Here's a detail of the Gibson headstock that Ibanez copied:Īlthough Gibson and Fender never purchased the factories.
In 1978 Ibanez abandoned the idea of copying popular American guitar models and started manufacturing guitars from their own designs. Gibson accused Ibanez of copying their headstock design.
The actual lawsuit had place in 1977 and was between the Norlin Corporation (Gibson's parent company) and Hoshino USA. Their logos and production styles were similar enough to where American guitar companies felt that the consumer was being confused into buying guitars which they believed were from them.Ī lawsuit between the parent corporation behind Gibson Guitars and Ibanez Japan/Elger Guitars lead to a precedent that stunted the production of these low-cost, high-quality guitars. In 1971 Hoshino bought Elger Guitars, which became Hoshino USA. He imported guitars from the Hoshino Gakki company, who made guitars under the brand name Ibanez. The founder of Elger Guitars, Harry Rosenbloom, was the first American to import Japanese made guitars. The company that started importing these quality copy guitars was Elger Guitars. This lead to the emergence of copy guitars from Asia which used arguably better parts and craftsmanship. Household names, like Fender and Gibson Guitars, were not cranking out the quality workmanship which they were known for in the past. In the late 1970s, there was a general dip in the quality of the production ethic of most mainstream American guitar companies. The History and Background of Japanese Lawsuit Guitars So it sounds like a good idea to search for these lawsuit guitars on Ebay in order to get a great sounding vintage guitar at a good price.Ī word of warning though: be mindful of scams! Some sellers claim falsely to be selling a Japanese lawsuit guitar, while they are not.