You forgot TAMA. 12 years ago I was offered $10,000. Twice for my TAMA In studio session the engineer said it was the sounding guitar he ever heard. It's made with Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. I've never heard it's equal. I bought in December 1974.
Which tama do you have? That's so cool you have such a unique guitar. I never knew about the lawsuit era until today. Now all I want is guitars from this era 😂
Tama are very nice guitars.I own 5 Tama's and they are offered in Germany, between €700- 1200. That you got an offer,this high,amazes me.Their guitars from the seventies weren't made with solid wood sides and back,allthough the used plywood coveren with Jacaranda (Brazilian Rosewood specie).The later Tama's(end seventies/beginning eighties) are rates much higher,because of sold wood back and sides.
You know sometimes a guitar comes out perfect. That's what happened to my Tama. You don't know why or how It just happened. I have seen other Tama's that were good guitars. Mine was and is perfect except for a lifetime of use.
I've been eyeing Japanese vintage acoustics. The trouble is, most of the selection is around the world, and not all acoustics age well. There's no telling what a neck reset might entail.
Classic youtube commentary its always my real gibson les paul that i got for fifty bucks in a pawn shop that I will never sell. Or this guy my japanese martin copy guitar that ive been offered 10k for twice yea yea buddy you probally shoulda took the money considering Tamas finest offerings struggle to fetch 2k I call BS
JV instruments are the highest quality production guitars from that era. No routers used, all hand made. That's why Fender bought the Fujigen factory where many of these lawsuit era where produced when they expanded operations to Japan (rather than file a lawsuit against them).
😂😂😂 dude, they used punch card CNC machines in the early 70's Fujigen used todays style CNC's since 81/82, why they made 14000 guitars a month. Don't believe me read there website. Another myth, Deviser guitars Japan and some of there high end models are still hand made. Lower models are cnc.. Factory Tour link below. Cnc machine only used for inlay cutting.. ruclips.net/video/nEW4zL-HSEY/видео.htmlsi=dI9jiXyL9-6kgqmd
@@5150TJT I believe that punch card CNC's may have been used by Matsumoku in the early 70's, and that Fujigen went full-style CNC's in 1983. Fucking awesome guitars in any case.
Fender didn’t buy the FujiGen factory. The factory produced guitars for Fender between 1982 and 2005. The also produced Ibanez guitars (the only brand that was actually subject to a lawsuit, brought against Hoshino in the USA and settled out of court). There is a lot of misunderstanding about this topic. Lawsuit era is a catch all term used to hype the value of a lot of guitars made around the time. There is only one law suit model (an ibanez Les Paul style model) and the lawsuit related to the shape of the headstock.
. @simonkibble3810 So it was like some sort of joint business venture between entities, not an outright purchase by Fender of the building and equipment? Well, now that that critical distinction is somehow less clear . . . .
@@justinkline1294 Hi, joint venture is a good description. The Wikipedia entry correctly identifies the parties to the joint venture. Fuji Gen was the factory chosen to manufacture the guitars but was never ‘owned’ by Fender. Fuji Gen stopped making Fender guitars in about 1996 when production was taken on by Dyna Gakki with some reports also suggesting Tokai made some models for Fender in the transition period, although I don’t remember that ever being disclosed at the time (mid 90s)
I had a Vantage VA 800 since the early 80s till 2013. Played it often. I had moved and gave the guitar away. Never in my wildest thoughts did I ever think it was worth anything until he sold it. Those old Japanese guitars are gems and worth a pretty penny on the collectors world.
I just got a history lesson at a little guitar shop when I showed interest in an old tele the owner had hanging on the wall. This Hohner tele was one of these lawsuit guitars. And since it was in such good shape for its age, and came with the original hard case, and sounded really good, I bought it. Partly because of the reasons I mentioned, but also partly because of the interesting story.
That is what Prince played. Mad Cat Tele copy. Not really a lawsuit guitar. There has only been one lawsuit despite the overuse of that term. Gibson went after Ibanez for their Les Paul copy. I just bought a Hohner Les Paul today ironically.
when I started looking for an Ibanez destroyer I found one needing an overhaul/restoration for 16.000 usd. A greco exp 800 cost half and looks the same
By the time Ibanez was "forced" to change their designs they were already well on their way to their own designs. Everything else in this video is reasonably accurate though.
How could not mention Orville? Or the fact that so many of the copies were far superior not just competitive? I have OBG's, Greco's and Navigators that are than my CS Gibson's,in every way,even value to a degree. Otherwise great job.
