As they had ceased the threatened lawsuit didnt happen. Best ever vintage 1978 takamine lawsuit era f360 demo youtube here is a really nice old takamine f360. Lawsuit guitars japanese vintage electric guitars on ebay. In fact, norlin never purchased matsumoku, nor did they shut them down. Curly maple neck with bound ebony fingerboard, split block markers in mother of pearl, open book lawsuit headstock with split parallelogram and ibanez inlay. It stayed with me the longest of any guitar ive had, until 1989, when i traded it in on a new gibson les paul standard.
Someone school me on ibanez lp lawsuit copys electric. This is rare but listed as a project because it is missing some parts and the top was refinished in gold. An image of prelawsuit ibanez left and postlawsuit ibanez. From what i recall, it was determined after the lawsuits that the headstock was the only part of a guitar that can be trademarked. For reference purposes, well call this the wavy headstock. Ibanez guitars were mostly made by hoshino gakki who owned the ibanez name, fujigen gakki, and dyna gakki matsumoku were more aria, vantage, westone, univox and yes, electra among others although they did make some ibanezs according to. On june 28, 1977, norlin, the parent company of gibson, filed a lawsuit against elger ibanez in philadelphia federal district court. Ibanez ramped up the quality of its own designs, including setinneck copies of solid body and. Most ibanez lawsuit guitars dont have a serial number some of the most recent do though. In response, in 1977 hoshino ibanez ceased use of the gibsonstyle open book design and shifted to another headstock design that can be seen as being strongly influenced by guild headstocks. This is a really good gibson howard roberts copywhat a cool guitar. After the lawsuit, copy guitar manufacturers had to change. After the lawsuit, copy guitar manufacturers had to change their headstock design. Has original bridge, tailpiece, pick guard, pots, pointers, switch and switch ring.
Your guitar clearly has a les paul body shape, but it has ibanezs original headstock design, a large adjustable bridge, and an elaborate tailpiece, which are all original ibanez designs. The fact that they have the real gibson open book headstock makes no difference to the guitar, neither does the fact that gibson nearly sued them. Else i kindly ask the admin to delete this new thread. Speaking of which, in 1977, gibsons parent company filed a lawsuit against ibanez essentially the hoshino corporation for copying their openbookstyle headstock. The higher end models though are in a different league. Last week attended a vintage guitar fair where i bought a rather unfortunate victim of eighties lets make it look metal ethic. Since the end of the greco open book headstock gibson replicas in the early 1990s, kanda shokai have produced various models using the greco brand name such as the mirage series similar to the ibanez iceman, various gibson copies not using the open book gibson headstock design, violin basses vb, zemaitis guitars and addition to various. The gibson open book headstock first appeared in 1974 on the heg5005. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and ibanez replaced the headstock with a. The pickups have been changed out to early ibanez with the vintage embossed logo covers. Yes the castle headstock shape, embossed super 70s, star inlays. It is also commonly said it was over the exact copying of american designs. You need to hit up ibanez collectors world to learn all about the pf400. It is considered infringement for any other guitar company to use the open book headstock shape today, even if they put their own name on it.
The most famous lawsuit guitar, and one of the only guitars to actually prompt gibson to go to court, was the ibanez super standard les paul copy produced in the midtolate 70s with open book style headstocks featured on all gibson models at the time. Fender never sued ibanez or anyone else for that matter. Gibson sued ibanez over their copies of gibson models made in japan in the 1970s. This rumor stems from a gibson norlin lawsuit against manufacturers. Ibanez 2461 johnny smith lawsuit era archtop, 1975. This is why the copies you see from the 70s80s are called lawsuit guitars. Stop using the term lawsuit, if it had the gibson open book shape at the top of the headstock then it might qualify to be called that. Vintage ibanez single cut cherry burst pre lawsuit open book headstock.
Very playable neck profile and a gorgeous dark rosewood. Believe it or not but this was an early seventies ibanez les paul custom copy with the lawsuit open book headstock. In addition, the tuners have been upgraded to gotoh sealed gear star tuners. The model 2391 was loosely based on a les paul custom and featured a mahogany body, maple top, and clear seethru finish. I dont recall ever reading about companies being shut down as a result of these lawsuits either. What are lawsuit guitars justice matters action center. In which i demo and show you my 1976 ibanez 2370 guitar. Best lawsuit era guitars justice matters action center.
Find lawsuit era japanese made guitars available here. They successfully sued fujigen gakki aka ibanez over their copies in the late 70s. Hoshino, concerning the gibson open book headstock crest as reproduced on similar ibanez models, and it was settled out of court. It has the familiar open book headstock, suggesting it dates to before 1975. For the first two years, they were made by hoshino gakki ibanez in japan. So much misinformation about lawsuit guitars fender. Ibanez 2453 hollow body single cutaway early 1970s in 2020. They never even so much as threatened to sue over the explorer copies, unless there was some seperate suit filed over them that im not aware of. Only one company ever sued another, and it was norlin the owner of the gibson brand at the time suing hoshino owner of the ibanez brand and the suit was focused only on the open book headstock shape common to gibson guitars and replicated on the ibanez guitars. Vintage ibanez howard roberts lawsuit model 2453 mij 1970s.
