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Ibanez

Anything But Traditional.

About Me


The Hoshino Gakki company began in 1908 as a musical instrument sales division of the Hoshino Shoten bookstore company. In 1935 they began manufacturing their own stringed instruments. The company had little presence in the Western world until the mid-1960s.
In 1954, Harry Rosenbloom opened a music store in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia along with his main store on Arch Street. In the mid-1970s, Harry moved his entire operation to the location it is today, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Due to the post-World War II music boom, his sales soon outstripped his inventory, and he began a company called Elger Guitars (named so after his son Gerson who is now running the business and his daughter Ellen) in an attempt to manufacture enough guitars to fill his needs. The Elger Guitar company made a relatively small number of hand-built, high quality guitars through the early 1960s.
Ibanez JEMBy 1965 Rosenbloom had decided to stop manufacturing guitars and chose to become the exclusive North American distributor for Hoshino Gakki instruments. At the time, the phrase "made in Japan" was considered to have negative connotations of low quality, so Hoshino Gakki and Rosenbloom wanted to distribute the instruments under a "non-Japanese" name. Hoshino had recently acquired a small Spanish guitar company named Ibanez, and it was decided to market the instruments under this brand name. In 1971 Hoshino purchased Elger Guitars, renaming the company "Ibanez U.S.A." and retaining the company headquarters in Bensalem, Pennsylvania as a distribution and quality-control center.
In the early 1970s Ibanez began making guitars that were almost exact copies of popular models by Gibson, Fender and Rickenbacker. Using somewhat cheaper materials and greater automation in manufacturing, they were able to sell these guitars for a significantly lower price than the originals. The low price combined with the relatively high quality of the guitars made these models very popular. Many guitar aficionados feel that the early- and mid-70s mark a low point in the quality of guitars from the major manufacturers, which helped contribute to the popularity of the Ibanez copies. These guitars have become known as "lawsuit" guitars and have become somewhat collectible.
The actual lawsuit referred to was brought by the Norlin Corporation, the parent company of Gibson guitars, in 1977, and was based on an Ibanez headstock design that had been discontinued by 1976. Ibanez settled out of court, and by 1978 had begun making guitars from their own designs.
Abandoning the strategy of copying "classic" electric guitar designs, the newer models began incorporating more modern elements into their design, such as radical body shapes, slimmer necks and flatter fingerboards (which allowed for faster playing), higher-output electronics and colorful finishes. This led to an increasing popularity with heavy metal musicians. The company also began an extensive program of consulting with well-known guitar players, such as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and creating signature models made to the players' specifications.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 7/7/2006
Band Website: ibanez.com
Band Members:
Influences: Anyone who plays Ibanez!

Sounds Like: SOLID BODY ELECTRIC GUITARS

ACOUSTIC GUITARS

HOLLOW BODY GUITARS

BASSES

Record Label: Metal Blade, Epic, Virgin, Favored Nations, etc.
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

The new "Fan Tweaked Ibanez Guitars" album

If you have a unique Ibanez guitar that you tweaked or created based off of Ibanez parts, you can send it to us over here at myspace, and we will put it in the album. Just send us a message with a pic...
Posted by Ibanez on Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:36:00 PST

The Ibanez store has some fresh new threads for sale:

Play Ibanez? Wear Ibanez!https://store.ibanez.com/store/comersus_dynamicIndex. asp
Posted by Ibanez on Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:12:00 PST

HALO 3 GIVEAWAY!

Go here to enter:http://www.ibanez.com/giveaway/halo3enter.aspx
Posted by Ibanez on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:18:00 PST

Buz McGrath and Ken Susi of Unearth

Boasting a bone-crushing low end, heavy mahogany tone without the heavy mahogany weight and a ...
Posted by Ibanez on Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:31:00 PST

Necrophagist talks Ibanez

Death metal phenom Muhammed Suicmez of Necrophagist tells and s...
Posted by Ibanez on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:44:00 PST

SURF with the ALIEN: Get a FREE autographed CD!

http://www.ibanez.com/joesatriani/
Posted by Ibanez on Tue, 24 Jul 2007 07:46:00 PST

Ibanez Dayz Come One Come All

Brin in your Ibanez electric or Ibanez acoustic guitar & have it restrung free with D'addario  strings by an expert tech from Ibanez. Free swags & mags while supplies last. Great door pri...
Posted by Ibanez on Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:22:00 PST

DO NOT CONTACT THIS PAGE FOR ENDORSEMENTS!

Go to the Official Ibanez website.
Posted by Ibanez on Sat, 21 Apr 2007 05:11:00 PST