Ibanez Guitars
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Native name
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アイバニーズ |
|---|---|
| Private | |
| Industry | Musical instruments manufacturing |
| Founded | 1957 in Nagoya, Japan |
| Headquarters | Nagoya, Aichi, Japan |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
| Products |
Electric, acoustic, resonator & classical guitars Electric & acoustic basses Amplifiers Ukuleles Banjos Mandolins Effects units |
| Parent | Hoshino Gakki |
| Website | Ibanez.com |
Ibanez (アイバニーズ? Aibanīzu) 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, as well as the first brand of guitars to mass-produce the seven-string guitar and eight-string guitar.
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. After Telésforo Julve bought the company in 1933, Hoshino Gakki decided to make Spanish acoustic guitars in 1935, at first using the "Ibanez Salvador" brand name, and then later using the "Ibanez" brand name.
The modern era of Ibanez guitars began in 1957, and the late 1950s and 1960s Ibanez catalogues show guitars with some wild looking designs, manufactured by Kiso Suzuki Violin,Guyatone, and their own Tama factory established in 1962. After Tama factory stopped guitar manufacturing in 1966, Hoshino Gakki used the Teisco and FujiGen Gakki guitar factories to manufacture Ibanez guitars, and after the Teisco guitar factory (Teisco String Instrument, Company) once 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 copy 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. During this lawsuit period Ibanez started producing guitars under the Mann name to avoid authorities in the US and Canada. After the lawsuit period Hoshino Gakki introduced Ibanez models that were definitely not copies of the Gibson or Fender designs such as the Iceman and The 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.
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