guitar makers and decreasing demand, which accompanied the disco era. The increase in Ibanez's quality coincided with the declining build quality from U.S. Ibanez hit American guitar buyers’ radar in the late 1960s and ‘70s when the company shifted production away from low-quality original designs to high-quality replicas of famous Fenders, Gibsons and other iconic American brands. These early low-quality entry-level guitars looked odd and were typical of those found in department stores and catalogs.

With the advent of rock ‘n’ roll, the company began building budget guitars designed for export. The company switched to making guitars in the 1930s, adopting the name of the well-respected maker. Ibanez started in the guitar business by importing high-end classical guitars, originally made by the renowned Spanish guitar builder Salvador Ibáñez, for sale in Japan in the late ‘20s. However, the Ibanez story starts much earlier, in 1908, with a company called Hoshino Gakki, a sheet music and music-products distributor in Nagoya, Japan.

Many of us know the recent history of the company’s shred-friendly models and have owned an RG or S-Series guitar in our time. The story of Ibanez is one of rapid dominance and near constant reinvention.

Ibanez headstock history