The Fender Southern Cross Stratocaster was a guitar manufactured in Brazil between 1993 and 1995 by Giannini, a century-old string instrument maker, under the supervision of the North American brand. This was the only time that the Stratocaster guitar was manufactured in Latin America – hence the name Southern Cross.
Giannini was a company founded in 1900 in Salto, Sao Paulo, Brazil, by an Italian luthier, Tranquillo Giannini. 
​Brazil had excellent quality wood coveted on the international market such as cedar, marupá, and pau ferro. In the early 1990s, Fender approached Giorgio Coen Giannini, nephew of Tranquillo, for an agreement to supply wood to the United States for their acoustic guitars. 

Tranquillo Giannini

Giannini, who already had a Stratocaster copy in his catalog —the Stratosonic— asked to produce guitars in Brazil under the Fender brand. At that time, Fender was planning to lower the manufacturing cost of their products and authorized the production license for some guitars and basses in Brazil, manufactured solely for domestic sale in Brazil.
For the occasion, in 1991 Giorgio Giannini hired Carlos Assale, who was leaving Dolphin Guitars, the company he founded, as Giannini/Fender project manager. Carlos visited the Fender factories in Corona and in Ensenada several times with Roberto Coen Giannini, Giorgio’s son, to study Fender’s construction techniques in-depth.  

Roberto Giannini on the left, Giorgio Giannini on the right

Carlos Assale

Work on the Southern Cross project started in 1991. Many samples were sent to Fender USA for approval. The origin of the wood used was very good, as it went through a rigorous selection system, but while the necks of the Brazilian guitars were immediately approved, the bodies required a couple of years and many samples—it took numerous tooling changes. Assale remembers in an interview for Unisa (Universidade De Santo Amaro): “In the end, we received a fax from Dan Smith, director of marketing for Fender, saying that the product had improved by 4000% and that the trust was such that this would be the first time they would allow a product produced outside of their plants and without their commercial involvement to sport the Fender name on the headstock.”

The Southern Cross shown in the Giannini Guitar catalog. Note the first headstock with the Squier Series Logo.

The Southern Cross Stratocaster, known as GG2000 in the catalog of the Brazilian brand, featured a cedar body and a madera marfim neck and was available in Metallic Red, Blue Sunburst (Moonburst) and Black. Cedar provided a rich tone but made the guitar heavier. The 9.5” radiused fingerboard was in madera marfim or pau ferro and featured 21 medium jumbo frets.
On the headstock, a silverish Fender Modern Logo stood out, along with the decal “MADE IN BRAZIL.”  The first units featured a “Squier Series” logo on the ball of the headstock, which was soon replaced by the Southern Cross logo with the five stars ‘Cruzeiro do Sul’ above the letter “n”. 
The guitar was fitted with ceramic pickups that came from the Korean factory Cor-Tek and featured cheap electronics. The 6-screw bridge had cast-saddles and a thin inertia block. 
Once a month, a Fender employee went to Brazil to inspect the guitars that were manufactured there, with particular attention to the weight of each guitar since cedar was a heavy timber. The instrument only reached the national market after being approved by this foreign technician. 

Despite this strict quality control, the Southern Cross Strats were very inconsistent instruments. According to some musicians, the radius, nut width, and headstock shape of each guitar were different and even the scale and the neck shape did not follow the American Fender Stratocaster standard at all.

The Southern Cross Stratocaster headstock, second issue, with the Cruzeiro do Sul logo

Back of the Southern Cross headstock

According to Giannini, an average of 6 thousand units were produced per year under a Fender license, while Carlos Assale said that about 5000 guitars, basses, and acoustic guitars were manufactured from 1993 to 1995. 
Unluckily, production costs prevented the project from continuing, leaving other markets such as Korea and Mexico more attractive to Fender from a financial point of view. The so-called “Brazil cost” (taxes and fees) was very high, apart from the royalties paid for the use of the Fender brand. All of this made it impossible to continue the project in the country.
After the cancellation of the agreement with Fender, Giannini relaunched his Stratosonic, which featured the same woods but had differences in construction, measurements, and finishes.

The Southern Cross Stratocaster, Moonburst finish

Antonio Calvosa