Ibanez
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| Type | Private |
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| Founded | Nagoya, Japan 1957 |
| Headquarters | Japan |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Products | Ibanez Guitars and Basses, Amplifiers, Effects |
| Website | www.ibanez.com |
Ibanez (pronounced /ˈaɪbænɛz/ or /aɪˈbænɛz/) is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe.
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[edit] History
The Hoshino Gakki company began in 1908 as the musical instrument sales division of the Hoshino Shoten, a bookstore company. The Ibanez brand name dates back to 1929 when Hoshino Gakki began importing Salvador Ibáñez guitars from Spain. When the "Salvador Ibáñez" workshop was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, the "Ibanez Salvador" guitars were no longer available, so Hoshino Gakki bought the "Ibanez Salvador" brand name rights and started making Spanish acoustic guitars in 1935, at first using the "Ibanez Salvador" brand name, and then later using the "Ibanez" brand name [1].
The modern era of Ibanez guitars began in 1957 [2] and the late 1950s and 1960s Ibanez catalogues [1] show guitars with some wild looking designs [2]. Japanese guitar makers in the 1960s were mostly copying European guitar designs and some of the late 1960s Ibanez designs were similar to Hagström and EKO guitar designs. Hoshino Gakki used the Teisco and FujiGen Gakki guitar factories to manufacture Ibanez guitars after they stopped manufacturing their own guitars in 1966 and after the Teisco guitar factory closed down in 1969/1970 Hoshino Gakki used the FujiGen Gakki guitar factory to make most Ibanez guitars.
In the 1960s Japanese guitar makers started to mainly invent American guitar designs and Ibanez branded copies of Gibson, Fender and Rickenbacker models started to appear. This resulted in the so called Ibanez lawsuit period. After the lawsuit period Hoshino Gakki introduced Ibanez models that were not copies of the Gibson or Fender designs such as the Iceman and Ibanez Roadstar. The company has produced its own guitar designs ever since. The late 1980s and early 1990s were an important period for the Ibanez brand. Hoshino Gakki's relationship with Frank Zappa's former guitarist Steve Vai resulted in the introduction of the Ibanez JEM and the Ibanez Universe models and after the earlier successes of the Roadstar and Iceman models in the late 1970s/early 1980s, Hoshino Gakki entered the superstrat market with the RG series which were a lower priced version of the Ibanez JEM model.
Hoshino Gakki also had semi acoustic, nylon and steel stringed acoustic guitars manufactured under the Ibanez name. Most Ibanez guitars were made for Hoshino Gakki by the FujiGen guitar factory in Japan up until the mid to late 1980s and from then on Ibanez guitars have also been made in other Asian countries such as Korea, China and Indonesia. During the early 1980s the FujiGen guitar factory also produced most of the Roland guitar synthesizers, including the Stratocaster-style Roland G-505, the twin-humbucker Roland G-202 (endorsed by Eric Clapton, Dean Brown, Jeff Baxter, Yannis Spathas, Mike Rutherford, Andy Summers and Steve Hackett) and the Ibanez X-ING IMG-2010.
Sometimes stencil (template) guitar designs were shared by Japanese guitar companies and distributors so an early Hoshino Ibanez branded guitar might look the same as another brand name guitar produced by a different Japanese distributor but only Ibanez, Cimar by Ibanez and Maxxas branded guitars were made for Hoshino Gakki and are the only guitar brand names that have appeared in Hoshino Gakki catalogues. Cimar guitars were not produced by Hoshino Gakki but "Cimar by Ibanez" guitars were produced for Hoshino Gakki by Cimar [3].
The Starfield guitar brand was also owned by Hoshino Gakki. In the 1970s, Hoshino Gakki and Kanda Shokai shared some guitar designs and so some Ibanez and Greco guitars have the same features. The Kanda Shokai Greco guitars were sold in Japan and the Hoshino Gakki Ibanez guitars were sold outside of Japan. From 1982, Ibanez guitars have also been sold in Japan as well as being sold outside of Japan [4].
