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Ibanez Iceman

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History

The Iceman is an Ibanez guitar produced by Hoshino Gakki. Hoshino started exporting copies of American electric and acoustic guitars in the 1970's. By the mid seventies Ibanez had reached a level of quality comparable to American guitar makers, but lower labor rates plus efficient manufacturing meant that Ibanez guitars could be sold for almost half (or less) of the cost of a Gibson Les Paul or Fender Stratocaster. In 1977 Gibson issued legal proceedings against Ibanez/Elger regarding the copying of the Gibson open book headstock design which was eventually settled out of court after Ibanez had changed their headstock design. In the mid 1970's Ibanez wanted to make a distinctly Japanese guitar. The idea was to build a guitar widely loved and respected, like a Les Paul or Stratocaster. At a meeting with the main guitar distribution companies in Japan - Hoshino (Ibanez) and Kanda Shokai (Greco), and one of the main guitar factories in Japan FujiGen - the Iceman was designed. Each distribution company had distribution rights to it in different global markets. Hoshino (Ibanez) had the rights outside of Japan and Kanda Shokai (Greco) had the rights for Japan. The Ibanez model was named the Iceman and the Greco model was named the Mirage and they are basically the same except for the pickups that were used. Super 80, Triple Coil and V2 pickups were used depending on the Ibanez Iceman model number. Body wood, pickups and neck joint construction varied with the Iceman model price. The original Ibanez Iceman production was from 1975 to 1982/1983 with some models having bolt on Fender like neck joints and some models having set neck Gibson like neck joints. Early Ibanez Iceman models were called Ibanez Artist models and were changed to the Ibanez Iceman name in 1978. The Ibanez Iceman II that was released in 1982/1983 had a different headstock with 6 in line tuners instead of the 3 a side tuners the original Ibanez Iceman had.