Fender has partnered with The Heartbreakers guitar veteran Mike Campbell for a new signature guitar, the Red Dog Telecaster – a meticulously recrafted electric guitar inspired by Campbell’s heavily modded 1972 Tele.
The Red Dog Tele has been reproduced in two formats: a $20,000 Limited Edition Custom Shop Masterbuilt model, and a comparatively more affordable Stories Collection version, which forgoes some of the more minuscule details in order to weigh in at $3,499.
Campbell’s collection isn’t short of iconic instruments, and the Red Dog guitar is certainly up there. As the story goes, he purchased the single-cut from a student, who presented the heavily modded Telecaster – which came equipped with a neck and middle humbucker and obscure “destruct” boost circuit – to their tutor.
Campbell quickly snapped it up, and it would eventually be put to work in some of his most famous cuts. Used most memorably on the Tom Petty and The Heartbreaker’s track Refugee and its accompanying music video, the Red Dog was also used during Campbell’s glittering session career, alongside the likes of Fleetwood Mac and The Dirty Knobs.
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“Telecasters are the heart and soul of rock and roll music and this one is a beautiful instrument,” Campbell reflects. “I could tell The Red Dog was special as soon as I picked it up.
“It felt like it was in the right place at just the right time. The humbuckers give it so much power and such a wide variety of tones while the destruct button really sets it apart from just about any other Tele.”
The Masterbuilt model is, as expected, the closest replica of the original Red Dog. Built by Dennis Galuska, it features a faded red metallic finish strapped to a two-piece select alder body, as well as a custom-shaped, one-piece maple neck with a well-loved Relic lacquer finish.
Other components include a 7.25” fretboard radius, 21 vintage upgrade frets, vintage Jazzmaster bridge with threaded steel saddles, a B5F Bigsby tremolo, and a five-way switch. The two vintage replica Arcane, Inc. humbuckers, along with the bridge single-coil, work alongside the “destruct” button, wired by Analogman, which serves as a mammoth 34dB boost.
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Unsurprisingly, it features “every nick, ding and scratch” as the original: “The FCS Limited Edition Masterbuilt 1972 “RedDog” Telecaster is a jaw-dropping representation of the instrument as it exists today – dings, paint chips, dents and all by FCS’s Senior Masterbuilder Dennis Galuska,” Fender notes.
The Stories Collection iteration, meanwhile, features an Heirloom nitrocellulose lacquer finish – a treatment previously applied to relic’d Fenders – as well as vintage-style humbuckers, a single-coil Telecaster bridge single-coil, and a custom Red Dog neck plate. It also has the same Bigsby B5F tremolo and boost circuit.
“The ‘Red Dog’ Telecaster is a testament to how a heavily modded instrument can be both deeply personal and utterly cherished,” notes the Fender Custom Shop Director of Product Development, Chase Paul.
“There’s an undeniable magic in an instrument that evolves alongside its player, and every modification on this guitar serves a purpose, working together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.”
The Masterbuilt Red Dog and Stories Collection Red Dog are available for $3,499 and $20,000, respectively.
Head over to Fender to find out more.
