Galanti Grand Prix

Galanti Grand Prix
I think it's a 1964.I had one in 64 when they first came out.The neck on this guitar is unbelievable.It's not a Gibson or Fender radius,it has a radius all it's own.I acquired another one on ebay and it plays exactly the same as the original one I had,as far as the sound goes,the treble is really bright and the bass is great for jazz playing.It has one volume and one tone,vegamatic style selector buttons,has a vibrato similiar to a Jaguar,tune o matic type roller bridge,oh it has 22 frets and the scale is 24 3/4.As far as playing live with it,I've done that and this guitar will withstand a live situation as long as you're not prone to smashing things on stage.Overall it's a really versitile guitar.

This is a late 60's model i'm guessing. It has a lightly figured maple neck and a solid 2 piece bookmatched, straight grained mahogony body. It has 2 mini humbuckers, each on is around 12k. They must have used something like a #50 or #54 wire to get them that hot in such a tiny space.It also has a trem bridge which i think when the whole inst. is set up proporly is far superior to the one on a jazzmaster.

The one that i own was well cared for, but the electronics were a complete wash. The pickups themselves were not potted and very microphonic! Add to this a very large steel plate onto which they were mounted. How do you spell tinitis? GALLANTI. There was some kind of funky capacitor mounted between the pickups on the aforementioned steel plate that compeatly sucked out most of the tone from these pickups. I am running this through my ampeg v7. 100watts 6550's ect. Mostly what i got from this guitar as i recieved it was alot of dull thud... For humbuckers, these were noisy and not much variety of sound. Even the bridge pickup sounded dull. oh yeah, the selector buttons kept getting in the way and getting accidentally switched.

hhmmm where to begin. The tuners were extremely sloppy and were promptly replaced with a set of stock sperzels. The plastic nut slots were cut much too deep, especially for a guitar with a whammy. This was replaced with a graphtech nut shaped and fitted with TLC. The string guide was removed and wet sanded and greased for a slippery slide. The big black pickup button thingy was disconnected, as it was noisy and prone to accidental switching. It was replaced with a lespaul style 3way in the upper bout. This guitar has huge routes on both sides as well as under the pickguard. My god how could i have forgotten about the pickguard, the big lightning bolt. This is obviously a guitar only a Mother could love. Thank god for that!
Ahh... now comes the pickups. I put a seymour d. p90 8k app. in the bridge and an old late 70's gibson p90 7.7k clear bobbin in the rear. Nothing special. The pickguard needed to be reshaped to accept the p90's, plus a slight bit of routering of the body underneath. The sound opend right up. These were the pickups that were supposed to be in here in the first place. Played clean with a bit of verb, it is a joy! You know those old rnb songs motown n such? it lives there!!! The combination of the long scale 251/2" and the large metal bridge whammy combo give this guitar a woody plonk with metallic overtones that has to be heard!!! As far as distortion goes the less the better with this guitar as i have modified it. Notes and chords tend to get washed out as the gain is pushed up. Oh well, as far as blues and jazz and RnB go,I love this friggin' thing!!! The neck pocket is a sloppy fit, a real liability if playing live, not recomended. The finish is very nice, the body _and_neck spayed red and then BlackBursted, even on the headstock! A cheesy lowend 1960's feature but very neat none the less. Oh yeah, it has a nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Here is my opinion. Guitars should be played not polished, and if not polished after every use, the finish will turn into a stickey, cheesy, mess that no one, not even me will want to hold! So there all you vintage lacquer guys! Heres a big mistake made on this guitar, the bridge was mounted in the wrong spot. This can be fixed but it involves drilling into the whammy plate as this is where it is directly mounted. I have yet to figure out how i'm gonna go about that one. Playing the guitar is a comprimise and yes so is the intonation. Oh well thats the price i'll pay to play something with "character". The truss rod actually works and the neck adjusted just fine. The small frets are my favorite(think fender) kind and felt pretty good. Don't know if it had a refret, i seriously doubt it. Think about it, with all of things i pointed out wrong with this axe, you would want to either A. smash it into oblivion. or B. stick in a corner smomewhere in a closet for 30 years. I'll opt for option B. seeing as how i am actually in possession of this guitar. To get this guitar to hold tuning, play sort of in tune, and to sound pretty damn rightous was ALOT of work. I know because i did all the work myself.TLC Oh yeah, before i forget, the whammy goes klank! when opperated. Something a little foam underneath fixed right away. Like i said alot of work.

