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Crucianelli, Elite italian bass question

J

jimbodapunkbass

Aug 16, 2007
10
0
#1
i'm sure someone out there can answer my question, unfortunately i dont know how to find the right thread for this kind of thing, so i'm making this one.

i am considering buying a beautiful "Elite" bass. 60's italian made semi-acoustic model, black pickguard, doublepickup, sunburst finish. basically kind of a gibson thinline(?) copy. i am unhappy about the price that is being asked... about the equivalent of 1200 US dollars. i am in italy right now, and music equipment in general seems to be overpriced here, and that is definitely a factor, and the conversion rate, all that. the old geezer that owns the store basically wont let me play it, so i have yet to see how it plays or sounds, which would be the ultimate factor in the purchase, of course. but i was wondering if anyone knows what this kind of bass would be worth, approximately. i dont mind paying a tad bit over, because i understand europe is more expensive, but i dont want to be ripped off, which i get the feeling is what would happen if i bought it for the asked price.

thanks if anyone can help!
 
#2
My experience with buying 60's era non-American basses is this, they are all overpriced. In the past 10 years the price of 60's non-American basses have skyrocketed, thanks to Ebay.

These days it seems that the old Italian makes like Eko, Contessa, Crucianelli, etc. are going for around a grand. Any non-American make that was used by anyone successful like Hofner and Vox run for even more. You have to remember that most of these were budget instruments, and that most of them weren't well made. The price that you would pay for this thing isn't for playability and tone, it's for the fact that it's not easy to come by.

If it were me looking at that bass and the guy wouldn't let me play it, it'd be enough to turn me off and walk out without even considering to purchase the thing.
 
#5
300 euros sounds right to me. well i'm not even going to bother about it then. i'm halfway to the real thing anyway if i was gonna drop a load of money on a bass. thanks for the feedback people.

i think i was just going soft from not playing bass for 2 months!
 
#6
I have played that bass a few days ago.

It is in a pawn shop in Firenze, isn't it? I told the owner I was interested and explained him that i had been selling a dozen basses through the last year so he let me try it. I have a few pictures which I will upload as soon as I can.

At a first glance, the bass is in pretty good condition. It has some dints and scratches in the back and the pickups and tailpiece are a bit rusted. The action is nice but not low. The neck pickup was adjusted extremely high so strings hit it above the 12th fret. Sounded nice: resonant, round, beautiful highs and mids... I'm not sure but i would say it was not nitro-finished.

While testing it I began to realize that it is not worth 900€ (1100$-1200$ US), not even close. Maybe around 500-600€ just for its vintage value, but no more. It is nicely built but kind of average in all its features, my 300€ chinese Ibanez AFB sounds very close with better action. On top of that, it had a ugly crack on the neck close to the joint (it's a bolt-on, 4 bolts) and when I tried to check the truss rod, the owner didn't have the proper key, which had to be a hex wrench similar to a monkey wrench but not an allen one.

I was not convinced if the bass was even worth 500€ so I left the shop.

I hope this helps you.
 
#7
I wouldn't pay more than $200 US for a bass like that if it had a cracked neck or joint. Maybe $300 if it looked easily repairable and I thought I could flip it on eBay. There are plenty of other cool, vintage basses to be found elsewhere.
 
#9
I've found some pictures of this exact model on Google:

guitare_32889681577.jpg


guitare_32889681108.jpg


guitare_32889681588.jpg


guitare_32889681684.jpg
 

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