That's a too short, too narrow and too US-centered history of Japanese copies and it's also wrong in its core claim. There was no "lawsuit". Gibson didn't "sue" anyone to begin with. Norlin Inc merely applied to obtain a C&D letter against Elger Co. in 1977 to keep them from offering guitars with Gibsons headstock design, and informed them about this in a separate letter (a copy of that letter can be found on the net). But in fact Ibanez had already changed their headstocks to their own designs in 1976, so the subject of the "infringement" (IIRC neither Gibson nor Fender had claimed any rights on any style/design detail on their guitars) didn't even exist anymore. So there simply was no infringement, the C&D letter had not been issued and the whole affair never got even close to a court. The misconception this video is parroting probably goes back to a crappy short newspaper article that mixed up all the facts and was reprinted from coast to coast that year. Since then the year 1977 is considered the "lawsuit" year and Japanese guitars are divided into a "pre-lawsuit" and "post-lawsuit" eras, whereas only Ibanez stopped exporting guitars with Gibson's headstock design while other companies didn't, at least not immediately. In the rest of the world "lawsuit" guitars were sold for another 10 years, so that whole "lawsuit" legend is completely BS. On the Japanese domestic market, the original headstocks were still used (and they still are), that's why Gibson actually went to Japan to sue Fernandes in 2000, but the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of Fernandes on the grounds that Gibson came several decades too late and that Japanese people are generally smart enough to distinguish between domestic brands copying what they consider a "generic" design and genuine Gibson guitars (which were always more popular in Japan than the knockoffs, no matter how good they were or how crappy Gibson guitars had become).
@@nikaxeguitar I have a matsumoku-made Cortez jazz bass clone that looks like the Fender Geddy Lee signature, also a '74 Ibanez shortscale that's a copy of an eb-3 slothead, and despite the bolt-on neck and the pickups being single-coils made to look like humbuckers, it has more bottom end than my 2014 Gibson sg bass...for what I paid, they were both incredible values
I just watched this FTER writing what follows... its great to know you echo much of what I believe with these era instruments... "...alright my take on this subject is to commit to using the broad definition of the term - LAWSUIT GUITAR - and understand that it need not refer singularly to Ibanez. The TAKEAWAY from this era is THIS... the acknowledgment that Japanese Factories (Fugigen Matsumoku et al) maintained extremely high manufacturing standards and practices. These were kick-ass built instruments. AND - they are all NOW 40 - 50 years old. The wood has aged and set..!! Man-O-Man..!! I have a 1976 Ibanez 2353-DX (copy of 74-ish Tele Bass) and a 1980 Greco 450p (copy of a rock-solid Maple neck P-Bass). Straight and playable..!! Ok - so these are "vintage" in every respect from kick ass factories. BTW - my Greco P is 1980. The next year 1981 that factory (and their shelves of cut stock) produced the initial year of FENDER JAPAN. kick ass wood and craftsmanship. Electronics and hardware ASIDE... top notch..!!"
Hey anyone let me know if you know anything about AVALON electric guitars. I have one but I can't find it anywhere but it has crazy distortion and is about the size of a less Paul but both sides have slight hooks that are pretty even looking
The history of really, really awful U.S. made guitars and that of Japanese imports goes back way before the 1970s. In the '00s I used to import vintage guitars - often Japanese - from the USA and sell them in Australia. The USA has plenty of them, because of the habit in the USA of keeping everything, whereas the much more mobile and almost totally city-based Australian culture kept almost nothing. Old and almost worthless guitars were simply thrown out. The 1950's parlour guitars made by U.S. firms such as Regal were truly dire. They are appreciated by people who want the awful cheap tone of black blues players who could afford nothing better, but they are still numerous and inexpensive. Epiphone, started in Turkey in 1873, moved to the USA in 1903. They were as important as Fender and Gibson until the 1950's - arguably more so. Then those companies, because they were more innovative and produced professional-grade instruments, started to move ahead, and in 1957, Gibson bought Epiphone, which it still owns. Gibson was then able to introduce budget lines made by Epiphone. The boom in guitars started, in acoustics, with the folk boom of 1966/8. U.S. produced things like Harmony Dreadnaughts from this era are so truly terrible that although people might pick them up for almost nothing as historical pieces, nobody can bear to play them. The Japanese acoustics from this era were much more lightly made. They were a great deal better, but few have survived. When they started to buckle, although they were good enough, they weren't premium enough to get them fixed. The boom in electrics was much older. It actually started with Surf Music - people like Dick Dale - from 1957 onwards, but hollow-bodies were much more