From Brazil: It's the return of the Giannini Craviola solidbody electric

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Guitarz reader Henrique writes:

The Craviola is back! Giannini starded to produce a reissue of the Craviola this season. It is a solid body mahogany guitar with a flamed maple top and set mahogany neck. Two Wilkinson humbuckers with coil split and phase inverter! More info on Giannini website. I have already ordered mine!

Thanks for the heads up, Henrique. It certainly is a very good looking guitar and a refreshing change from the same old designs that get trotted out time and time again from all the usual suspects and their myriad copyists (earlier today I was looking through a bunch of Gibson's new models for 2013; they were ALL variations of Les Pauls and SGs).

Shape-wise it's reminiscent of the Ovation Breadwinner but without the rear cutaway. Of course the design is based on Giannini's own now legendary Craviola acoustic guitars, which have to be the coolest design for an acoustic guitar EVER.

For those who can understand Portuguese:

Now, I defy you to deny that those are indeed some very TASTY guitars. (Wish we could have heard them in the video clip, though).

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Giannini Craviola thinline 'Roberto Frejat'

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A following to the previous Giannini Craviola post, thanks to Henrique's comment pointing this superb thinline version - the Roberto Frejat signature - I love this one even better! 

Also we know now that these guitars are 2000s reissues - so they exist, they are not extraordinarily rare so there's hope to get some one day - but they still have to come from Brazil!

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Solidbody Giannini Craviola

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I knew the Giannini Craviola acoustic guitars - some have been presented on this blog already - but wasn't aware so far that at some point Giannini produced a solid body version of the Craviola.

Century-old Brazilian guitar company Giannini made solid bodies between the 70s and the 90s, mostly copies of Fender and Gibson, but there are no trace of this one in the catalogues I could check online. Nowadays, they are back to acoustics, including their most famous model, the asymmetric Craviola that has the lower part of a guitar and the upper part of a lute (on the acoustic version it seems to have a strong influence on the sound - so much that on its wikipedia article, it's not even labeled as a guitar!)

Of course, on a solid body the tone is not influenced by the design (or is it? this is an endless debate, and I'm on the side of the skeptical) but the result is beautiful, particularly since it's - as far as I can see on these photos - an archtop.

Simple and original, definitely a guitar I would happily add to my collection! 

Bertram

Edit: not an archtop after all, check the comments!

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Giannini Craviola Classical

guitarz.blogspot.com:
We've looked at Brazil's Giannini Craviola previously on Guitarz; that time it was a 12-string model, but the above pictured example is a nylon-strung classical guitar and is currently for sale on eBay with a very low starting price.

I love this design. It's practical and yet unusual at the same time. The asymmetrical semi-lute shape gives it a timeless appeal that is both modern and classical with a touch of the Bohemian all at the same time. The D-shaped soundhole also puts me in mind of the Maccaferri gypsy jazz guitar, although it is a reversed D here on the Giannini.

G L Wilson

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Giannini Craviola 12-string

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I must say that I've always loved the design of the Giannini Craviola guitar such as this example currently for sale on eBay. It's a non-traditional acoustic guitar design that doesn't simply borrow from the shape of certain electric guitars. I like that it looks half lute, half guitar; there's something almost baroque about it.

However, opinions about the playability of these guitars seems quite polarised in a love them or hate them scenario. These Brazilian-made guitars certainly have a bit of a cult following amongst those that love them, but you'll also find stories of unplayable guitars with warped tops and lifting bridges.

Examples produced in the 1970s and 80s were built of laminated wood - which could explain some of the above-mentioned problems - whereas more up-to-date examples are built from solid wood. If you fancy one of these guitars, here is one instance where you would almost definitely be better off buying a new or relatively new example rather than a vintage guitar.

G L Wilson

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