1964 Crucianelli Elite G-502V

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Crucianelli has been building guitars distributed all over the world under different brands. This Elite G-502V was distributed by Hagstrom, but Vox had exactly the same model named Challenger.  It's a rather high-end model, meant for rock as well as jazz, with a sober SG-inspired double florentine cutaway, and a crazy batwing scratchplate and a looooong trem arm.

Bertram D

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Italian-made Modern Crucianelli semi-hollowbody guitar is switch-tastic

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When I say "Modern" I don't mean that this guitar is an uptodate contemporary instrument, but rather it is actually a vintage 1960s Italian-made guitar badged with the "Modern" brandname. Of course, Italian guitars of this era are famed for being festooned with pickups and switches, and this Crucianelli-made guitar doesn't let the side down and features three pickups with a volume and tone control for each, plus pickup selector switch and individual switches for each pickup. Whether these are simple on/off switches or whether they do something cleverer with the tone (I doubt they are coil taps as the pickups appear to be single coils) I couldn't tell you. And perhaps all those volume and tones were just too confusing for a previous owner, as the seller of this guitar tells us that "The Vol/Tone knobs appear to have been wired in a line so they all act as master vol or tone knobs instead of individually."

It's a great looking guitar - I personally don't care for the pearloid plate for the three switches on the upper horn which gives the guitar the appearance of having a band aid or three slapped onto it - but I guess it's idiosyncratic features such as this that make these vintage Italian guitars so appealing to collectors.

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $639.95.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

1962 Italian-made Crucianelli Elite 40-V blue sparkle

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Adrián writes:

This weekend I ended up at some guy's house in Galicia (Spain), and I took photos of what I found.

Apparently it's a 62' Élite, with 4 humbuckers. The pickup selector stands for none, bass, middle, bass+treble, treble and all. Very thin body, with a flashy finish all through the neck and the large headstock. The bridge was modified on repairs, it used to have a tremolo.

The photos are bad quality, but I thought you would like to see it anyway. We plugged it in and sounded amazing, the pickups are in perfect condition.

I don't think this guy is going to put it on sale, since is a family heritage. He also had a 12 string Eko I couldn't get to see...

Hope you like it! Keep up with the blog, it's amazing!

Regards,

Adrián

Hi, thanks for sharing. But surely those pickups are singlecoils rather than humbuckers? Possibly they can be grouped together into humbucking mode? I notice also that the tuners have been replaced for a set intended for (or taken from) a guitar with a 3+3 headstock arrangement. Anyway, you can read a little more about this guitar and similar models over at Fetish Guitars.

G L Wilson

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

PANaramic vintage Italian guitar

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This 1960s Italian-made PANaramic guitar looks as if it may be a re-branded Eko - especially with the third cutaway on the lower bout. However according to that fantastic resource on vintage Italian guitars, Fetish Guitars, it is actually a re-badged Crucianelli Triple-Cutaway. The PANaramic brand were distributed in the United States by by PANcordion Inc., NYC.

G L Wilson

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

1971 Crucianelli élite stéréo

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here we see a Crucianelli élite stéréo archtop guitar from 1971, currently being offered for sale on a French website. Made in Italy, Crucianelli had strong ties with Eko (as discussed here) and this same body was also used for the Vox Super-Linx which was also produced in the Eko factory.

The most interesting feature of this guitar, however, must be its four pickups - two for the treble and two for the bass strings - and the independent pickup selectors for treble and bass. No doubt this allows for some interesting pickup combinations, which would be made all the more interesting by the stereo output.

Thanks to Dirk Lubbe for bringing this beauty to my attention.

G L Wilson

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