Don't even think of playing this guitar onstage!
I caught you, you were thinking about it.
Don't do that!

Are the strap buttons solid?
Yes, the strap buttons are solid. So is the plate in my head...

Can you depend on it?
What do you think?

Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
Do you have a plate in your head?

I own a 1988 japanese fender strat, a fine guitar. I have played for 22 years. I also own a late fifties kay archtop. I love the way the gallanti sounds after all those mods. Set up properly, the whammy beats the daylights out of the ones on a jazzmaster or jaguar, plus the headstock is longer than a fender. Combine that with the behind the bridge string length and you have a great recipe for overtones! Pass the spagetti and garlic bread.Grab your spitfire and give me afew bars a of messin' with the kid, ahhh heaven...
Baisically i play guitars only a mother could love... a mother with a plate in his head.

2 p/u, thin solid body, great neck, rosewood board, burst finish, big "Z" pickguard. Looks very similar to a jazzmaster or jaguar -- shape, headstock, tremolo (which stays in tune pretty well oddly enough).

Italian made, 60's I believe. This model is liekly their most common. I've also seen them in a red that looks great.

When this guitar was first given to me I thought it sounded TERRIBLE. I just let it sit for a month. Then I started playing it unplugged and really fell in love with the neck and the body shape. It is really comfortable to play. Not to flat or radiused, substantial but not thick neck. Great rosewood board, very good quality. So after playing it unplugged for a while I thought I'd give it another shot plugged in. The 2 p/u's are polar opposites. The neck is so bassy and the bridge is so small and thin that it literally reminds me of a sound if you were playing your guitar through an AM radio. In combo, they balance out really well. To my ears, the neck pu is almost unuseable by itself b/c it is so bassy. The bridge by itself is ok when you tweak your amp. It is pretty twangy all and all (my fiance calls it "plinky" which I think characterizes it better, it isn't a tele), which to me is a good thing, and something that is missing from my other guitars. I thought about replacing the pu's but I hate doing that b/c it is so hard to pick them out when you can't try them. I recently replaced a humbucker on another guitar with a Tom Anderson (the pu shorted out) and while I am happy with the sound, it sounded totally different in another guitar.

Anyway, pu's are always a gamble, and to me the whole thing about this guitar is that it sounds DIFFERENT. Why spend money to make it sound like another guitar. I read somewhere where Beck said that it is hard to make a guitar sound like a clarinet when the pu's work right. I buy that concept -- each guitar sounds different, they have their unique purpose. If you want to make this sound like a "traditional" guitar, a change of pu's would hellp, but i'm keeping them. They are also very much prone to feedback with more than a modest amount of gain.

There are lots of songs in this guitar - I've written 3 or 4 that I am really happy with -- maybe it is b/c it sounds/feels so different (even unplugged).

LIke I said, I love the neck, it is the guitar i always seem to reach for when sitting on the couch or in front of the computer. few of the frets higher up have sharp edges, which strangely enough i kinda have gotten used to and kinda like. It bites back! Accordian pu selectors work fine, though they tend to creep up when thrashing around.

As long at the gain doesn't get too high, I might use this live, depends on the pus in a loud situation. Everything else it rock solid. Very well built.

n/a -- and hard to find godd info on galanti on the web and elsewhere.

I've been playing 15 years, currently own about 8 guitars. this one is unique and i really have grown to love it. i would look for another one now, they go for about $300-500. It feels great, electric sound is unique.

Is it perfect for every task? No way, but is has some solid purposes.
In terms of types of music, anywhere you would use a jazzmaster (My Bloodly Valentine, Sonic Youth), ambient/experimental. It also congures up kinda "gutter/trash" rock, like the Grifters (great band!), Marc Ribot, maybe some Jeff Buckley.