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Statistics: Posted by JCV000 — Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:05 am
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It seems that Coppocks imported the guitars via Hoshino Gakki, the trading company which owns the Ibanez brand. So the guitars are physically the same, built in the same factory but there's no real connection between the brand names. The same Fujigen guitars were sold under a plethora of different brands - Greco, Mann, Mansfield, Electra are names that come up frequently. I had a Tele copy identical to yours, branded as Eros:
The Eros brand was owned by Rosetti of London, and has no connection with Hoshino or Ibanez.
Jon.
Statistics: Posted by Bassassin — Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:05 pm
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See how similar the headstock shape and even the logo is on this Ibanez Tele:
http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p ... G_0417.jpg
Statistics: Posted by dan74 — Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:11 am
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I think the connection between your Antoria and Ibanez is that they both came out of the Fujigen Gakki factory.
In the early 1970's Yoshihiro Hoshino decided to stop sending instruments to individual importers and establish an agency in each country he was exporting guitars to so he could have control over distribution, setting up instruments etc. In the US, he partnered with Elger in September of 1972 so all the guitars sold by Hoshino in the US since that time have been branded Ibanez.
According to the book "Ibanez: The Untold Story" the first Ibanez branded telecaster copy was introduced in the UK in 1973. So, my hunch is that your guitar was imported before the agency system was set up in the UK.
I have some early 1970's Antoria literature that pictures a telecaster copy but the headstock shape isn't nearly as convincing as the shape seen on your guitar. So, I'm thinking 1971-72 is likely a reasonable time frame for the production of your instrument.
You can see my literature here, but the thumb may be too small to make out the mis-shapen headstock shape:
Statistics: Posted by VintAxe — Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:10 pm
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There's no serial number but it looks identical to this Ibanez:
http://cid-65e4f3dee9afdd65.skydrive.li ... /73%202352
The seller had it down as 1971 but not sure how this can be confirmed??
Statistics: Posted by dan74 — Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:22 am
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