Celebrity
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I don't know the gear specifics for that particular tune, but agree that it's a great sounding track. Campbell and Petty both are notorious hardcore vintage gear and analog freaks, and have used a ton of gear on their records. Both favor Teles and Broadcasters as main stage guitars, but have used strats, Rics, P-90 Les Pauls, Gretsch Tennesseeans, you name it. Both guys also favor the Vox AC30 - the tone you've probably heard most often on Petty's records is Campbell's old Vox close mic'ed with a Shure SM57. But they also dig Fender Bassmans & Princetons, and Campbell's used some stuff you probably wouldn't guess... like solid state Kustom amps and tiny little Marshall practice amps. Part of Campbell's recorded sound is often a slightly dirty mic'ed amp, combined with a direct to the board hyper clean tone; they're mixed so that they sound like one huge tone with clarity and detail. To reproduce that live, you'd need two layered amps set accordingly, as those guys often do. A small and affordable alternative for the layered sound might be the Voodoo Lab Sparkledrive. And for the Vox thing in a pedal, nothing comes closer than the Menatone Top Boost In A Can. Around that period, Petty & Campbell were both fans of the Dano Daddy-O, which is actually a great sounding little pedal at lower gain, but has very anemic output. Pedals would be approximations at best though.
Another important element of the Campbell recipe has nothing to do with gear - for lead rides he often employs a hybrid picking technique, so what you're hearing is pick and flesh on the strings. If there's anything at all that's consistent about Campbell's approach, it's at the mixing board itself. He almost always overdrives console preamps to get tape compression and limiting. He feels this is more crucial to his sound than mic placement.
If I had to narrow it down, which is a tall order, I'd say this - while there are some truly wonderful sounding amps out there, each with their own inherent vibe and personality... for the classic Campbell tone, I'd get none other than the Vox AC30. You already have a Tele.
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| Posts: 3443 | Location: Atlanta, Ga | Registered: December 25, 2001 |  |
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Celebrity
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my gibson ga-15rv with a little dirt nails that solo......you'll need single coils tho... that's a fun, easy song to do...even we can play, and we suck...  |
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Member
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When I saw The Heartbreakers last year, that song was KILLER! Campbell played the solo stuff, but Petty played the tag line at the end of the solo...he stepped on a pedal and busted out ahead of the rest of the band... It sounded great, with some kind of modulation. HOT.
BTW....SG guitar/ Vox AC-30
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| Posts: 87 | Location: San Diego, CA, USA | Registered: May 25, 2003 | |
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Visionary
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quote:
Originally posted by zendog54:
When I saw The Heartbreakers last year, that song was KILLER! Campbell played the solo stuff, but Petty played the tag line at the end of the solo...he stepped on a pedal and busted out ahead of the rest of the band... It sounded great, with some kind of modulation. HOT.
BTW....SG guitar/ Vox AC-30
saw him during the years he did the Fillmore runs..saw him like 6 times in 2 years...I studied his stage banter just like the Replacements did...sadly, to date, my Petty banter remains unappreciated  |
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