Giannini is a Brazilian musical instruments manufacturing company, based in

Salto, São Paulo Salto is a municipality in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Sorocaba. The population is 119,736 (2020 est.) in an area of 133.06 km². The elevation is 555 m. The city has one main rive ...

. Products currently manufactured by Giannini include electric, steel-string acoustic, nylon-string acoustic and

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s. Other

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

s include craviolas,

cavaquinho The cavaquinho (pronounced in Portuguese) is a small Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings. More broadly, ''cavaquinho'' is the name of a four-stringed subdivision of the lute family of instr ...

s, viola caipiras and

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

s. Giannini also manufactures bowed string instruments such as

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

s, cellos and

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

es, and

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

for those instruments.

History

The company was founded in 1900 by Tranquillo Giannini (1876–1952), an Italian immigrant with

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

talents. Their first industrial plant was located at Av. Sao Joao in the city of

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

. Today, Giannini's plant is located at Salto, a city in the state of

(not far from the capital). They currently produce nylon and steel stringed guitars,

craviola Paulinho Nogueira (Campinas, 8 October 1929 – São Paulo, 2 August 2003) was a Brazilian guitarist, composer and singer. Biography He was an eclectic composer, his influences ranging from bossa nova to Bach. Paulinho Nogueira designed the cr ...

, viola caipira,

, violins, electric guitars and basses and some accessories such as guitar tuners and guitar strings.

Craviola

The Craviola, created by Giannini with Brazilian musician

Paulinho Nogueira Paulinho Nogueira (Campinas, 8 October 1929 – São Paulo, 2 August 2003) was a Brazilian guitarist, composer and singer. Biography He was an eclectic composer, his influences ranging from bossa nova to Bach. Paulinho Nogueira designed the cr ...

is one of the most notable guitars made by Giannini due to its unique shape and sound identity. It gained widespread visibility after it was used by

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

's guitarist

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

. From September 1971 to June 1972, Page used a 12-string craviola, model GWSCRA12-P, mostly in Zeppelin's performances of "

Tangerine The tangerine is a type of citrus fruit that is orange in color. Its scientific name varies. It has been treated as a separate species under the name ''Citrus tangerina'' or ''Citrus'' × ''tangerina'', or treated as a variety of ''Citrus retic ...

", which was also first recorded using the same craviola. Page received two craviolas (one with six strings and the other, by his request, with twelve) from Giannini itself as gifts, while visiting his NGO at

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. The Craviola also received an electric version with Wilkinson pickups. The guitar's wiring has one 3-position key for each of the pickups, which allow them to work with one coil, the other one, both as a humbucker or both separately as single coils, giving a wide range of possible timbres, aside from the regular 3-position key for alternating between both pickups.

Instruments

Current

Electric Guitars

* G-100 * G-101 * G-102

Bass

* GB-100 * GB-200 A * GB-205 A

Bowed

* GB-100 * GB-200 A * GB-205 A

Recorders

* Recorder Barroque (GFD 24B, GFD 314B) * Recorder German (GFD 313G, GFD 23G)

Ethnical

* Cavaquinho * Viola caipira * Mandolin

Catalog

Electric Guitars

* SuperSonic (AEO3, GG03, GSS-ECL) * Stratosonic (AE08, GG08) * Telesonic (AE02) * Craviola (GCRA-202 EL FM) * Diamond (Mirage Guitar, AE06, Apollo, GSH 350) * Gemini (AE04, GG04)

References

External links

Official website
{{Mandolin family instruments Companies based in São Paulo (state) Manufacturing companies established in 1900 1900 establishments in Brazil Guitar manufacturing companies Bass guitar manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Brazil Brazilian brands Design companies established in 1900 Mandolin makers