Tom Petty’s 1964 Fender Stratocaster was one of his earliest and most important electric guitars. The guitar was actually bought by Mike Campbell in the early 1970s, reportedly for around $200, at a time when Petty did not have an electric guitar of his own. Campbell let him use it, and it soon became closely tied to the early sound of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
This guitar has been the hearbreakers guitar for 30 years. It’s been on lots of songs. Tom used it a lot in the studio for rythm when he was singing and playing at the same time. Tom also played it live quite a bit, and belt buckle wore of most of the paint [on the back].
On first two albums especially, Tom played rythm on this guitar on almost every song. We used it on our last album, we used it on every album. Full Moon Fever, which was Tom’s first solo album, this guitar was the main guitar on every song
Mike Campbell [1]
The guitar itself is also interesting because of its year. Being a 1964 Stratocaster, it sits in the same general era as some other famous Stratocasters associated with players like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and David Gilmour.
Petty used the Strat both live and in the studio on several key Heartbreakers songs, including “Breakdown,” “American Girl,” “I Need to Know,” and “Listen to Her Heart.” There is also live footage of him playing it on songs such as “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” “Even the Losers,” “Don’t Do Me Like That,” and “You Got Lucky,” which suggests it may have been used on some of those recordings as well, although that should be treated as likely rather than confirmed.
The same guitar also appeared later in Petty’s career, including live performances of “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” and “You Don’t Know How It Feels.”
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