Mary Jane's Last Dance
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers · Greatest Hits · 1993
The main riff is Tom Petty — not Mike Campbell — playing Campbell's 1950 Fender Broadcaster through Campbell's Ampeg Rocket combo in Campbell's garage, and that rough take is the one on the record. Aim for a small tube combo turned up far enough to compress and crunch on chords, bridge pickup, no pedals, treble a shade above noon and bass moderate so the low strings stay tight instead of boomy. Campbell's lead fills came off his 1968 Les Paul with exposed P-90s, so a warmer, fatter voice for the lead is period-correct.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo
Standard tuning at concert pitch; the riff is open-position Am–G–Dsus2/D shapes, doubled by harmonica on the record.
Guitar
- Fender Broadcaster (1950, Mike Campbell's) · original Fender single-coils · bridge pickup
- Gibson Les Paul (1968, exposed P-90s) · P-90 · bridge pickup
Amp
Ampeg Rocket
Campbell told Guitar World the riff was Petty playing Campbell's Broadcaster through the Ampeg Rocket set up in Campbell's garage during the Rubin sessions, and that take is what's on the record; the vintage Rocket has no mid, presence, or reverb control, so push the volume until the amp compresses and breaks up on its own.
Amp
Fender Princeton (blackface)
Not documented for the riff itself — Campbell has described the small-amp Princeton/Ampeg pair close-mic'd in a good room as the sound of this era, so it's the closest common substitute if you don't have a Rocket.
Tone character
gritty single-coil crunch · forward mids · moderate tube breakup · small-amp compression · dry, almost no reverb
Open-position Am, G and Dsus2/D with a steady, laid-back eighth-note strum; the only real work is keeping the D-back-to-Am change clean and letting the strum breathe instead of rushing it.
Want this on your own amp?
These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.
Adapt it to my gearSources
- Mike Campbell on 5 classic tracks recorded with his Fender Broadcaster — Guitar World
- Mike Campbell shows off his desert island guitars — Guitar.com
- Mike Campbell — Vintage Guitar
- How Rick Rubin turned Tom Petty's riff into a Top 20 hit — Guitar Player
- Interview with Mike Campbell, 2003 — The Petty Archives
- Mike Campbell on the Dirty Knobs and his amps — Guitar World
- Mary Jane's Last Dance — Wikipedia
- Mary Jane's Last Dance guitar lesson — Guitar Lessons 365