Giannini AWS20

This is a conservatory sized classical guitar. According to the label inside the body visible through the soundhole this guitar is a product of Tranqillo Giannini S. A. , Sao Paulo, Brasil. 18 frets with nut and bridge made of ivory (or polished bone of another kind). I'm confident that the entire guitar is made of Brazilian rosewood even though I have a sneaking suspition that the top is plywood.

The most striking thing about this guitar is the glossy finish- it's blue (nearly sky blue but not quite light enough) that fades to black at the edges. Wherever I've taken this guitar it's never failed to get a comment. I use this guitar for teaching, practicing and for playing for very small audiences (at a party/for a girl/etc.). When I have a serious performance and use other guitars (that are much nicer, sound better, and cost me a hell of alot more) to perform I invariably get asked things like, "Where's your cute little blue guitar?" and "Dude, what happened to that badass blue guitar man."

This guitar has been mostly used to play classical music and classical style arrangements but has had almost everything you can think of put through it. Intonation is perfect. It has a subdued sound and with worn strings it sounds like a small piano. With new strings however it gets a nice full bodied sound that is quite nice when playing things like Moonlight Sonata. For anything that requires a brasher tone such as a flamenco style piece... this is not the instrument you want to use. I don't ever perform with this guitar because the overall sound production just isn't performance quality. This guitar does not get very loud.

Action is excellent. Even more than the finish, perhaps this guitar's most endearing quality is how fun it is to play even compared to much nicer (and more expensive) classicals. The fingerboard is made of rosewood and shows it's age as it's gotten slower as the years have gone by. There are mysterious finger tip sized indentions on the second and third frets in which the finish has come off. I wonder how those got there. I imagine that unless I refinish the fingerboard it only going to get worse. But thats rosewood fingerboards for you, no surprises. Tuning pegs work perfectly. I've never had any tuning problems with this guitar in 17 years of ownership.

Unfortunately I do not know exactly how old this guitar is. At the Giannini website http://www.giannini.com.br/ they have old product catalogues in pdf format but I was unable to find AWS-20. However in the 76/77 catalogues the AWS-21 through 23 are listed and look very similar to my guitar so I imagine the 20 was from just before this time period. The desription is interesting in that it says the AWS-21 was strung with "Special extra light steel strings". I have never used anything but nylon and would be loathe to try anything else for fear that the bridge and saddle would come off as the saddle is very slightly deatched on the end side.

So this guitar in all probablity closing will be at least 30 years old by 2006 and is in excellent playing condition. This is the guitar that I learned to play on and I have used it nearly everyday for 17 years and it's held up beautifully.

Giannini has a bit of information about their old guitars at their website: http://www.giannini.com.br/

I am submitting this review because there are none for this particular model on harmony central. If anyone has more definitive information on this model of Giannini please e-mail me at the address below.

If anyone comes across one of these in playable condition and is thinking about purchasing it keep this is mind- This is a great intermediate guitar for a serious classical student but I feel it would be a waste to give such a beautiful old guitar to a beginner who doesn't know how to take care of it.