In 1971 Hoshino bought Elger Guitars, which became Hoshino USA. He imported guitars from the Hoshino Gakki company, who made guitars under the brand name Ibanez.

The founder of Elger Guitars, Harry Rosenbloom, was the first American to import Japanese-made guitars. The company that started importing these quality copy guitars was Elger Guitars. This lead to the emergence of copy guitars from Asia which used arguably better parts and craftsmanship. Household names, such as Fender and Gibson Guitars, were not cranking out the quality workmanship which they were known for in the past. In the late 1970s, there was a general dip in the quality of the production ethic of most mainstream American guitar companies. Inform yourself, starting here… The History and Background of Japanese Lawsuit Guitars So it sounds like a good idea to search for these lawsuit guitars in order to get a great sounding vintage guitar at a good price.īe mindful of scams though, some sellers claim to be selling a Japanese lawsuit guitar, while they are not.

They are equal in quality and sometimes even better than the originals.

The popularity of lawsuit guitars is easy to explain: What exactly is a lawsuit guitar and why are they so popular? The word is abused a lot though because it drives the price of a guitar up. If you are interested in buying a lawsuit guitar, make sure you read through this article first and then do more research before you buy or start bidding on a guitar.Īnyone who’s looking for vintage guitars on eBay or Reverb comes across the word “lawsuit”. There are still gems to be found, on eBay or Reverb for example, and a lot of these auctions are genuine, but some of these lawsuit guitars for sale are not lawsuit guitars at all. These Japanese lawsuit guitars are of legendary quality and are highly sought after.

Lawsuit guitars are high-quality copies of popular American brand name guitars (like Fender and Gibson) produced by Japanese companies in the 1970s.

Penco guitar values