Crucianelli solid bodies: 1963

by Jack Marchal

1963 Ardsley 40, blue

A clean all original Ardsley of 1963 — which means components could have been made in 1962 or the guitar assembled in 1964 (years of manufacture given in this section are to be taken with a +/-1 error margin but not more).

I believe Ardsley was a big retailer in New York. Pickups and electronics are similar to those used at the same time by Welson, Gemelli and Bartolini. The only differences are the pickup metal casings and the type of switches. Note that those pickups are dual-coil: there are EIGHT coils in all aboard this instrument! The rocker switches open pickup combinations as follows:

  • ALL for… all.
  • T for Treble, bridge pickup
  • T+B for Treble and Bass, bridge and neck pickup
  • M for Middle, both central pickups
  • B for Bass, neck pickup
  • 0 for Zero, cutout.

These are the same combination offered by Eko guitars but arranged in a different and completely illogical order, neck pickup switch being located by the bridge pickup and vice versa (why? fear of infringing an Eko patent?). It is merely a matter of getting accustomed to it. I have been trying for years… Another nonsense is the cutout switch located at the end of the control stripe, in the most exposed position, where the player’s wrist moves or rests. For live playing I use a piece a white rubber to secure it, there is no other way for avoiding unwanted moments of silence. Apart from that, this switch stripe is not only the most reliable and silent of its kind, it’s the only one that really allows instant sound change by a stroke of the pick.

  • Redesigned pickguard with the upper part parallel to body edge.
  • New Crucianelli specific tremolo.
  • Common.

Parte superiore del battipenna ridisegnata per seguire il profilo del corpo. Appare un nuovo vibrato specifico di Crucianelli. Comune

1963 Baron 20

This guitars is part of Daniel’s collection. By the logo (one more American house brand) and the white neck binding you can guess this guitar has crossed the Atlantic twice before returning to Europe. Note that control layout is made upside down also in the two-pickup version, neck pickup B-switch on the right and bridge pickup T-switch on the left side, as if the control pannel had been designed for a lefty version (there wasn’t any, by the way).

Homogeneous 1963 configuration. The generic whammy previously in use (derived from Hagström’s Tremar with an additional hinge to allow wider pitch variation) is replaced with a much better Crucianelli specific vibrato tailpiece. This one is made of an shaft that rotates on ball bearings with a lever underneath that presses a compensating adjustable spring located in a body cavity under the chrome base plate. This construction is closely inspired from Eko’s 1962 model, involves the same drawbacks (adjusting the spring is a hell of a job, it takes hours until the optimal floating position is found) but is a considerable improvement in terms of sensitivity and precision, with a Jazzmaster-like positive feeling. Pitch variation goes up to four or five half-tones.

Another great piece of hardware is the bridge, also exclusively Crucianelli specific. Vibration-free, nearly perfect, virtually as good as a Tune-o-Matic.

While we’re at it, look at the neck plate with its cut-off corners. It is Crucianelli’s signature. All Crucianelli electrics made before 1968-69 have one like that, any guitar fitted with it is a Crucianelli. Sometimes the only evidence that identifies some rare model.

1963 Tonemaster CEB bass

Did the Italians play higher notes only on bass guitars, in the swinging 60’s?… The bass version of this range displays three fret markers above the octave while the 6-string configuration has only one dot in this area!

The only possible reason in that Eko 1100 basses at that time also received three dots on the upper part of their fretboard while the matching 500 series guitars couldn’t accomodate there more than one of their cumbersome propeller inlays. It made sense. Crucianelli followed blindfold as usual Eko’s example, which in this case made no sense at all.

On show here : a very clean Tonemaster bass of 1963 in its Deluxe hard shell case. Called in the Imperial Tonemaster catalog as “C.E.B.”. For ” Crucianelli Electric Bass”?

1963 Élite 40-V blue

This is my Élite (logo is gone, a trace still remains), purchased in Italy by the end of the twentieth century. Standard four-pickup 1963 configuration, the most common generation, blue sparkle as most Élite to be found in Europe. I haven’t yet met another duplicating this one but I’m afraid it’s likely to happen some day.

