Well. We know that the Elrewine guitar ended up in Japan by '74 or '75 because the Ibanez Futura has very similar apointments to the famously grainy photo of the guitar taken before it was sold to to mysterious Japanese collector: Scratchplate & "shrunken Les Paul not quite a Mleody Maker" headstock, control positions & all. I have had one of the Ibanez copies since 1978, and whenI bought it in the UK the store was selling it off half price beuase "They had it for years and nobody wanted the weird thing". I knew what it was a copy of because I had seen the Gibson patent drawing in a book I'd just read and I had £150 saved from a summer job in my pocket, so I bought it.
Great work!
Thank you! Cheers!
In 1969, the Gibson SG Melody Makers had the large open book headstock.
Well. We know that the Elrewine guitar ended up in Japan by '74 or '75 because the Ibanez Futura has very similar apointments to the famously grainy photo of the guitar taken before it was sold to to mysterious Japanese collector: Scratchplate & "shrunken Les Paul not quite a Mleody Maker" headstock, control positions & all.
I have had one of the Ibanez copies since 1978, and whenI bought it in the UK the store was selling it off half price beuase "They had it for years and nobody wanted the weird thing".
I knew what it was a copy of because I had seen the Gibson patent drawing in a book I'd just read and I had £150 saved from a summer job in my pocket, so I bought it.
Great story. I’d love to have one of those Ibanez copies. You could make a few bucks on it if you ever wanted to sell it!