Ibanez Does Not Make Every Japanese Electric Guitar

I'm writing this guide because I'm a collector of Ibanez guitars (mostly vintage electric models) and I'm sick and tired of coming across guitars that are obviously made by other Japanese sellers (because they are branded) or no-brand guitars that the sellers attribute to being "Ibanez" guitars. I'm sure that much of the time, the sellers simply don't understand there is no connection between their guitar and Ibanez-branded guitars, but in other instances, the sellers simply don't care and throw in the "Ibanez" keyword to spam the listing and attract more viewers.

First Things First

The first thing to be said about the use of the word "Ibanez" is that it is not a generic term meaning "made in Japan". Ibanez is a brand name owned by the Hoshino Gakki Guitar company, headquartered in Japan.(1) I won't go into the history here, since you can go to the original reference sources footnoted below.(2) The thing to remember is that "Ibanez" is a brand name for guitars made by a SINGLE company, Hoshino Gakki.

The bottom line is that if a guitar does not have the brand name "Ibanez" on its headstock (or in the cavity of the body if it is a hollow-body guitar) then it is NOT an Ibanez. Period. Don't believe sellers who tell you "the logo was removed," or "I have an expert who tells me this is an Ibanez guitar." Trust your eyes: No logo = No Ibanez.

A Quick Note About "Lawsuit" Guitars:

Since this isn't a post about Japanese guitars labeled as "lawsuit" I'll try to be brief: Hoshino (and more accurately, its U.S. subsidiary, “Elger”) was the only company actually sued by an American guitar maker over its designs. It was sued in 1977 by Norlin (maker of Gibson guitars) over its use of Gibson-style, “open book” headstocks, not over its Fender designs, and ultimately, it did not lose, but settled, the lawsuit.(3) Unfortunately, the words "lawsuit guitar" have achieved even more "generic" status as meaning "made in Japan" than the word "Ibanez". As a generic term, "lawsuit" tends to describe any Japanese-made guitar that looks like either a Gibson or a Fender model. In the case of Gibson clones, this is the case when the guitar has the "open book" headstock (which Gibson considers a trademark). For Fender guitars, it is when the headstock matches that of a Strat or Tele. (You may note that there are many companies now producing exact-copy Fender replacement necks, and they all say they are "Fender licensed".) Beginning in 1976, Ibanez switched the headstock design for its Gibson clones away from the "open book" style. Another Japanese company, Fernandes, switched the design of its Fender clone headstocks in 1986, fully ten years later. However, Greco Gibby-clone guitars (at least for the Japanese market) continue to use the open book headstock to this day, as do the Fernandes "Burny" line of Gibby clones.

Hoshino, Ibanez and the FujiGen Gakki Guitar Manufacturer

Sometimes sellers will imply that there is an association between the brand of the guitar they are selling and Ibanez: either that their brand of guitar was "sold by Ibanez" (which we know now is a false statement, since "Ibanez" doesn't sell anything) or that their brand of guitar was made in the same factory as Ibanez-branded guitars. Ibanez-branded guitars (at least, during the "made in Japan" era of their history) were usually made at the FujiGen Gakki guitar factory.(4) In short, FujiGen is the factory that Hoshino contracted with to build Ibanez-branded guitars. However, other manufacturers also contracted with FujiGen, which is where things can get confusing. A partial list of non-Hoshino FujiGen-produced brands is as follows:

• Greco
• Yamaha
• Odessa

That does NOT mean that Greco and these other brands are "Ibanez" guitars. Greco's are sold by the Kanda Shokai company, which, by the way, has been distributing Japanese-made Fender guitars since 1982. It has been noted by some knowledgeable Ibanez collectors that Greco guitars of the era seem to share many of the same parts as Ibanez-branded guitars. So even though they were made for a different company, they are very close (if not identical) to the quality of the Ibanez guitars they match.

Dating FujiGen Guitars

Guitars made at FujiGen from about 1976 through 1985 use a signature serial numbering system. All Ibanez-branded guitars from 1976-1985 use it, as do Grecos and the other Hoshino-associated brands I discuss below. This serial number system makes it very easy to date the guitar. The serial number is made up of a letter followed by six numerals, for example, B781234. The letter corresponds to the month of the year (A = January, B = February, etc.) and the first two numbers correspond to the year (in the example I give, 78 stands for 1978). There are newer serial number schemes for later years, but they get complicated and I'm not going to go into them now.

Other Hoshino Brands

There are a few brand names that SEEM TO BE related officially to Hoshino and the Ibanez brand. I want to make clear that I am NOT saying that these brands are "Ibanez" guitars, merely that it appears that Hoshino may have used these other brands in non-US markets. The list I am most comfortable with is as follows:

Highly likely to be affiliated with Hoshino:

• Mann - Canadian market
• Antoria - UK market
• Cimar by Ibanez (note: not just "Cimar") *
• Starfield - Australian market ("Hoshino" means "Starfield" in Japanese, I am told)
• IBZ

* Cimar was an independent guitar brand in the 1970's but Hoshino did contract with them to make guitars under the Cimar by Ibanez brand name. It is unclear at which factory the earlier Cimar branded guitars were made.

Somewhat likely to be affiliated with Hoshino:

• Electa - Unknown market (note that this is NOT the "Electra" brand)
• Crestwood - Probably linked to Hoshino
• CSL -Probably linked to Hoshino

Other brands mentioned as having a Hoshino connection (but not verified) include the following:  Isonez, Kasuga, Luxor, Halifax, Maya, Morris, Global, Sekova, and Polaris.Again, this is NOT confirmed.

Japanese Guitars Sold by Other Companies (and Made at Other Manufacturers)

Sometimes, sellers associate guitars made at other Japanese manufacturers with the Ibanez brand. That's a completely wrong association. There are several other well-known guitar manufacturers of the era, and they are listed below, along with the brands associated with the particular factories.

Here are some brands that are definitely NOT Hoshino brands (and thus, which are NOT Ibanez guitars):

Matsumoku Factory Origin: (5)

• Aria
• Cortez
• Cort
• Electra
• Ventura
• Westone
• Epiphone (thru 1986)

Kasuga Factory Origin:

• Fernandes
• Burny

I'll add more as I find them.

Footnotes:

General note: If you want some really great information on vintage Ibanez guitars, consider visiting the Ibanez Collectors World website. (The URL, which is not a hot link, is www.IbanezCollectors.com.) If you search their forums, you can get really great information on dating Ibanez-brand guitars (even recent ones) by their serial numbers, and find a longer list of "supposed" Ibanez-related brands.

1. Wikipedia article on "Hoshino Gakki”: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoshino_Gakki
2. History of Hoshino Gakki, from their corporate website: www.hoshinogakki.co.jp/hoshino_e/history/history.html
3. Wikipedia article on “Ibanez”: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibanez
4. Wikipedia article on "FujiGen”: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FujiGen
5. Wikipedia article on “Matsumoku”: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoku

Authored by Chuck Evans (cevans999)