A family quarrel and a new company.

Crumar was founded in Castelfidardo by Mario Crucianelli, of the accordion family that had earlier started Elka. The fullest account comes from the Italian enthusiast Enrico Bassi’s “Crumar Museum,” a website now available in archived form, which includes an interview with a former Crumar engineer and is the source English Wikipedia cites. Bassi writes that “with the arrival of the 1970s, family disputes led Mario to leave Elka and found Crumar together with his brother Vincenzo.”

The name joins two surnames: CRUcianelli and MARchetti, after a partner who, Bassi says, made electrical transformers at the time and soon withdrew. Bassi calls the reading “CRUcianelli MARio” an error. The founding date is reported differently — Italian Wikipedia gives 1971 and names the partner as F. Marchetti, English Wikipedia says the late 1960s — so we say “around 1970–71.”

Crumar grew quickly in the 1970s. Bassi says its staff rose to about 300, and that more than 90 per cent of the work was done in-house in Castelfidardo.

String machines, synths and the Spirit.

Crumar began with portable keyboards that imitated other instruments. Bassi’s list dates the Compac-piano to 1972–73 and the Compac-string to 1973, followed in 1974 by the Pianoman, Stringman and Organizer. The Multiman, sold also as the Orchestrator, combined strings and other sounds; Bassi dates it to 1975, Sound On Sound to 1977.

Synthesizers followed. Sound On Sound, writing in 2001, called the DS-2 of 1978 Crumar’s first true synthesizer. The Performer arrived in 1979, the T-series organs in 1978 and 1981, the Roadracer in 1981, and the Stratus and Trilogy in 1982. With an American partner, Music Technology, Crumar also produced the GDS and Synergy digital synthesizers in 1980 and 1981.

Its best-known synthesizer is the Spirit of 1983. According to Sound On Sound, Crumar “let it be known” that Jim Scott, Tom Rhea and Bob Moog had helped design it; Bassi says it was designed “with the contribution of Robert Moog.” We therefore describe it as designed with Bob Moog’s involvement. The Bit One followed in 1984, and the Bit 99 and Bit 01 in 1985.

The catalogue was wide. Bassi’s list also includes the T1/C and T3 organs and the Toccata of 1981, the Synthaphone of 1982, and the Composer and Performer 2 of 1983, as well as the Road Runner and Road Runner 2. Writing in 2001, Sound On Sound gave the name a different reading, as “Cru-Mar”; Bassi, who interviewed a former engineer, says that is wrong, and we follow him on the partner’s surname while noting the dispute over who co-founded the firm.

The keyboard district.

In the 1960s and 1970s the accordion towns of the Marche became a centre for electronic keyboards. Farfisa, formed in 1946 from three accordion firms, made its Compact organs from 1964; Elka was founded in 1965 by members of the Crucianelli accordion family, and Orla the same year by Nazzareno Orlandoni; Crumar followed around 1970–71. Several older accordion houses, such as Welson, also turned to organs.

Orla’s own history shows the link: it says it began in 1965 by making parts for accordions and reed organs, and moved into electronic organs after Alfio Monaci joined. The district’s products ranged from home organs and portable combo organs to string machines, synthesizers and, later, arranger keyboards.

Some of the district’s instruments reached a wide audience. Farfisa launched its FAST organs at the 1968 NAMM show in the United States, English Wikipedia records; Elka’s Synthex was used by Jean-Michel Jarre on Rendez-Vous, according to Sound On Sound; and Crumar’s DS-2 of 1978 was, English Wikipedia says, one of the earliest synthesizers with digitally controlled oscillators.

The boom did not last. The industrial district of Recanati, Osimo and Castelfidardo went into crisis at the end of the 1970s, Italian Wikipedia says, under Asian competition. Crumar stopped trading in 1986 or 1987, and Welson ceased activity in 1981, according to the guitar historian Jack Marchal. Some names survive as revived brands or distributors’ labels; and Ketron, founded in Ancona in 1981, says it still designs and makes electronic instruments there.

Crumar is the district’s synthesizer story in one firm: an accordion family’s spin-off that reached Bob Moog and then stopped.

Two surnames joined into one word.

Crumar stopped trading in 1986 or 1987; Sound On Sound and English Wikipedia give 1987, Italian Wikipedia 1986. Bassi adds that LEM, the professional-audio brand of Generalmusic, bought the rights to the Bit 99 and made it until 1986, and that Bits were sold rebadged in the United States — which may explain the two dates.

The name was revived in 2008, when, Italian Wikipedia says, it was bought by several people active in the industry; English Wikipedia describes a new Italian company. The revived Crumar showed the Baby Grand piano at Musikmesse in 2008, followed by the Bassman pedal synthesizer and, in 2011, the Mojo organ; the Seven stage piano followed in 2018. The Mojo used an organ-modelling engine called VB3, and the Bassman was a synthesizer played with a 13-note pedalboard. Several of those early products — the Baby Grand, the Bassman, the Mojo XT and the Mojo Desktop — are now listed as discontinued. Its website lists the Mojo range, the Seven, Seventeen, Eleven, Sorrento and DK61, and a software version of the Performer, sold for €91.50. The site links to the software developer GSi and credits Guido Scognamiglio and Andrea Agnoletto. Its website says the Crumar name is a registered trademark, and its contact address is in Roncade, in the province of Treviso in the Veneto, not the Marche; we found no statement on where today’s instruments are made, and we make none.

For a design guide, Crumar shows a name built from two surnames, revived by people who valued the instruments. Compare Elka, the family firm Mario left, and Generalmusic, whose LEM brand took over a Crumar design. We do not repeat unsourced lists of famous players. For this guide we use a panel black and a signal orange with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no instrument or logo is reproduced.

Keep Crumar’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.