The 70-year-old instrument was given to him in 1980 by his music teacher Bill Coulter, of Dunedin, who told him it was the first electric guitar made in New Zealand.
''He said one day it would be worth a lot of dollars. He said to hang on to it and sell it to get something you really want.''
The guitar was designed by Mr Coulter and built by Dunedin bank manager Arthur Doig, who died in a sailing accident in 1980.
He said it was built in 1941 or 1942 and was used by the country music pioneer Cole Wilson, of the Tumbleweeds, in the 1940s and '50s.
Mr Doig's son Brian said his father had made several guitars like Mr Campbell's and regularly repaired instruments.
He said there would be no way of knowing if the electric guitar was the first in New Zealand, but said it could be.
It was certainly one of the first, he said.
Mr Campbell is an electrician by trade and was, until recently, a regular performer on the Dunedin entertainment scene. He has been through a tough time health-wise since November and has undergone many operations.
He was up in the early hours of the morning last week, unable to sleep, and decided to list his guitar on an online auction site and see what sort of response he got.
By the time the auction closed yesterday, it had received more than 13,000 page views and dozens of responses, including encouragement, scepticism and calls for the guitar to go to a museum.
Others commenting on the auction said a few square-shaped and frying pan-style electric guitars were made around the same time.
The top bid was $25,000, which failed to meet the reserve.
Mr Campbell has decided not to re-list it but is now storing it away from his home for security reasons.
Mr Campbell said he had no proof, other than the word of his music teacher, that it was the first electric guitar, but no-one had come up with one that was earlier.
