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Mike Campbell has looked back on the making of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' American Girl, for which he had to get creative with his trusty 1951 Fender Broadcaster.
Like the rest of us, Campbell has one guitar that he prizes above the rest. For him, it’s his trusty Broadcaster, which has crafted the quintessential guitar tone of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and many projects beyond.
And while it set him back $600 in 1975 when he picked it up from Nadine’s Music in Hollywood, it's safe to say the investment was well worth it.
Among the Rolodex of tracks it was used on is American Girl – perhaps Petty's most popular song, and certainly a classic rock staple. Released in February 1977, the song was originally supposed to have a 12-string. The only problem was, neither Petty nor Campbell had one to hand. Enter the humble Broadcaster, which saved the day.
“We didn’t have a 12-string, but we wanted one on the song,” Campbell says in the new issue of Guitar World.
“Well, I did! I took my Broadcaster and played octaves – because a 12-string is multiple notes and octaves on one string. I tried to simulate a 12-string on that riff throughout the song. At the end, where I do that triplet thing – that was an afterthought.”
The afterthought experiment didn't sit right with Campbell, nor did the attempts to emulate a 12-string. Petty didn't agree. He wanted Campbell to double down.
“I didn’t like it,” Campbell says matter-of-factly, “but Tom said, ‘No, it’s great. Now you’ve got to double it.’ So I doubled it, and that became the end of that song.’”
As Campbell explains, American Girl encapsulates the sound of that guitar – and vice versa. “It was the harmonics between the rhythm and the Broadcaster on top of it. That became the Heartbreakers' sound.”
Campbell would use the Broadcaster on tracks such as Here Comes My Girl (1980), Mary Jane’s Last Dance (1993) and You Wreck Me (1994).
And while all his Teles “sound good”, Campbell, who even has his own namesake Fender Stories Collection Red Dog Tele, admits that, after all these years, the ’51 Broadcaster is still king of the pile.
“[It] is still bright and has a nice midrange. It’s got a warm tone underneath there, and that makes it sound different from other Teles,” he notes.
In more recent news, Campbell revealed that his current amp of choice is an old piece of gear from the early Heartbreakers days.
For more from Campbell, plus interviews with John Osborne and John 5, pick up the new issue of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.