What does the guitar deliver from its eight coils ? In my humble opinion, the best Italian guitar sounds of the early 60’s. Definitely superior to the contemporary Eko 500/700. Output is much higher, fatter, richer and meatier, with an ability to get brutal when distorted, and all pickup preset are really usable. The contrast between combinations B+T (Rickenbacker-like) and M (dirty with enhanced medium frequencies) is very pleasant. Maybe a matter of serial vs. parallel wiring, I should check it up.

Those pickups react to pick strokes in such a way that they develop a full humbucker sound only beyond a certain sensitivity treshold. Then, as string energy is increased, output gets compressed so that it makes little difference wether a 009 or 012 string set is used. This unusual behaviour can give great results with an amp set slightly beyond the verge of overdrive but is not to everybody’s taste. It gives the lingering sensation of a distance between what you play and what you hear. If your preference is the immediate responsiveness of a Telecaster this guitar is not made for you.

Other Italian guitars fitted with the same electronics sound similarly, with a darker shade for Welson and a specific throaty tone for Bartolini/Gemelli (due to different neck construction and woods). But the Crucianelli has an edge over the others because of its excellent bridge that generates a more than decent sustain.

Fretboard radius is just as flat as a Jackson or Ibanez and would be great along with a skinny ovale neck profile. Unfortunately it is a rather chunky D-profile I’m not comfortable with. Furthermore, in the neck attachment zone, the body heel shape makes high fret access not too easy. And there are no side fret markers. As far as playability is concerned an Eko is way better.

1963 Baron 10

A beautiful red Baron, and a slavish imitation of an Eko 500-1. The knobs are of unknown origin but fit so nicely with the general styling that I won’t dare to criticize.

Sometimes the suspicion arises that this harmonious guitar shape was born from lack of imagination or inadequate guitar culture. It has nothing of the bizarre gimmicks that typified electric guitar design in the early 60’s. All other European makers at that time had the Jazzmaster and to a lesser extent the Stratocaster as their main source of inspiration, but Crucianelli’s early solids look like having been developped by people who had never heard of Fender. Maybe it just happened that way.

While Eko was very well informed about the technologies and on-going trends in the guitar industry worldwide, it seems that Crucianelli in the beginning knew nothing but Eko and only wanted to offer similar products with just a smoother and impersonal appearance, so deliberately devoid of any originality that it ended up to be one of the most original designs of its time. This guitar looks like no other (except the Wandrè Powertone but I’m not sure the plagiarist was Crucianelli).

Several of the upper frets are missing. Maybe due to insufficient pre-bending, fret ends often tend to get loose from fretboard and even completely come off. A frequent problem with early Eko s too.

963 Élite 10-V red

Crucianelli offered similar products to Eko, based on similar and as far as possible improved solutions. Since no vibrato was available with the Eko 500-1, Crucianelli introduced it as an option on its one-pickup model.

Compared to the previous one-pickup Baron this Élite shows another difference, there’s a butterfly string-retainer on the headstock. That thing is strictly of no use (back angle over the nut was already enough) other than allowing us to state that this guitar is a bit younger than the Baron 10.

Bridge is made of a threaded shaft with individual rolling saddles that allow fine string spacing but no intonation adjustment at all. Very similar to Gretsch’s SpaceControl bridge. For some reason it appears frequently on Italian guitars of this era

1963 no-name 40-V, red sparkle

As I said before those guitars are very rarely seen in continental Europe with a white neck binding, almost impossible to find. This one has however been found in Italy “found” in the truest meaning of the word, someone came upon it in a rubbish tip!

Some parts were missing, they have been replaced with a Jazzmaster-style trem bar, two Strat control knobs and some bridge that happened to fit (not easy to find given the off-standard 70 mm or 2-3/4″ post spacing used by Crucianelli).

Current owner says he is madly in love with this sparkle wonder and is considering session work and live performances with it.

Elite 40-V

Sorrento 30-V