We all know the big two guitar companies are Fender and Gibson. Many of us who play guitar also have our smaller favorite companies: Godin, G&L — heck, even Harley Benton.
There is one company, however, that is often overlooked, even though it has a “seat at the big boy table.” In fact, Ibanez is the third-largest guitar manufacturer on the planet, and yet (in my opinion) they don’t get the love they deserve.
Let’s do our part to fix that.
The Hoshino Gakki Company
Ibanez didn’t start out life as Ibanez. The company began in 1908 as Hoshino Gakki. Initially Hoshino Gakki was a division of the larger Hoshino Shoten, a bookstore chain headquartered in Nagoya, Japan.
Hoshino Gakki sold sheet music but soon began importing Spanish-style acoustic guitars as well. One of the most popular imported guitar brands during this pre-WWII era were those designed and built by Spanish luthier Salvador Ibáñez.
In 1935, Hoshino Gakki decided that an even better plan than importing guitars would be making their own. It’s a bit unclear if the company imported Ibáñez’s guitars or just knew about them, but in any event the company was soon manufacturing their own “Ibanez Salvador” acoustic guitars. (It does not appear the actual Ibáñez had any awareness of this.) The brand name was later shortened to Ibanez, and it stuck.
The Era of the Lawsuit Guitars
In the late 1950s, Ibanez decided to enter the US guitar market. At that time, both Fender and Gibson were dealing with quality issues, leaving many musicians frustrated and looking for better instruments. The Japanese company saw an opening. They began to build and sell copies of popular American-made guitars, including Fenders, Gibsons, and Rickenbackers.
These Ibanez copies were less expensive than their American counterparts, but they were often better made. They were constructed well, performed well, and had better electronics, all for less money than the original. In the ’60s and ’70s, business was booming for Ibanez.
Eventually, Gibson took notice and in 1977 filed a lawsuit against Ibanez for copying their guitars. The suit was settled out of court the next year.
The Era of Innovation and Diversity
Normally, a lawsuit like this would have had major implications for a company, but this didn’t stop Ibanez; it didn’t even slow them down. By the late ’70s, enough players had gotten their hands on the Japanese guitars that their quality was well known. All Ibanez had to do was come up with original designs and continue to make great guitars — which is exactly what they did.
Ibanez continued to grow in the 1980s and 1990s by creating their own take on traditional Fender and Gibson designs. They began to focus on innovation and diversity, which led them to design and build guitars for jazz, progressive rock, and even nu metal players.
Some of the more famous Ibanez players over the years are household names in the guitar world: Steve Vai (who created the iconic JEM series), Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Pat Metheny, and Paul Stanley. And not to be outdone, the band Korn first popularized Ibanez’s seven-string guitar.
The TS808 Tube Screamer
While there is much more Ibanez history that could be told, no story would be complete without mentioning the company’s revolutionary TS808 overdrive pedal. Created during the tail end of the lawsuit era, it is seen by many guitarists as the “holy grail” of guitar pedals. Such guitar greats as Eric Johnson and Carlos Santana popularized the pedal, and of course, Stevie Ray Vaughan used a Tube Screamer when building his iconic sound.
Ibanez has a rich and storied history, and although they may have originally copied guitars and even “borrowed” their name, they have transformed into creating some of the most innovative, top-quality guitars on the market today.
Leave a Reply