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Suede·Social·Issue No. 20
Tone recipes·2026 · JUL
Rock1976

01Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

American Girl

Bright, chiming Rickenbacker through a Vox AC30 with light amp breakup. The intro and verse riff is a fingerpicked arpeggio with the 12-string ring giving everything a Byrds-derived shimmer. Solo tone is the same rig pushed slightly more — a moderately bright lead with a 'singing' quality from the AC30's class-A power section. No effects, just amp and guitar.

02Signal chain

Guitar to amp, 0 pedals between.

  1. In
    Guitar

    Rickenbacker 360/12 (12-string)

  2. Out
    Amp

    Vox AC30 Top Boost

03Field note

The secret sauce

The Rickenbacker 12-string's compressed sustain is the entire sound — the high octaves of each string pair ring brightly, while the low octaves provide body. A regular 6-string into the same rig sounds like nothing.