beck and play While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Larry Carlton demos his $641 Sire signature guitar, Nuno Bettencourt explains his secret to playing difficult guitar solos it involves getting his leg up, Music meets gaming in the Beat Machine, the world's first music-making arcade machine. The truth is the new ones just arent as good, are they? In your early days, did you buy guitars more out of necessity rather than an Oh, Ive gotta have that! mentality? Mike was pretty happy with the dot-neck Gibson ES-335 he picked up, Yeah, I have one, too I think I have the only black one ever made. But throughout the whole tour I felt the band played really well, and I was very proud of everybody.. MR. BIG Addicted to that Rush Vintage 1989 Promotional Guitar Pick Paul Gilbert. And there was a couple of Gibson J-45s. With Rick, we wanted to go back to setting up the band live. The solo records are more about a collection of songs, not about a band performance. Theyre tools, and I look at them like colors or paint brushes; each has a different texture or color, and if thats what you need, only that guitar will make that sound. Bath Its been our mainstay for many years. If there was three of us playing, one of us might play that. I love playing with them theyre the best rock and roll band there is, I think. And he just gave it to me. During the middle years of the band, that was pretty much all we u "'64-'65 SG. Mike has been using a small collection of amps with his rig for a while. Campbell reveals to Agnesi that he had been offered a 'Burst for $50,000 in the '80s, but declined, due to the guitar's darker tone conflicting with the trademark jangly and bright sound of the Heartbreakers. When you turn down the other Ricks, they get a little sloppy with the lower pitch, but this one sounds great.. I like really narrow necks, and its a very thin neck really nice. 1) The very first, or intro, tone sounds like a bridge single coil or Gretsch-type pickup into a small Fender amp. Another favourite we have to ask about is his mysterious pale blue Gretsch. It spawns the hits "I Won't Back Down," "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down A Dream" and remains in the Top 10 for 34 weeks. It was me and Smokey Hormel, Matt Sweeney, and Johnny Polansky. Next is a recent Fender Custom Shop Tele with a B-Bender used as a backup, then a pair of Rickenbacker 12-stringsthe one on the right is used on "Free Fallin." "They said it was the next guitar off the assembly line after George Harrisons", Thats my original 12-string, he explains. They just instinctively picked up on the tones and the feel of it.. Still Thrilled. God, let me think Were on this quest to find another bass as good as this Hfner Club weve got. But I also wont sacrifice [tonal] colour for convenience.. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. So sometimes you pick one up and it feels friendly, and sometimes it doesnt. Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to publications including Guitar World, MusicRadar and Total Guitar. Do you think the guitar, more than any other instrument, has propelled your success? This, folks, is living the dream. I dont take it on the road anymore. Sporting just one pickup and a pair of control knobs, it's the guitar Campbell used for his solo on Petty's classic 1989 tune, Runnin Down a Dream. And on a lot of his solo work its more piecemeal, like bringing a song in and building it. Its a six-string. I bought that Gretsch on tour for $200 one day from a video store, he says with a laugh. They still make them, and theyre really good, actually. This is called Little Ricky. I saw Bruce Springsteen had one and I was telling him I invented that! (laughs). Mike Campbell's Guitars, Gear, Pedalboard & Amps | Equipboard Love all those guys. It was built by Tony Revell, who used to specialize in Rickenbacker-guitar-looking mandolins. Which we didnt discover, but George Harrison discovered because he had the second one. Effects Mike Campbell's (Tom Petty's Lead Guitarists ) Gator Guitar COOL On almost every song there was at least one or two acoustic Martins. #9. Well, that was kind of the first rule of that particular video. I bought those two guitars for $200 a piece. And I have a 1940 00-18, which is Rick Rubins favorite.