Guitar brands such as Antoria shared some Ibanez guitar designs. The Antoria guitar brand was managed by JT Coppock Leeds Ltd England. CSL was a brand name managed by Charles Summerfield Ltd England. Maurice Summerfield of the Charles Summerfield Ltd company contributed some design ideas to Hoshino Gakki and also imported Ibanez and CSL guitars into the UK with Hoshino Gakki cooperation from 1964-1987. The Maxxas brand name came about because Hoshino Gakki thought that the guitar did not fit in with the Ibanez model range and was therefore named Maxxas by Rich Lasner from Hoshino USA [3].
[edit] Lawsuit
Harry Rosenbloom, of Medley Music, based in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, was manufacturing handmade guitars under the name "Elger." By 1965 Rosenbloom had decided to stop manufacturing guitars and chose to become the exclusive North American distributor for Ibanez guitars. In September of 1972 Hoshino began a partnership with Elger Guitars to import guitars from Japan. In September of 1981, Elger was renamed "Hoshino U.S.A.", retaining the company headquarters in Bensalem, Pennsylvania as a distribution and quality-control center.
The lawsuit was brought by the "Norlin Corporation", the parent company of Gibson guitars against Elger/Hoshino U.S.A. in 1977, and was based on an Ibanez headstock design that had been discontinued by 1976. Hoshino settled out of court, and by 1978 had begun making Ibanez guitars from their own designs [5].
After the lawsuit Hoshino Gakki abandoned the strategy of copying "classic" USA electric guitar designs and moved to the popular superstrat era in the mid-1980s. The newer Ibanez models began incorporating more modern elements into their design such as radical body shapes, slimmer necks, 2-octave fingerboards, slim pointed headstocks, higher-output electronics, humbucker/single-coil/humbucker pickups, locking tremolo bridges and more colourful finishes.
[edit] Guitars
Ibanez guitars have grown in reputation over the years and have gained a following amongst seasoned musicians. Early Japanese built guitars are considered as good as, if not superior to, US built axes of the same period.
| Electric Guitar Models |
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| Production Signature Models |
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| Discontinued Signature Models |
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| New Guitar & Bass Models for 2008 |
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| Bass Guitar Models |
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| Acoustic Guitar Models |
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[edit] Ibanez endorsers: past and present
[edit] Effect pedals
In the 1970s, the Nisshin Onpa company, who owned the Maxon brand name, developed and began selling a series of effect pedals in Japan. Hoshino Gakki licensed these for sale using the name Ibanez outside of Japan. These two companies eventually began doing less and less business together until Nisshin Onpa ceased manufacting the TS-9 reissue for Hoshino Gakki in 2002.
[edit] Tube Screamer
[edit] References
- ^ Hoshino Gakki History
- ^ Ibanez, The Untold Story by Paul Specht (Michael Wright, Jim Donahue) ISBN 0-9764277-0-2
- ^ Rich Lasner interview
- ^ Ibanez: The Untold Story, 2005 Hoshino, USA
[edit] External links
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Guitar portal |
- Official Ibanez Website
- Ibanez Register - Information and pictures of all the Ibanez guitars
- History of Hoshino Gakki Co., Ltd.
- Ibanez History
- Ibanez Museum - Ibanez instruments database, resources, user reviews, and pictures.
- Origins of Ibanez and the Lawsuit Models
- Ibanez Serial Number Decoder
- Complete Ibanez Catalogs Online
- IbanezRules - Buy/Sell used Ibanez guitars, technical setup guides, catalog scans, manuals, wiring diagrams, etc.
- Guitar Resource Center Ibanez Guitar Reviews
- The Ibanez JS Site
- Jemsite - Dedicated to Ibanez JEM guitars and other Ibanez guitars.
- Rich Lasner from Hoshino USA interview
- The Mr-Ibanez Collection - Collection of rare vintage ibanez guitars
