Mike Campbell understands the importance of matching his electric guitar tone to whatever song he’s playing. It’s a well-honed sense that was in clear evidence when Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers recorded their 1980 hit “Refugee.” His guitar of choice? his iconic Red Dog Fender Telecaster.
“This song is rebellious, and the sound has to match the song,” Campbell says. “So this guitar was in the right place at the right time.”
Campbell’s revelation comes in a video Fender has shared as it rolls out two tributes to the Red Dog: the Stories Collection Mike Campbell "Red Dog" Telecaster ($3,499.99) and the Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Masterbuilt Mike Campbell 1972 “Red Dog” Telecaster ($20,000).
The Red Dog found its way into Campbell's collection around the time the guitarist became the lead-guitar foil to Petty's rhythm guitar work in the group Mudcrutch. While living in Gainesville, Florida, Campbell gave guitar lessons for $15 an hour to pay his rent. One of his students brought him a Telecaster and asked if he was interested in buying it.
Two hundred dollars later, the guitar was Campbell’s. But it wasn’t just any Fender Tele. The Red Dog is unique in that it has two humbuckers in the neck and middle position and a single-coil Telecaster bridge pickup, as well as a Bigsby B5F tremolo.
But what really grabbed Campbell was its built-in boost circuit — or as he calls it, “the Destruct button.”
“The Destruct button is just out of this world,” he says. “Without that, it’s, like, nice and clear. But if you want to really knock them down, you destruct them with that thing.”
The Red Dog’s big moment came on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ second album, Damn the Torpedos, when Campbell chose it for “Refugee” and “Here Comes My Girl,” both of which were released as singles. Producer Jimmy Iovine was impressed by what he heard.
Campbell recalls, “When Jimmy Iovine heard ‘Refugee’ and ‘Here Comes My Girl,’ he said, ‘We're done, don't need any more songs. Go write whatever you want. I got the two that'll make it.’
“We didn't know what hit records were. We were lucky, you know?”
But Campbell’s persistence with finding the right tone was equally important.
“‘Refugee’ was a hard song to record,” he explains. “For some reason, we got in the studio, and we tried every guitar for weeks, just trying to get something that just rang with those chords. And nothing would fit in with the band.
“And then, one day, we pulled this out,” he says of the Red Dog. “And there it was. It just fit that track perfectly.”
Fender’s two “Red Dog” Telecasters honor Campbell's original in varying degrees of authenticity.
The Stories Collection Mike Campbell Red Dog is the latest addition to Fender's Stories Collection series that pays tribute to iconic Fender guitars and basses that have been modified by the artists who played them. It has an Heirloom nitrocellulose lacquer Red Dog red finish, a one-piece maple neck with a 7.25-inch-radius fingerboard and 21 vintage-style frets, and the Destruct boost circuit.
It also boasts a pair of vintage-style humbuckers and a single-coil Telecaster bridge pickup, a Bigsby B5F tremolo and a custom Red Dog neck plate. Custom accessories include a vintage-style case, strap, picks and a certificate of authenticity.
The Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Masterbuilt Mike Campbell 1972 “Red Dog” Telecaster takes things even further. Created by Fender Custom Shop Senior Masterbuilder Dennis Galuszka in partnership with Campbell, it features a two-piece select alder body and a custom-shaped, one-piece maple neck. In the most obvious departure from the Stories Collection model, the Custom Shop creation features every nick, ding and scratch found on the original instrument, meticulously replicated in the guitar’s faded Red Metallic lacquer finish, neck, headstock, hardware and pickguard.
Other premium features include a flat-sawn maple neck with custom Oval “C” back-shape, a 7.25-inch radius, 21 vintage upgrade (45085) frets, a five-way switch, vintage replica Arcane, Inc. pickups, a Destruct boost circuit wired by Analogman, a three-ply parchment pickguard, vintage-style Jazzmaster bridge with threaded steel saddles, vintage-style “F”-stamped tuning machines, a bone nut, two American Vintage ‘65+ string trees with nylon spacers, deluxe hardshell case, strap and a certificate of authenticity.
All in all, it's a fitting tribute to Campbell that comes as the guitarist releases his new memoir, Heartbreaker, a chronicle of his life and career in and out of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. In addition to detailing the many important guitars in his collection, Campbell — who these days performs with his group the Dirty Knobs — reveals intimate details about working with Petty on some of the group’s biggest hits, as well as his own hits, like his Don Henley co-write “The Boys of Summer.”
Speaking to Guitar Player about the book, Campbell told how he wrote many of the group's songs, including “Refugee” and “Here Comes My Girl,” using drum loops taken from other songs.
“I wrote ‘Refugee’ to a drum loop I got off of a record,” he said. “’Here Comes My Girl’ I wrote to a drum loop. I didn't have a drummer in my demo studio at home, so I would make drum loops before there were drum machines. That was just business as usual.”
Of course the "Red Dog" Tele is just one of Campbell’s many important guitars. Another is his Fender Broadcaster, the electric guitar that's at the heart of tracks like “American Girl” and the one guitar he says he can’t live without.
Visit Fender for more information about the Stories Collection Mike Campbell "Red Dog" Telecaster and the Limited Edition Masterbuilt Mike Campbell 1972 “Red Dog” Telecaster.
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