About Ibanez

The Nagoya, Aichi, Japan based manufacturer was one of the first Japanese guitar companies to break in the US market. 1929, parent company Hoshino Gakki began importing Salvador Ib��ez � Hijos from Spain, but it wasn't until 1935 that Hoshino Gakki decided to make Spanish acoustic guitars under the brand name, "Ibanez Salvador."

Wild guitar designs started showing up in the Ibanez catalogs as early as the late 1950s. Players still turn to Ibanez for eye-catching crazed looks today. They were also the first brand to mass-produce seven-string and eight-string guitars. Ibanez guitars are built for speed and are super comfortable, so they are ultra-playable.

With such fiercely styled guitars that feature super-car speed design it's no surprise that their artist roster has players like Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Merman Li and Sam Totman of Dragon force and Tosin Abasi of Animals As Leaders. Amongst players who live for speed and flawless technique, Ibanez is a common choice.

Even their warm hollow-body guitars are innovative and bring a revitalizing energy to the body style. They offer everything from hybrids great for rock to straight-up jazz-boxes. Respected players like George Benson and Pat Metheny have turned to Ibanez for their signature models for the combination of playable fingerboards, Super 58 custom pickups and impeccable styling.

For the past quarter century Ibanez has given bass players a modern alternative. Their basses range from exceptionally high quality five-string and six-string beasts with maddening body shapes and eye catching exotic woods to classic hollow body beauties with graceful finishes. Like their guitars, Ibanez has put significant efforts over the years into offering players enormous speed and precision. The smooth, fast necks and lightweight bodies offer electronics that have been selected as the perfect match for each bass.

This enormous attention to detail has attracted players like Adam Blackstone who plays with Eminem, Kanye West and Janet Jackson, jazz bassist Gerald Veasley and Mike D'Antonio of Killswitch Engage. The seemingly endless variety in style and sound of Ibanez basses is impressive, and it has landed them on albums and stages all over the world.

Their acoustics and folk instruments are just as technologically advanced and fashion forward as their electric guitars and basses are. So even if you're looking for a banjo or resonator, you can find the same speed, precision and untamed style you love from Ibanez electric instruments. The Joe Satriani and Steve Vai signature basses are unapologetically bold to look at and feature high quality materials and are designed for maximum playing comfort.

In the 1970s Ibanez got into the effect pedals game, but it was the Tube Screamer overdrive pedal that caught everyone's attention and continues to be one of the most popular (and most copied) overdrive pedals on the market.