Antoria Telecaster 1971

[dan74]

Is anyone here familiar with the Antoria brand and it's relations to Ibanez?
I've just purchased this little monkey....





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??

[VintAxe]

Hey Dan.

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:

[dan74]

Hi, thanks for the reply and the info...
I've since read also that for a period of time Antoria and Ibanez models were produced side by side at Fujigen Gakki using exactly the same materials and in many cases also shared product numbers. They simply just had a different brand logo for export to the UK...?? The relationship seems to be the subject of debate on a few other forums.

See how similar the headstock shape and even the logo is on this Ibanez Tele:

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p ... G_0417.jpg

[Bassassin]

Hi Dan - I've answered your post on the Ibby forum but it's worth a bit of clarification here too. Antoria is a British brand which at the time was owned by J.T. Coppock Ltd of Leeds, who sold guitars manufactured by Fujigen Gakki, an independent Japanese factory.

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.

[dan74]

[Spud1950]

[dan74]

[Bassassin]

[JCV000]

HI, I HAVE A TELECASTER COPY VERY MUCH LIKE THE ONE POSTED. I BOUGHT IT NEW IN NEW YORK CITYS, SILVER AND HOLLAND MUSIC STORE LOWER EAST SIDE. I BOUGHT IT IN 1972 AND I STILL HAVE IT TODAY. IT LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE YOURS BUT THE NECK LOOKS DIFFERENT ON MINE MORE LIKE A DARKER COLOR WOOD WITH SLITELY DIFFERENT CARVE ON THE HEAD OF THE NECK AND SHINY, ALL THE COMPONENTS ON THE BOTTOM ARE EXACT THE SAME ... WHEN I BOUGHT IT I SCRAPED THE NAME OFF AND PUT MY DAUGHTERS NAME ON IT (STUPID ME) THAT MADE ME FORGET THE MAKER. THE SALESMAN TOLD ME THAT THERE WHERE ONLY 4 MADE OF THAT GUITAR. THAT YEAR I CHANGED THE PICKUP TO A DIMARZIO SUPER HUMBUCKER PICKUP GIVING IT A FANTASTIC SOUND. BELIEVE WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I BOUGHT THE GUITAR AT $55. DOLLARS INCLUDING TAXES... THE GUY GAVE ME A DISCOUNT AND WITH TAX INCLUDES ALSO. THE STORE SHUT ITS DOORS ON OR ABOUT 1977 OR SO. TODAY THE GUITAR IS IN FABULOUS CONDITION HARDLY USED BUT THE PAINT ON THE BACK IS CRACKING FROM AGEING OF 38 YEARS OLD. PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT THIS GUITAR IF YOU HAVE A CLUE. THANKS FOR LISTENING. JCV0015@YAHOO.COM JC
________