popular and important. In 1958, Gibson introduced the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, the ES 335 (Archtops with pickups had been around far longer and were still very popular). The Epiphone Casino, introduced in 1962 and played by McCartney, Lennon and Harrison among many others, was a less expensive and very popular alternative. From 1962, the explosion caused by The Beatles made EVERYBODY want electrics, both hollow and solid. But the reason U.S. made guitars, electric and acoustic, were crap, wasn't because of bulk manufacturing. It was because the post-war economic rise in wages and conditions meant huge cuts had to be made in quality to keep similar price points. At first, cheaper guitars were imported from Europe. Companies like Eko and Hofner could produce quite good guitars at a reasonable price point, which is why bands like The Beatles, the Stones and Led Zeppelin started on these guitars, and Paul McCartney of course still uses a Hofner Bass. It was also a golden era for British companies like Vox, or Marshall, founded in 1962 and the first company to produce amps that were really powerful enough for clubs. At first the Beatles and the Stones were using 30w amps that simply could not be heard in such venues. When the amps started getting bigger, the venues did too. By 1967, Europe was also enjoying a rise in wages. Those guitars were becoming more expensive. But since 1946, Japanese companies such as Teisco had been gradually producing more luthiers and better guitars. By 1967, there were already at least four quite large manufacturers, such as Fuji Gen. They started looking for importers in the USA. Suddenly, there was a flood of pretty reasonable instruments that you could buy for say $60 - a little less than one week's wages - in your local KMart. Some of these - such as most of the Teiscos, were true original Japanese designs, very useable at an amateur and semi-professional level - they wouldn't stand up to serious abuse - if rather eccentric by U.S. standards. But there were many, many copies of Gibsons and Fenders, and had been for a long while. Teisco for example had several good SG copies, that were much better than the authentic -low and -medium end Gibsons and Fenders that cost three times more. I have a 1968 unbranded lawsuit SG, almost certainly produced in the Fuji Gen factory. By 1973, the Japanese brands Ibanez, Antoria, Greco and Yamaha were all being made by Fuji Gen. It took a few years for the U.S. guitar manufacturers to accept that they were being trounced. When they did, they realised they simply could not produce good guitars at those price points in the USA, so they shifted their manufacturing - at first to Japan, then as Japan too became more expensive, to Korea in the '80s, then to China, and latterly to Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam. The latter two produce excellent instruments. Vietnam has had probably the highest quality of woodwork in the world for centuries. Only Rickenbacker and, at first, Guild, continued manufacture in the USA and those instruments were not cheap. In the 21st c., economies in manufacturing have enabled some of this production to be shifted back. Of course it wasn't only in Japan that copies of Gibsons and Fenders were made. Britain did and Canada did and still do. If you can get a 1985 Guild version of one of the two majors, or in fact any 1985/6 Guild Electric, GRAB IT!!! These, made in Westerly, Rhode Island, were not cheap; they were premium instruments that were a bit less expensive than the majors because there was less of a brand name premium. You'll still pay less than a major from that era - but not for long now - and they are very, very good. I enjoyed this video, and think it's fantastic - and well-deserved - that younger musicians take an interest in these old instruments. I didn't know a lot of that Ibanez history. But younger people can be misled by untrue articles. If you check everything on Wikipedia, you can usually weed out the false. But if you were there at the time, you know.
You forgot TAMA. 12 years ago I was offered $10,000. Twice for my TAMA In studio session the engineer said it was the sounding guitar he ever heard. It's made with Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. I've never heard it's equal. I bought in December 1974.
Which tama do you have? That's so cool you have such a unique guitar. I never knew about the lawsuit era until today. Now all I want is guitars from this era 😂
Tama are very nice guitars.I own 5 Tama's and they are offered in Germany, between €700- 1200.
That you got an offer,this high,amazes me.Their guitars from the seventies weren't made with solid wood sides and back,allthough the used plywood coveren with Jacaranda (Brazilian Rosewood specie).The later Tama's(end seventies/beginning eighties) are rates much higher,because of sold wood back and sides.
You know sometimes a guitar comes out perfect. That's what happened to my Tama. You don't know why or how It just happened. I have seen other Tama's that were good guitars. Mine was and is perfect except for a lifetime of use.
I've been eyeing Japanese vintage acoustics. The trouble is, most of the selection is around the world, and not all acoustics age well. There's no telling what a neck reset might entail.
