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Tuesday, 5 April 2011

No 2 Greene and Campbell Precix

Greene and what??? you say...


I introduce the Precix ....dah..dahh

This is a seriously high quality instrument. I first encountered them at the London guitar show in 2006 - when I bought a rather lovely fretless bass but that is another blog.

 I am not sure exactly when this was made, maybe 4 or 5 years ago - I bought it about 3 years ago from Mr Music in Massachusetts on E-Bay (my E-Bay experiences will be in a later blog) . It was kind of 'new old stock' - it came in a gig bag and cost about £400 when we were getting $2 to the £. It was an amazing bargain - if you can find one in the UK expect to pay £1200 or more but I'm not selling mine. The company is now called Campbell American although the models are still the same. From New England, every one is different, handbuilt by Dean Campbell and a small team.  Dean  is very responsive to any questions. I believe he was formerly a Fender custom shop employee  He is also responsible for Angry Angus  guitars, high end Fender replicas.


This guitar is as light as a feather with seymour duncan humbuckers which split by pulling the tone control, nitro finish, maple neck with ebony board and the lowest action you could need, with the most playable neck. It is a very compact guitar. Simple but effective. I cannot recommend this guitar enough...but its not a strat,  Les Paul or PRS so what do you care...  Seriously though, you must try one. It can do anything!




The story goes that when Fender bought Guild they eventually closed down the New England Guild guitar factory leaving some experienced luthiers looking for work and they went to Greene and Campbell. To my mind there is a hint of Brian May's Red Special in the outline of the Precix and when you recall that Guild produced a very high quality Brian May model a few years ago maybe it is intentional? I dunno...it's just a thought.


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