1965 CRUCIANELLI ELITE Imperial Tone Master Model  Made in Italy BASS Silver Sparkle EX+++  code BA898

The Crucianelli company was founded in 1888 in Castelfidardo by Sante Crucianelli, a former partner of Paolo Soprani and also a pioneer of the regional accordion industry. Facing the crisis that hit the sector in the early 60′s the company diversified its business in guitar manufacturing following Oliviero Pigini’s example with his Eko company.

The relationship to Eko determines Crucianelli’s whole guitar history. During the glitter celluloid era of the first half-decade the two companies are in tough competition, for every Eko model comes out a matching Crucianelli instrument. From 1965 on both companies increasingly specializes in its own field, Eko focuses on acoustics and solidbodies, Crucianelli on semi-acoustics, and both cooperate with Vox. Technical contributions of Eko and Crucianelli melt together on certain Vox (and even Eko ) models. Olivieri Pigini was planning a merger of both companies’ guitar operations. His sudden death in 1967 didn’t allow the project come to reality.

On the international market any six-stringed thing with a colourful plastic coating is called an Eko. Crucianelli guitars are very often confused with Eko and sold as such. Those guitars seldom confess readily their true origine, they hide inside a maze of brandnames. Some belonged to Crucianelli, especially Élite and the rarer names Elli-Sound and Custom Built. There were brandnames given by the official American distributors, PANaramic (by PANcordion Inc., NYC) and Tonemaster (by The Imperial Accordion Co., Chicago), more or less special models supplied in contract manufacturing to big OEMs like Vox and Baldwin, there were the brands applied by American traders such as España, Ardsley, FH, and a crowd of minor U.S. distributors.