Classic youtube commentary its always my real gibson les paul that i got for fifty bucks in a pawn shop that I will never sell. Or this guy my japanese martin copy guitar that ive been offered 10k for twice yea yea buddy you probally shoulda took the money considering Tamas finest offerings struggle to fetch 2k I call BS
JV instruments are the highest quality production guitars from that era. No routers used, all hand made. That's why Fender bought the Fujigen factory where many of these lawsuit era where produced when they expanded operations to Japan (rather than file a lawsuit against them).
😂😂😂 dude, they used punch card CNC machines in the early 70's Fujigen used todays style CNC's since 81/82, why they made 14000 guitars a month. Don't believe me read there website. Another myth, Deviser guitars Japan and some of there high end models are still hand made. Lower models are cnc.. Factory Tour link below. Cnc machine only used for inlay cutting..
ruclips.net/video/nEW4zL-HSEY/видео.htmlsi=dI9jiXyL9-6kgqmd
@@5150TJT I believe that punch card CNC's may have been used by Matsumoku in the early 70's, and that Fujigen went full-style CNC's in 1983. Fucking awesome guitars in any case.
Fender didn’t buy the FujiGen factory. The factory produced guitars for Fender between 1982 and 2005. The also produced Ibanez guitars (the only brand that was actually subject to a lawsuit, brought against Hoshino in the USA and settled out of court). There is a lot of misunderstanding about this topic. Lawsuit era is a catch all term used to hype the value of a lot of guitars made around the time. There is only one law suit model (an ibanez Les Paul style model) and the lawsuit related to the shape of the headstock.
. @simonkibble3810 So it was like some sort of joint business venture between entities, not an outright purchase by Fender of the building and equipment? Well, now that that critical distinction is somehow less clear . . . .
@@justinkline1294 Hi, joint venture is a good description. The Wikipedia entry correctly identifies the parties to the joint venture. Fuji Gen was the factory chosen to manufacture the guitars but was never ‘owned’ by Fender. Fuji Gen stopped making Fender guitars in about 1996 when production was taken on by Dyna Gakki with some reports also suggesting Tokai made some models for Fender in the transition period, although I don’t remember that ever being disclosed at the time (mid 90s)
Thank you, excellent history lesson on these guitars, great video! New subscriber.
Awesome! Thanks for stopping by!
I had a Vantage VA 800 since the early 80s till 2013. Played it often. I had moved and gave the guitar away. Never in my wildest thoughts did I ever think it was worth anything until he sold it. Those old Japanese guitars are gems and worth a pretty penny on the collectors world.
I got Greco eg450 tobacco burst all original, plays looks and feels like Gibson , I love it.
Love aria pro2
I just bought an 81 Aria Jazz Bass Copy and it’s probably the best bass I’ve ever played.
Just got hold of a 76’ MIJ body
Whoa really? That’s awesome
@@nikaxeguitar yeah I’m excited to give it some love
I was planning to buy a Squier JB when I stumbled upon an 1983 Tokai Hard Puncher PJ... obviously I went for the Tokai. :) Great instrument!
I got one as well. All red including the headstock and the entire neck.
@@harvey1954 mine is red too, with gold hardware.
@@mrimmortalis Like mine.
I found a 70ish el degas telecaster with the case in the landfill
I just got a history lesson at a little guitar shop when I showed interest in an old tele the owner had hanging on the wall.
This Hohner tele was one of these lawsuit guitars. And since it was in such good shape for its age, and came with the original hard case, and sounded really good, I bought it. Partly because of the reasons I mentioned, but also partly because of the interesting story.
Yep, I believe Prince's Tele was a Hohner.
That is what Prince played. Mad Cat Tele copy. Not really a lawsuit guitar. There has only been one lawsuit despite the overuse of that term. Gibson went after Ibanez for their Les Paul copy. I just bought a Hohner Les Paul today ironically.
when I started looking for an Ibanez destroyer I found one needing an overhaul/restoration for 16.000 usd.
A greco exp 800 cost half and looks the same
How about the HONDO PROFESSIONAL series?
Just bought one, honestly I love how warm it is.
Getting the delivery for my 1979 Greco Strat tomorrow. Actually today, it's 1 AM but I can't sleep due to excitement ^_^
how is it?
@@TheMegadeth350 needed a lot of work but it's a great guitar
By the time Ibanez was "forced" to change their designs they were already well on their way to their own designs. Everything else in this video is reasonably accurate though.
So what's up with the bridge pickup on that Aria Pro II? I've seen several in photos and 1 in person like that.
Very interesting. Do you know anything about Jaxon guitars?