Gibson sued ibanez for copying the open book headstock found on gibson guitars. Since owning it ive had it about 10 years i have added a set of genuine gibson deluxe tuners, and upgraded the pickups. Gureko is a japanese guitar brand owned by the kanda shokai. Ibanez began changing the shape of their headstock in 1977 to the current tulip shape and the era of the lawsuit guitars was over.
Since the end of the greco open book headstock gibson replicas in the early 1990s, kanda. Ibanez lawsuit les paul copy with correct headstock. Early ibanez lp copy before they stopped using the open book style headstock shape. Does the headstock resemble that of a gibson les paul. The guitar this thread is about appears to be unbranded. Feb 14, 2020 today, lawman guitars is presentinga beautiful 1974 pre serial number ibanez howard roberts guitar. Pre lawsuit 1970s ibanez 2355 fa100 es175 clone gibsonized. Though it was most likely built in the same factory as hohner bolt neck les paul copies of the same time period.
The socalled prelawsuit ibanez guitars with the open book headstock are more sought after and, therefore, more valuable than the postlawsuit ones. Great deals on ibanez black 6 string electric guitars. By 1977 ibanez had ceased making copy guitars anyway and concentrated on their own designs. The only true lawsuit guitars are the ibanez guitars with a gibsonstyle open book headstock. Ibanez 2651 lawsuit era setneck lester lp copy 1977, hsc. The lawsuit was filed by norlin gibsons parent company against elgerhoshino ibanezs american division over the use of the open book headstock design which norlin claimed as a gibson trademark. Speaking of which, in 1977, gibsons parent company filed a lawsuit against ibanez essentially the hoshino corporation for copying their open book style headstock. The open book headstock was used occasionally on samick brand guitars through the 80s, and from 19881989 and early 1990, was used in their us. Another used in this time period, while similar to ibanezs headstock, is actually a copy of matsumokus oakland brand headstock. Its a model 2453 and has the open book headstock that gibson based the lawsuit over. The lawsuit involved just the open book headstock shape iirc. Anyone who cruises ebay looking for old ibanez guitars. Here we have an ibanez 2461 johnny smith style, full body cutaway archtop, built in japan likely during 1975. Lawsuit guitars have a headstock that is known as an open book headstock, copied from gibson.
This was when ibanez was pulling away as in a race pulling away. For sale new hampshire 2 pre serial pre lawsuit early 70s ibanez 698 ms jumbo. Youll notice most lp copies have a modified headstock shape. The suit specifically was for trademark infringement by ibanez over the copying of gibsons open book headstock.
Why do they call the alvarez model 5052 guitar jumbo the. Ibanez hoshino, the owner of the brand, actually was sued by gibson over the open book headstock shape. Its a great time to upgrade your home music studio gear with the largest selection at. Gibson did file a lawsuit against ibanez and only ibanez, and only for the open book headstock lps, it just never went to court, as they settled. Lyle guitars were made in japan sometime between 1960 and the late 1970s in the matsumoku guitar factory that produced univox, arai, aria and other guitars. Ibanez 1970s 2375 lawsuit strat electric guitar nologo headstock made in japan. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and ibanez replaced the headstock with a revised design. This clone guitar is one of the early ones with the gibson open book headstock shape the infamous lawsuit headstock. Ibanez black 6 string electric guitars for sale in stock. That means this is the only design element gibson can protect with any chance of success. Nice guitar, neck probably a bit slim but fast and comfortable.
I own a lawsuit ibanez sg custom copy no serial nr, open book headstock with three pickups. Hi guys, i recently got this great 70s i think japanese made les paul junior copy. However im not sure if this is the correct thread to drop questions and images aboutof the instrument. And most likely the guitar never had a name on the headstock. All others i think the term lawsuit era is more correct. The second i read lawsuit describing a non open book headstock on an lp copy i hit the back button. However, they are very rare and noticeably different from the typical hlp. Initially i thought it was a lawsuit era ibanez but doing some research i think its possibly a univox. What is the law regarding headstock shapes and copies. Around late 1979, the headstock was redesigned to avoid lawsuits following the famous gibsonibanez lawsuit. A true lawsuit era guitar with the open book headstock, early ibanez logo and split parallelogram inlays.
I used to have a 76 les paul standard in tobacco burst with the open book headstock aka lawsuit. It was a great playing guitar, i did put dimarzio super distortions in it, hoping it would in fact give me distortion. This rumor stems from a gibson norlin lawsuit against manufacturers specifically elger the parent company of ibanez copying their ed open book headstock design. In late 1979 or 1980, the headstock design was altered slightly, as many manufacturers were doing so to avoid lawsuits after gibson sued ibanez in 1977. The hlp was hondos first les paul copy, introduced in 1973. The original humbuckers had already been replaced with p90s razor brand. Open book head stock form, the gibson head stock inlay etc. The pf400 was the top of the line in the performer series for 1978.
In those days the bolt on lps from ibanez,avon, jedson, cmi, antoria, aria, columbus, sattelite etc etc were budget guitars built to a price. Fantastic tones from the original maxon pickups, dated to 1975. It was a blatant gibson es345 copy with the open book headstock and gibson cosmetics meticulously copied. Gibson has sued a few companies ibanez, aria, etc for using that shape on many lp copies. Ibanez wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the modern era of ibanez guitars began in 1957, and the late 1950s and 1960s ibanez catalogues show guitars with some wild looking designs, during this lawsuit period ibanez started producing guitars under the mann name. The true story behind japanese lawsuit guitars soundfly.