The modern era of Ibanez guitars began in 1957 and the late 1950s and 1960s Ibanez catalogues show guitars with some wild looking designs. Some of the late 1960s Ibanez designs were similar to Hagström and EKO guitar designs and Hoshino Gakki used the Teisco guitar factory to manufacture Ibanez branded guitars after they stopped manufacturing their own guitars in 1966. After the Teisco guitar factory closed down in 1969/1970 Hoshino Gakki used the FujiGen Gakki guitar factory to make most of the Ibanez branded guitars and the Ibanez headstock logo also changed from a metal logo to a more modern decal logo.
This was the beginning of the Gibson, Fender and Rickenbacker Ibanez copies. 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 1970s mark a low point in the quality of guitars from the major manufacturers, which helped contribute to the popularity of the Ibanez copies.
After the lawsuit period Hoshino Gakki introduced Ibanez models that were not copies of the Gibson or Fender designs such as the Ibanez Iceman and Ibanez Roadstar. The company has produced its own unique guitar designs ever since. The late 1980s and early 1990s were an important period for Hoshino Gakki's 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 Ibanez Roadstar and Ibanez Iceman models in the late 1970s/early 1980s, Hoshino Gakki entered the superstrat market with the Ibanez RG series which were a low priced version of the Ibanez JEM model.
Hoshino Gakki also had semi acoustic and nylon and steel stringed acoustic guitars manufactured under the Ibanez brand name. Most Ibanez guitars were made for Hoshino Gakki by the FujiGen guitar factory in Japan up until the mid to late 1980s and from then on Ibanez guitars have also been made in other Asian countries such as Korea, China and Indonesia. During the early 1980s the FujiGen guitar factory also produced most of the Roland guitar synthesizers, including the Stratocaster styled Roland GR-505, the twin humbucker Roland GR-202 and the Ibanez X-ING IMG-2010.
Hoshino Gakki owns the Ibanez (guitars) and Tama (drums) brand names. Ibanez is only a brand name that is owned by Hoshino Gakki and therefore Ibanez does not produce guitars. An Ibanez guitar is not produced by Ibanez, but by Hoshino Gakki, who contracts guitar factories to make Ibanez branded guitars. There were many Japanese guitar distributors in the 1970s/1980s operating in Japan and cooperating with overseas guitar distributors that used their own brand names and sometimes had their guitars built in the same FujiGen guitar factory that Hoshino was using.
One of these distributors was Jack Westheimer who played a part in many Japanese and Korean made guitar brand names. Jack Westheimer was one of the founders of Cor-Tek (Cort). Some of the brand names associated with Jack Westheimer were Cortez, Pearl, Kingston, Teisco, Silvertone and many others. There were also guitar brand names owned by the Japanese guitar making factories such as Westone by the Matsumoku guitar factory and Kasuga by the Kasuga guitar factory.
Sometimes stencil (template) guitar designs were shared by Japanese guitar companies and distributors so an early Hoshino Ibanez branded guitar might look the same as another brand name guitar produced by a different Japanese distributor but only Ibanez, Cimar and Maxxas branded guitars were made for Hoshino Gakki and are the only guitar brand names that have appeared in Hoshino Gakki catalogues. In the 1970s, Hoshino Gakki and Kanda Shokai shared some guitar designs and so some Ibanez and Greco guitars have the same features. The Kanda Shokai Greco guitars were sold in Japan and the Hoshino Gakki Ibanez guitars were sold outside of Japan. From 1982, Ibanez guitars have also been sold in Japan as well as being sold outside of Japan.
