Campellone Choice - New Standard or Used Special?

[2bornot2bop]

Hi All, Is a patina normal on the pickups and tuners of these guitars at 16 years old? Compared to my mid-90s telecaster and early 2000s acoustic (no patina) one of the used Specials seems to have a pretty heavy patina on the hardware - at least to me. Would love your thoughts.

Will be checking it out in person this weekend, so maybe not an issue - we will see. Thanks again! - Wattie

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That’s a gorgeous Special. It’s going to be tough not to bring that guitar home. Be prepared to buy it. Great photos too!

[Hammertone]

Hi All, Is a patina normal on the pickups and tuners of these guitars at 16 years old?

Meaningless. Very normal, very easy to remove. These parts are goldplated, so NO ABRASIVE or polish should ever be used. Just a soft cotton cloth, maybe a teeny bit of dishwashing detergent. Or just breathe on them and wipe them down. Easy.

[floatingpickup]

That Special is beautiful!
Keith

[Papawooly]

...purple!

[Wattie]

...purple!

Love the purple. Very cool! Thanks for sharing it!

[2bornot2bop]

Amazing purple Campellone! I’ve never seen one.

What’s the model? The headstock inlays suggest it’s not a Special.

[Hammertone]

It's a Campellone Special, labelled as a "TK Custom," built for Ted Krause in 1994, sold here in 2018. The only real differences are the headstock inlay, colour, and label.

[MCampellone]

Thanks for the advice! I have heard the $4500 price before. Is that selling price? The standards currently list at $5500 USD. Sorry if this is a dumb question, am I correct in thinking they sell for $1000 under list? If so, you just saved me money!

Thanks again!

The current retail price for a new Standard is $5200 - the Standard for sale at Acoustic Music was ordered with upgraded woods, hence the $300 added to the base price.

[MCampellone]

Meaningless. Very normal, very easy to remove. These parts are goldplated, so NO ABRASIVE or polish should ever be used. Just a soft cotton cloth, maybe a teeny bit of dishwashing detergent. Or just breathe on them and wipe them down. Easy.

Good advice here from Hammer - the patina has nothing to do with the guitar's age - rather, it's about how the guitar is maintained - if you frequently clean the hardware with a soft cloth, the patina should never even develop. As stated above, patina can be cleaned off with a soft cloth, maybe dampened slightly if patina is stubborn - but never use metal polish - the plating on the Grover tuners is relatively heavy, but the plating on the Armstrong pickups is very light, and metal polish will wipe the gold right off.

[MCampellone]

It's a Campellone Special, labelled as a "TK Custom," built for Ted Krause in 1994, sold here in 2018. The only real differences are the headstock inlay, colour, and label.

Right - this was a custom build which includes features from both the Special and Deluxe Series models - the peghead inlay is unique to this guitar.

[sgosnell]

Mark, this is sort of a weird question, out of left field so to speak, but do you pronounce the final e in your family name? Just curious.

[2bornot2bop]

Hi All, Is a patina normal on the pickups and tuners of these guitars at 16 years old? Compared to my mid-90s telecaster and early 2000s acoustic (no patina) one of the used Specials seems to have a pretty heavy patina on the hardware - at least to me. Would love your thoughts.

Will be checking it out in person this weekend, so maybe not an issue - we will see. Thanks again! - Wattie

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did you purchase the Special?

[MCampellone]

Mark, this is sort of a weird question, out of left field so to speak, but do you pronounce the final e in your family name? Just curious.

Most folks don't pronounce the final e - I usually do, but as the 'e' in "peek", which is not entirely correct. The correct Italian pronunciation is cahm-pehl-lo-neh. In the dialect of the area where my family comes from, natives have the habit of dropping the last vowel on many words, so my name ends up sounding the way most people pronounce it here.

[sgosnell]

Thanks for the explanation. I prefer to use the pronunciation the person prefers, it seems more polite.

[PaulW10]

The current retail price for a new Standard is $5200 - the Standard for sale at Acoustic Music was ordered with upgraded woods, hence the $300 added to the base price.

Sorry everyone...don't try and find this one at Acoustic Music. It is soon on its way to me!!

[Wattie]

did you purchase the Special?

@2bornot2bop - I did! Just posted some NGD pics of it in a separate thread. You were spot on with the 'be prepared to buy it' comment! The guitar is amazing, so psyched to have it! Thanks for the help!

[Wattie]

Good advice here from Hammer - the patina has nothing to do with the guitar's age - rather, it's about how the guitar is maintained - if you frequently clean the hardware with a soft cloth, the patina should never even develop. As stated above, patina can be cleaned off with a soft cloth, maybe dampened slightly if patina is stubborn - but never use metal polish - the plating on the Grover tuners is relatively heavy, but the plating on the Armstrong pickups is very light, and metal polish will wipe the gold right off.

@MCampellone, thanks for all the information on the guitar - much appreciated! As Hammer stated the hardware cleaned up nicely with a damp cloth and a little dish detergent.. Will continue to polish them. Thanks for the help!