Great guitar choices are sometimes learned from bad guitar choices. When it comes to picking out a guitar we don’t always have Tom Petty’s budget. When he was alive Petty liked to have many Guitars as Tom Petty’s net worth $95 million when he passed away on October 2nd 2017. Tom could have them if he wanted.Tom himself preferred acoustic guitars but collection of Tom Petty guitars owned also included a massive range of great electric guitars which he shared with Mike Campbell from time to time.

Rickenbacker of Tom Petty Guitarist Who Plays A Fireglow

Lets start with the Rickenbacker fireglo 660/12 it became a signature guitar of Tom Petty guitars owned and was used on the Album Damm the Torpedoes and other Album Projects it has a great detailed review scoring 9.2 on Pitchfork if you are looking for more technical information on Toms Rickenbacker and how he played it? This is a great video from a YouTuber who likes Tom Petty and type of guitar guru at times has a video of Mike Campbell who now plays with the dirty knobs talking about the Rickenbacker and it’s story from being the second off the line to George Harrison’s to playing the Rickenbacker of Tom Petty. For the Sound of the Guitar Tom Played This is a Song from the Album Damm the Torpedoes played on his Rickenbacker.

What are you Doing in my Life? Tom Petty Guitars Played

Telecasters Of Tom Petty Guitars Used In Concert and Recording

Like many players of guitar tom petty guitarist loved his Telecasters and Tom owned a sonic blue ’63 Fender Telecaster which he plays on the Superbowl halftime show in 2008.Although the Rock and Roll hall of Fame his 1964 Rickenbacker guitar and Suit from the show for display. Toms Main Telecaster was custom built by famed guitar craftsman Toru Nitono he gave him his custom design in 1981 and asked him to take it home and see what he thinks Tom said in the May 1999 issue of Guitar Magazine where both Tom and Mike Campbell feature on the Cover in an Interview.

Which explains the origin of Fender Telecasters being called “Torucasters” you can hear them distinctly on the songs in the video footage of the Superbowl show for “Free Fallin” and “Running down a Dream” as he used the guitar on the halftime show in 2008 as you can see in the Video at 5.54 and 9.19.

The Tom Petty Torucaster is a signature electric guitar model designed by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It is a modified version of a Fender Telecaster, featuring a humbucking pickup in the bridge position and a single-coil pickup in the neck position. The guitar also has a unique “petty blue” finish and a custom pickguard with a silhouette of Florida. The Torucaster was used extensively by Petty and Campbell throughout their careers and has become a sought-after collector’s item among guitar enthusiasts.

We are also have a video looking at some pacific techniques that Tom used playing the Telecaster/Torucaster if you want to capture that style on guitar have a watch and listen.

Tom Petty Guitarist With Many Stratocasters

Like many of the guitar greats Tom had a few Strats in his time.When Tom was Touring he used a white ’62 Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster and owned a sunburst ’64 Fender Stratocaster and 63 Stratocaster plus a few others . The Stratocaster was one of his main guitars on his first albums with the Heartbreakers. Normans rare guitars talks more about the Stratocaster Tom Petty guitars used in this video.

The 1965 Gibson SG Used By Tom Petty

When it comes to great guitar choices a 65 Gibson is not for everyone’s budget. Pettys own 65 Gibson SG was expected to fetch around $300,000 at auction back in 2018 but it was not sold however.Tom Petty Guitars that did sell was a Played and Signed 1963 White Gibson SG Junior Electric Guitar sold for $17,500.00 on Heritage auctions. Here is a more detailed video by again Normans Rare Guitars about the 1965 Gibson SG of Tom Petty

Which great guitar choices would you have made from Tom Petty’s guitar collection and why?

As I have not gone into great detail about the guitars of Tom petty maybe you would like to express your opinion in the comments below. Which of these guitars would you make one of your great guitar choices if you had a big guitar budget.