Giordano Guitars '60s S-Model

The finest single-coil guitar I've ever played — and it's handmade in Italy by one person. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

Today is the debut of the Giordano Guitars '60s S-Model, which is now my flagship Stratocaster-style guitar on the channel. Nicolas Giordano builds every guitar himself in Italy, obsessing over every detail until the instrument is exactly right. The result is something genuinely special — a '60s-voiced S-type that captures the bell-like clarity, quack, and bloom of the great pre-CBS Stratocasters without any of the compromises of a production instrument.

The '60s S-Model features a Blender Pot modification — a circuit addition that blends a selected secondary pickup into any pickup position, allowing combinations not available on the standard 5-way switch. In this video you'll hear the Blender Pot activated across multiple pickup positions including bridge-into-neck-middle — a combination that produces a full, complex, almost Telecaster-like character unique to the blended configuration.

The amp is my Benson Amps Monarch — all the way from clean and pushed on 7 to fully cranked on 10, covering the full range of what this guitar wants to do. Halfway through, the R2R Electric R2RGeMaster Treble Booster (built by Chris Vincent, aka @djlavalamp) enters the signal chain, transforming the Monarch's clean headroom into the singing, scrape-and-bloom NOS germanium character that makes a great single-coil guitar reveal everything it has.

DM Nicolas on Instagram to start your build: https://www.instagram.com/_giordanoguitars_/

🔊 Benson Amps Monarch: https://www.bensonamps.com/amps/monarch
🎛️ R2R Electric R2RGeMaster: https://www.r2relectric.com/how-to-order

Subscribe for more boutique tone explorations.

🎸 Giordano Guitars '60s S-Model | Handmade by Nicolas Giordano in Italy | Blender Pot
🎛️ R2R Electric R2RGeMaster Treble Booster | NOS Germanium
🔊 Benson Amps Monarch