During the 1960s, products made in Japan were considered poor quality and had an overall negative feel from the United States. Japanese guitars, however, were able to circumvent the negative aspects of Japanese manufacturers. Ibanez guitars are a testament to the quality and craftsmanship of Japanese built instruments. Ibanez guitars started out made in Spain by Salvador Ibañéz who was a very famous luthier. A luthier is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments, including guitars. Hoshino Gakki was the official founder of Ibanez guitars as a company, however. Gakki started out selling musical instruments in Japan in 1900 under the Hoshino Gakki Company. Three decades later, Gakki started manufacturing guitars and other string instruments. Gakki’s instruments had very little presence in areas other than Japan until the 1960s.
When Gakki made his move into the western world, he did so by becoming a distributor of the original Ibanez guitars made in Spain. However, Ibanez guitars went off the market after the Spanish Civil War when the Ibanez workshop was destroyed. Ibanez guitars were renowned for their superior quality, so Gakki bought the rights to the Ibanez name. With the purchase of the Ibanez name, Gakki started production on acoustic guitars and Spanish guitars and marketed them under the Ibanez name. The name started out as Ibanez Salvador but was later shortened to just Ibanez.
Gakki had acquired a distributor of his original Hoshino Gakki Company guitars in the United States. Elger Guitars became the official North American distributor of Gakki’s guitars. This happened during the 1960s when Japanese made products were not popular. This led to the decision to market all of Gakki’s guitars under the Ibanez brand instead of just the Spanish and acoustic guitars. Gakki later bought out Elger Guitars and renamed it Hoshino U.S.A.
Ibanez guitars became very popular during the 1970s and caused some problems with other popular guitar brands. Gakki began manufacturing replicas of the most popular guitar models from companies such as Fender, Gibson and Rickenbacker. The Ibanez versions were made from lower quality materials and were more affordable. The materials were not poor quality, so the Ibanez guitars were still fair quality. Additionally, the other major guitar manufacturing companies experienced a time of poor quality and production during this time, so Ibanez guitars were highly sought after.
The Norlin Company, which owns Gibson Guitars, decided to put a stop to the Ibanez replicas and pursued a lawsuit. The dispute was settled out of court, and Ibanez stopped producing the copycat guitars. However, the “lawsuit” guitars made during that time by Ibanez have become highly collectible. After the lawsuit, Ibanez guitars were manufactured with original designs.
Ibanez guitars are now available in acoustic, electric and electric acoustic versions. Their electric guitars are popular among heavy metal musicians because of their innovative and creative designs. Ibanez also has several signature guitars endorsed by popular rock musicians. The Ibanez acoustic guitars still feature the original Spanish Ibanez logo on the headstock as a tribute to Salvador Ibañéz.
