Giannini Super Sonic

Brazil, 2005.
22 Frets.
Solid body, solid top.
Volume, tone, 3 switches for individual pick up selection.
(3 Alnico Single coils)
Cedar 3 Piece Body. Marfim (a brazilian wood, similar to maple) neck
and pau ferro fingerboard.
Vintage style tuners.

awesome clean sound, and also awesome dirty sound.
Giannini really surprised me with these new Supersonics.
it is a versatile guitar, it can sound bright and it can sound mellow.
plugged in any good amp will sound great.

jazz player? perfect.
blues player? perfect.
hard-rocker? perfect.
indie-rocker? perfect.
swedish-crazy-black-metal-headbanger? you should try another brand.

this is my only concern about brazilian products, the finishing.
brazilian factories are kinda lazy in this aspect.
mine came with some issues, but it was all solved.
no electrical problems. the problems were in the fretboard and painting (this really shouldn't happen).

i own it just for a few months, but i can tell you guys by the older ones...these guitars are amazing!
there are 1960's survivors!

lazy. they were just lazy. but the services were good, though.

it's the brazilian fender. definitely.

Made in Brazil, 2004.
22 Frets.
Solid body, solid top.
Volume, tone, 3 switches for individual pick up selection.
(3 Alnico Single coils)
Cedar 3 Piece Body. Marfim (a brazilian wood, similar to maple) neck
and pau ferro fingerboard. Medium frets.
Strat style bridge and vibrato arm (2 pivots).
Vintage style tuners.
Bag, cable and strap included.

First, a bit of history. Giannini is a 100 year plus Brazilian musical instruments factory. Plenty of people in the US know their famous "Craviola" acoustic guitar. In the 60s and 70s, Giannini was the biggest manufacturer of electric guitars in Brazil. Most of their 60s guitars and some of the 70s ones were quite good and are reasonably sought after on the local market. The quality of those instruments varies greatly, though, and got much worse as the 80s and 90s came by. In the early 90s the brazilian market was open to asian imports, cheaper and much better manufactured than their brazilian counterparts (lots of Brazilian instruments are like british cooking: good ingredients - wood- ,poor craftsmanship).
But the fellows at Giannini planned a big comeback. They re-designed some of their old models, bought CNC machines and in 2004 a "new old line" of electric instruments was released. The prices are very competivive as opposed to the asian instruments, and pickups and woods are much better.

As for the Supersonic, it?s one of my favourite guitars. It?s a cross between a Jazzmaster / Jaguar and a Strat. Its body is as comfortable as a Jazzmaster?s, and the guitar has one advantage over a Strat: the pickups can be selected individually. One of the reasons I?ve never been a big strat fan is the fact that you cannot use the bridge and beck pickups together without tinkering with the electronics.

The factory setup was good, but I sent it to the luthier straight away for a setup with the string gauge that I like (it comes with 0.10s, I use 0.11s). Action was good, frets were dressed correctly. There are some minor finish flaws, but I don?t care that much about that. I am in contact with the person responsible for their marketing department - who has asked users to let them know of all the pros and cons on the new instruments - and I let them know of those flaws.
I just wish it had a Jazzmaster / Jaguar style vibrato arm, instead of the Strat style one that is on it.

It has withstood live playing, and it sounds and looks GREAT. The Alnico pickups are very nice and sound absolutely sweet for the styles that I play - Surf and sixties style instro (think The Ventures and The Shadows).
The strap buttons are a little loose by now, But I am a bit rough and it?s probably due to use. I?ll have to check on that.
I can definitely depend on it, and I have gigged without a backup twice so far, and only broke one string at rehearsal (it was about time to change them anyway).

As I said before, I am in contact with someone from the factory, and they?ve been very nice to me and other users. Warranty is good for a year. No need for serious repairs so far, and I doubt that any future ones will go beyond the usual stuff (setup, fret dressing, etc).

Been playing electric guitar for about 15 years.
As a big fan of old Brazilian guitars, I own some other older Gianninis, most of them are unassembled and being slowly repaired. If my SSonic got stolen, I?d obviously be pissed off, but I?m glad I can get another just as good from the nearest shop. Quality control is much stricter nowadays, unlike in the 60s and 70s, when chances were 50/50 - you either bought a great guitar or a LEMON.