I have a Morris that…oh so can bellow!
Got you! cheers! Thanks! -/r
Schweet
Very interesting stuff
Thanks!
How could not mention Orville? Or the fact that so many of the copies were far superior not just competitive? I have OBG's, Greco's and Navigators that are than my CS Gibson's,in every way,even value to a degree. Otherwise great job.
Correction...Gibson bought Epiphone in the 1950's, not the 80's.
Kimbara??
That's a too short, too narrow and too US-centered history of Japanese copies and it's also wrong in its core claim. There was no "lawsuit".
Gibson didn't "sue" anyone to begin with. Norlin Inc merely applied to obtain a C&D letter against Elger Co. in 1977 to keep them from offering guitars with Gibsons headstock design, and informed them about this in a separate letter (a copy of that letter can be found on the net). But in fact Ibanez had already changed their headstocks to their own designs in 1976, so the subject of the "infringement" (IIRC neither Gibson nor Fender had claimed any rights on any style/design detail on their guitars) didn't even exist anymore. So there simply was no infringement, the C&D letter had not been issued and the whole affair never got even close to a court.
The misconception this video is parroting probably goes back to a crappy short newspaper article that mixed up all the facts and was reprinted from coast to coast that year. Since then the year 1977 is considered the "lawsuit" year and Japanese guitars are divided into a "pre-lawsuit" and "post-lawsuit" eras, whereas only Ibanez stopped exporting guitars with Gibson's headstock design while other companies didn't, at least not immediately. In the rest of the world "lawsuit" guitars were sold for another 10 years, so that whole "lawsuit" legend is completely BS.
On the Japanese domestic market, the original headstocks were still used (and they still are), that's why Gibson actually went to Japan to sue Fernandes in 2000, but the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of Fernandes on the grounds that Gibson came several decades too late and that Japanese people are generally smart enough to distinguish between domestic brands copying what they consider a "generic" design and genuine Gibson guitars (which were always more popular in Japan than the knockoffs, no matter how good they were or how crappy Gibson guitars had become).
Appreciate the insight brother!
@@nikaxeguitar I have a matsumoku-made Cortez jazz bass clone that looks like the Fender Geddy Lee signature, also a '74 Ibanez shortscale that's a copy of an eb-3 slothead, and despite the bolt-on neck and the pickups being single-coils made to look like humbuckers, it has more bottom end than my 2014 Gibson sg bass...for what I paid, they were both incredible values
@@jasondorsey7110 Thats amazing Jason! Keep those bad boys close!
Yeah. There's a lot of good info on this stuff on the internet now. A little more research would have gone a long way.
I just watched this FTER writing what follows... its great to know you echo much of what I believe with these era instruments...
"...alright my take on this subject is to commit to using the broad definition of the term - LAWSUIT GUITAR - and understand that it need not refer singularly to Ibanez. The TAKEAWAY from this era is THIS... the acknowledgment that Japanese Factories (Fugigen Matsumoku et al) maintained extremely high manufacturing standards and practices. These were kick-ass built instruments. AND - they are all NOW 40 - 50 years old. The wood has aged and set..!! Man-O-Man..!! I have a 1976 Ibanez 2353-DX (copy of 74-ish Tele Bass) and a 1980 Greco 450p (copy of a rock-solid Maple neck P-Bass). Straight and playable..!! Ok - so these are "vintage" in every respect from kick ass factories. BTW - my Greco P is 1980. The next year 1981 that factory (and their shelves of cut stock) produced the initial year of FENDER JAPAN. kick ass wood and craftsmanship. Electronics and hardware ASIDE... top notch..!!"
Hey anyone let me know if you know anything about AVALON electric guitars. I have one but I can't find it anywhere but it has crazy distortion and is about the size of a less Paul but both sides have slight hooks that are pretty even looking
The history of really, really awful U.S. made guitars and that of Japanese imports goes back way before the 1970s.
In the '00s I used to import vintage guitars - often Japanese - from the USA and sell them in Australia. The USA has plenty of them, because of the habit in the USA of keeping everything, whereas the much more mobile and almost totally city-based Australian culture kept almost nothing. Old and almost worthless guitars were simply thrown out.
The 1950's parlour guitars made by U.S. firms such as Regal were truly dire. They are appreciated by people who want the awful cheap tone of black blues players who could afford nothing better, but they are still numerous and inexpensive.
