OffsetGuitars.com

I've become obsessed with these guitars. I've been thinking about old Polvo shows,and Ash Bowie used to play a Grand Prix (see about 1:34), which sounded incredible. This will probably pass before I do something rash, but on the off chance that a decent one comes up at a good price, I figure I should be forewarned/forearmed. I've been looking around at the usual sites for info (including posts here), but the info is often thin/conflicting. I thought I'd check here to see if any folks here who have experience with these have more hands-on info.

• -Are these pickups humbuckers (as some folks have claimed) or single coils?
  -Are the pickups with the oval insert (seems like these are only on Galantis) different than the all metal rectangular ones?
  -How does the trem arm attach (set screw?), and will a Fender arm work if the original is missing? Figured this out thanks to this thread.
  -How likely are the push button mechanisms to go bad?—this seems like it could be the achilles heel of the guitar.
  -Anything else to watch out for?

Yeah I love these too. Have you seen this? Single coils, he says.

Your concerns about rocker switches, pickups and trem on an old Italian made guitar are valid. Are you familiar with the Di Pinto Galaxie? Its a modern remake, all of the looks without the problemas.

http://m.dipintoguitars.com/product.php?id=2

fuzzjunkie wrote:Your concerns about rocker switches, pickups and trem on an old Italian made guitar are valid. Are you familiar with the Di Pinto Galaxie? Its a modern remake, all of the looks without the problemas.

http://m.dipintoguitars.com/product.php?id=2

Thanks. I have seen the DiPintos. The reviews definitely look interesting—pretty positive overall. For some reason, the aesthetic doesn't come together on those for me the way it does on the Galantis and Goyas, but I think I saw one in a shop around here, and I might give it a try. The Deluxe Galaxies are kind of intriguing.

It's funny how variable prices are on the Italian guitars. It's a lot like the 60's Yamahas.

Edit: Apparently the one in the shop was not a DiPinto but a Italia DiVill F100, which makes sense since the DiPintos seemed much pricier. The Galanti influence is pretty clear.

I played it through a Blues Deville fittingly enough. It wasn't bad for $300. Fretwork was good, and the pickups sounded fine. The neck is a satin finish and pretty comfy—a little flat in radius for my taste, decent fretwork. I had dark thoughts about customizing one with some jag pickups and a Filtertron. Then again vintage Galantis pop up for $500 sometimes.

I was also obsessed with these when I was younger. I've owned seven of them all told. In my opinion, the versions with the black in the middle (which are later 60s) sound better, more aggressive, and with more clarity. The older versions, while still having a unique and garage-y tone, sound a bit muddled before bypassing the tone dampening circuits. After bypassing these circuits, the sound does open up a lot, albeit with a trade-off in the form of squealing at higher gain volumes.

The vibrato system works incredibly. One of the best I've ever used. I don't think a fender bar will work as a replacement.

Overall, these are very unique and well-made guitars. I still have one in green burst finish that I doubt I'll sell, just for old time's sake. It doesn't get much burn anymore, but it's nostalgia for when these were my main guitars. I used them almost purely for fuzzed out experimental playing, and they were great for that.

blackbox wrote:I was also obsessed with these when I was younger. I've owned seven of them all told. In my opinion, the versions with the black in the middle (which are later 60s) sound better, more aggressive, and with more clarity. The older versions, while still having a unique and garage-y tone, sound a bit muddled before bypassing the tone dampening circuits. After bypassing these circuits, the sound does open up a lot, albeit with a trade-off in the form of squealing at higher gain volumes.

The vibrato system works incredibly. One of the best I've ever used. I don't think a fender bar will work as a replacement.

Overall, these are very unique and well-made guitars. I still have one in green burst finish that I doubt I'll sell, just for old time's sake. It doesn't get much burn anymore, but it's nostalgia for when these were my main guitars. I used them almost purely for fuzzed out experimental playing, and they were great for that.

Thanks! What you describe sonically is what I'd be looking to do, and so oval insert pickups and a complete trem sound like good things to look for. I'm probably a ways out from buying one of these now since a somewhat unexpected guitar came my way, but I would like to give these a try down the road.

One of these has been on CL for over a year and I've tried a few times to get it for a low price ($400), but a no go from the seller. My desire for this guitar came from one of my favorite bands, Mutemath. The guitarist used this on their retro rock album and I just love the tone he gets with it. There's a video on youtube that a guitar tech made of one of these he worked on. He said the the neck is a beefy profile with a 7.25" radius (my favorite profile). The pickups are gold foil single coils. Well you'll have to excuse me now while I go check CL for this guitar again

I'm not going to lie. I'm digging that Italian devill in pale yellow a few posts up.

Had one of these back in the 70s. My first electric- a used Galanti I bought from my cousin, red sunburst with the black center pickups. Wish I realized how cool it was back then. All I wanted then was a Fender! So very cool to see.

A Galanti Grand Prix just popped up for sale locally to me. It has two oval cutout pickups, original knobs and trem arm as far as I can make out from the one low-quality pic. The asking price, while not too bad, is just high enough to yield to the default "I've already got way too many guitars" argument of reason.

According to Fetishguitars, these also came in 3- and 4-pickup variants, with a wide range of interesting finishes, and even had a 12-string model.

...so the necks on these are more beefy, baseball kinda ones. I might be able to grab a crackwhore'd one but HATE thick necks...

I've had a Galanti Grand Prix with the two black-filled pickups for a few years now. I played it at a guitar store in North Carolina when visiting my family, fell in love but didn't have the money for it at the time. I saved up the money and contacted the guitar store when I was back home in Chicago, but they had returned it to the owner who was trying to sell it on consignment because no one had bought it. Fortunately they were able to put me in touch directly with the owner and we worked out a deal.

I love my Grand Prix. It looks amazing, plays great, stays in tune even with decent tremolo bar abuse, sounds good. Mine does not have a particularly thick neck, contrary to what the last poster said. It's not as thin as say a Telecaster but it's not a baseball bat. I haven't noticed any tone issues so I don't know if the tone dampening circuits were removed or if that specifically relates to the models with the silver pickup covers and not the ones with the silver and black pickup covers.

The biggest problem I have is with the pickup selector buttons. Most of the time, only the bridge pickup works, and selecting the neck or combo pickup buttons results in no sound. Occasionally, it will fix itself and all the pickup selections will work as intended, but this is unpredictable and comes and goes, sometimes in the middle of playing. It seems like this is an issue with the pickup button apparatus, not the pickups or wiring. I've had two different guitar repair places "fix" it but the fix has never lasted long.

I'm mildly tempted to have a guitar tech replace the buttons with a standard pickup switch, but I'm not sure I want to mess with the aesthetics. On the other hand, it would be nice to reliably have access to all the pickup options. Has anyone on here had such a modification made on a Galanti guitar?