“Ibanez and Japanese brands in general were irritating the hell out of Gibson, Fender and other US companies targeted by copyists”: From copies to innovations – the origin and rise of Japanese electric guitars (and the truth about ‘lawsuit’ guitars)

Japanese guitars.

It’s the late ’70s, and Paul Stanley of KISS tells an interviewer about the band’s great successes – he guesses they’ve sold something like 20 million records, and they’re just back from a Japanese tour.

It was there, he says, that he found out more about the abilities of Japanese guitar makers.