Why one of Tom Petty’s most famous guitars wasn’t his own
It’s an iconic image that instantly comes to mind when you hear the name Tom Petty: lanky and big-toothed Petty flashing a smile in front of a red background, holding a Rickenbacker guitar. At the top right of the image is the name of his band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and at the bottom right is a quote, “Damn The Torpedoes”.
The front cover of Petty’s iconic Damn the Torpedoes has every trademark that Petty would embrace in his career. His wispy blonde locks and mixture of good looks and affable charm were there, but most importantly, Petty had the axe that would stay with him for decades: a 1963 Rickenbacker 625 twelve-string guitar.
The only problem was that it wasn’t Petty’s guitar. That particular guitar actually belonged to Heartbreakers guitarist and Petty’s songwriting partner, Mike Campbell. During the Classic Albums episode focused on Damn the Torpedoes, Campbell broke out the twelve-string and explained how it helped the band beyond its use for a cool album cover.
“This is one of my favourite guitars,” Campbell gushed. “I bought this around the second album. We didn’t have a twelve-string… we really wanted one because we wanted to get a sound similar to The Byrds on a couple of songs. This is before eBay. There was a thing called Recycler, which was a newspaper, and people would sell instruments in your area.”
“So I called up one day, and a guy had a Rickenbacker twelve-string for $200,” Campbell continued. “I drove out there, and he brought this guitar out, and my heart sank because I wanted the big one (Rickenbacker 360-12) like George Harrison or Roger McGuinn with the bigger body. I thought, ‘Aww, this is not what I wanted.'”
Because of his disappointment, Campbell managed to get the price down to $150. Thankfully, the guitar sounded good and was able to fill out the sound the way that the Heartbreakers wanted. Oddly enough, Campbell got a surprise when he took the guitar to the Rickenbacker factory. After looking up the serial number, Campbell was informed that his guitar was the very next guitar off the assembly line after Harrison’s original twelve-string.
Check out Campbell showing off the Rickenbacker down below.
