In 1977, they upgraded and extended their Artist range and introduced a number of other top-quality original designs made to match or surpass famous American brands: the Performer and short-lived Concert ranges, which competed with the Les Paul through-neck Musicians Studios in fixed- and through-neck construction the radically shaped Iceman and the Roadster which morphed into the Roadstar range, precursor to the popular superstrat era in the mid-1980s. Hoshino was producing their original Artist models from 1974, introducing a set-neck model in 1975. Īfter the lawsuit, Hoshino Gakki abandoned the strategy of copying "classic" electric guitar designs, having already introduced a plethora of original designs. Hoshino settled out of court in early 1978 and the case was officially closed on February 2, 1978. On June 28, 1977, in the Philadelphia Federal District Court, a lawsuit was filed by the Norlin Corporation, the parent company of Gibson Guitars, against Elger/Hoshino U.S.A.'s use of the Gibson headstock design and logo. In September 1981, Elger was renamed "Hoshino U.S.A.", retaining the company headquarters in Bensalem, Pennsylvania as a distribution and quality-control center. In September 1972, Hoshino began a partnership with Elger Guitars to import guitars from Japan. By 1965, Rosenbloom had decided to stop manufacturing guitars and chose to become the exclusive North American distributor for Ibanez guitars. Harry Rosenbloom, founder of the (now-closed) Medley Music of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, was manufacturing handmade guitars under the name "Elger". Mid-1970s "Lawsuit Era" solid body, Set neck, Mann/Ibanez electric guitar The Maxxas brand name came about because Hoshino Gakki thought that the guitar did not fit in with the Ibanez model range and was therefore named Maxxas by Rich Lasner from Hoshino USA. Maurice Summerfield of the Charles Summerfield Ltd company contributed some design ideas to Hoshino Gakki and also imported Ibanez and CSL guitars into the UK from 1964 to 1987. CSL was a brand name managed by Charles Summerfield Ltd England. The Antoria guitar brand was managed by JT Coppock Leeds Ltd England. Guitar brands such as Antoria and Mann shared some Ibanez guitar designs. From 1982, Ibanez guitars have also been sold in Japan as well. The Greco versions were sold in Japan and the Ibanez versions were sold outside Japan. In the 1970s, Hoshino Gakki and Kanda Shokai shared some guitar designs, and so some Ibanez and Greco guitars have the same features. During the early 1980s, the FujiGen guitar factory also produced most of the Roland guitar synthesizers, including the Stratocaster-style Roland G-505, the twin-humbucker Roland G-202 (endorsed by Adrian Belew, Eric Clapton, Dean Brown, Jeff Baxter, Yannis Spathas, Christoforos Krokidis, Steve Howe, Mike Rutherford, Andy Summers, Neal Schon and Steve Hackett) and the Ibanez X-ING IMG-2010.Ĭimar and Starfield were guitar and bass brands owned by Hoshino Gakki. Most Ibanez guitars were made 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.
Hoshino Gakki also had semi-acoustic, nylon- and steel-stringed acoustic guitars manufactured under the Ibanez name.
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