Thirty-Five years ago, Ibanez was a scrappy upstart guitar company that dared to challenge the big boys at Gibson and Fender. Today, is a dominant force in the guitar universe. • Ibanez was – and still is – a brand of Hoshino, a Japanese company with a U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia. In the mid ’70s, it was building affordable, high-quality clones of Strats, Les Pauls, Jazz basses, and Johnny Smith archtops, enough to earn the company a loyal following of guitar fans – and the wrath of Gibson’s lawyers. After the dust settled on the legal side, Ibanez quickly hatched a gaggle of amazing guitar designs: the Iceman, Artist, and Professional models among them. Even more exciting, artists such as Steve Miller, Bob Weir, Paul Stanley, and the venerable George Benson jumped onboard, adding even more credence to the Ibanez phenomenon.

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