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1963 Crucianelli triple cutaway

Year: 1963
Brand: Crucianelli
Model: triple cutaway
Class: Guitar
Scale:
Owner: Jeff Hewitt
Status: In Studio.

These guitars marketed in Europe under the brand Elli-Sound,and in the U.S. as PANaramic.
In the end they were all made by Crucianelli. This specific model is a 1963 4v triple cut away.

Here are the original auction pictures:

Crucianelli was in Italy and primarily made accordions. This influence carried over to their guitars with celluloid sparkle, mother of pearl, and gold binding.

It was in rough condition but it was complete. After it was shipped it was in even worse condition.
The pick guard was so old and deteriorated (and the ups stores packing job so bad) that it shattered.

I'm not quite sure what material this pick guard was made out of. It does not appear to be bakelite, by the deterioration it's possibly some type of celluloid.

All of the hardware on this guitar was corroded and rusted, and I believe the pick guard material to be the culprit.
I'm guessing the pick guard deterioration released fumes that corroded the metal parts while it was stored in the case. To support this theory even the metallic sparkles in the body corroded, the closer to the pick guard area the worse the damage. Also the oder from the original case was horrid. Even the electronics could not escape the corroded fate.

The original volume and tone controls were badly damaged from corrosion. I had to replace both of the potentiometers.

The case was in surprisingly good condition. The original brass locking latch was bent, but it was easy to restore to the proper latching position. While going through the original case I found an awesome assortment of vintage guitar string packages.

The guitar was disassembled and every part was thoroughly cleaned. This guitar sports a very elaborate switching mechanism. A series of plastic switches and plates move metal contacts into position.

The assembly was dismantled, cleaned, and reassembled. I decided on using a painted finish on the pickup covers instead of bright chrome. Luckily all of the pickups were still functional.

The bridge, tremolo, and headstock logo assembly's were cleaned, prepped, and painted. This gave them a slightly worn older look than bright chrome would have.

I decided to retain the original tuning machines, even though two of them had been swapped out. I was unable to locate modern tuning machines that would fit the headstock, but I think it helps retain that vintage look.

This pick guard would be the hardest part, seeing that my original pattern was shattered. I used pieces of the original pick guard to create a card board pattern. I enlarged the patter slightly where needed to cover any major body damage from the original guards deterioration. I used a set of metal stamps to mark the pick guard with the original style control markings. Once the letters were marked I filled the recess using white crayon.