Giannini
Giannini is a traditional fine musical instruments maker in Brazil.[1]
The company was founded in 1900 by Tranquillo Giannini, an Italian immigrant with luthier talents. Their first industrial plant was located at Av. Sao Joao in the city of São Paulo.
Today, Giannini's plant is located at Salto, a city in the state of São Paulo (not far from the capital). They currently produce nylon and steel stringed guitars, craviola, viola caipira, cavaquinho, mandolin, 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 is one of the most notable guitars made by Gianninni due to its unique shape and sound identity. It gained widespread visibility after it was used by Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page. From September 1971 to June 1972, Jimmy used a 12-string craviola, model GWSCRA12-P, mostly in Zeppelin's performances of Tangerine, which was also first recorded using the same craviola.[2] Jimmy recently 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.[3]
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 alterning between both pickups.[4]
References
- ↑ "Musical Instruments - Giannini". Amazon.com. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
- ↑ "Giannini GWSCRA12-P Craviola Acoustic - Led Zeppelin: Achilles Last Stand". Retrieved November 5, 2014.
- ↑ "Jimmy Page recebe Craviola de presente da Giannini". Retrieved November 5, 2014.
- ↑ "Guitarra Craviola GCRA-202 EL FM - Produtos - Giannini Instrumentos Musicais". Retrieved November 5, 2014.