Epiphone, started in Turkey in 1873, moved to the USA in 1903. They were as important as Fender and Gibson until the 1950's - arguably more so. Then those companies, because they were more innovative and produced professional-grade instruments, started to move ahead, and in 1957, Gibson bought Epiphone, which it still owns. Gibson was then able to introduce budget lines made by Epiphone.
The boom in guitars started, in acoustics, with the folk boom of 1966/8. U.S. produced things like Harmony Dreadnaughts from this era are so truly terrible that although people might pick them up for almost nothing as historical pieces, nobody can bear to play them. The Japanese acoustics from this era were much more lightly made. They were a great deal better, but few have survived. When they started to buckle, although they were good enough, they weren't premium enough to get them fixed.
The boom in electrics was much older. It actually started with Surf Music - people like Dick Dale - from 1957 onwards, but hollow-bodies were much more popular and important. In 1958, Gibson introduced the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, the ES 335 (Archtops with pickups had been around far longer and were still very popular). The Epiphone Casino, introduced in 1962 and played by McCartney, Lennon and Harrison among many others, was a less expensive and very popular alternative.
From 1962, the explosion caused by The Beatles made EVERYBODY want electrics, both hollow and solid. But the reason U.S. made guitars, electric and acoustic, were crap, wasn't because of bulk manufacturing. It was because the post-war economic rise in wages and conditions meant huge cuts had to be made in quality to keep similar price points.
At first, cheaper guitars were imported from Europe. Companies like Eko and Hofner could produce quite good guitars at a reasonable price point, which is why bands like The Beatles, the Stones and Led Zeppelin started on these guitars, and Paul McCartney of course still uses a Hofner Bass. It was also a golden era for British companies like Vox, or Marshall, founded in 1962 and the first company to produce amps that were really powerful enough for clubs. At first the Beatles and the Stones were using 30w amps that simply could not be heard in such venues. When the amps started getting bigger, the venues did too.
By 1967, Europe was also enjoying a rise in wages. Those guitars were becoming more expensive. But since 1946, Japanese companies such as Teisco had been gradually producing more luthiers and better guitars. By 1967, there were already at least four quite large manufacturers, such as Fuji Gen. They started looking for importers in the USA. Suddenly, there was a flood of pretty reasonable instruments that you could buy for say $60 - a little less than one week's wages - in your local KMart.
Some of these - such as most of the Teiscos, were true original Japanese designs, very useable at an amateur and semi-professional level - they wouldn't stand up to serious abuse - if rather eccentric by U.S. standards. But there were many, many copies of Gibsons and Fenders, and had been for a long while. Teisco for example had several good SG copies, that were much better than the authentic -low and -medium end Gibsons and Fenders that cost three times more. I have a 1968 unbranded lawsuit SG, almost certainly produced in the Fuji Gen factory.
By 1973, the Japanese brands Ibanez, Antoria, Greco and Yamaha were all being made by Fuji Gen. It took a few years for the U.S. guitar manufacturers to accept that they were being trounced. When they did, they realised they simply could not produce good guitars at those price points in the USA, so they shifted their manufacturing - at first to Japan, then as Japan too became more expensive, to Korea in the '80s, then to China, and latterly to Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam. The latter two produce excellent instruments. Vietnam has had probably the highest quality of woodwork in the world for centuries. Only Rickenbacker and, at first, Guild, continued manufacture in the USA and those instruments were not cheap. In the 21st c., economies in manufacturing have enabled some of this production to be shifted back.
Of course it wasn't only in Japan that copies of Gibsons and Fenders were made. Britain did and Canada did and still do. If you can get a 1985 Guild version of one of the two majors, or in fact any 1985/6 Guild Electric, GRAB IT!!! These, made in Westerly, Rhode Island, were not cheap; they were premium instruments that were a bit less expensive than the majors because there was less of a brand name premium. You'll still pay less than a major from that era - but not for long now - and they are very, very good.
I enjoyed this video, and think it's fantastic - and well-deserved - that younger musicians take an interest in these old instruments. I didn't know a lot of that Ibanez history. But younger people can be misled by untrue articles. If you check everything on Wikipedia, you can usually weed out the false. But if you were there at the time, you know.
Thomas Kent My mind has been blown. You have so much guitar knowledge.
I've got a Fernandes strat copy but no mention of them anywhere.
I had a Tokai Strat, was better than any American Strat I ever owned
Can't produce guitar that better than the import ones --> Sue it. Nothing could be more American Logic than this 🤣
Any poor quality Gibsons faked up to be Tokia around? Mmm I wonder.. yea must be.
Oh I’m sure dude. There are scammers trying to profit on anything