Although the core of the Tom Petty sound - that Byrds-like ring on hits like American Girl and The Hardest Part - owes much to Rickenbackers, Petty’s right-hand man, Mike Campbell, doesn’t stick to one guitar.
Take that Ennio Morricone-meets-surf solo in You Got Lucky - Campbell used a double-cutaway 6120 Nashville Gretsch to nail that sucker. And his tasteful slide solo on I Won’t Back Down was played on a single-cutaway Country Gentleman.
Campbell is an avid collector who owns dozens of makes and models (he even has a Duesenberg signature guitar), but he has a soft spot for Gretsches and has been known to pull out a couple - a 1956 Fire Jet and a late ‘50s White Falcon, say - during concerts. But you won’t see his early ’60s Tennessean on stage - Campbell leaves that baby at home.