
The story behind Ibanez-lawsuit era guitars, and how much this Les Paul-style is worth.
Hey Zach, I have owned this Ibanez "lawsuit" guitar for over 25 years and I'd like to know a little more about it. The serial number on the neck plate is K7709XX and as far as I know, it is all original except for the missing pickup cover. Can you tell me more about Ibanez's lawsuit guitars and how much this is worth today?
Thanks,
Chris Natale ā NYC
Many Japanese-copied "lawsuit era" guitars under names like Greco, Aria, Tokai, and Ibanez have taken on an almost cult-like status today among many guitar collectors. While most readers understand what a "lawsuit era" guitar refers to, others may not and I'll try to summarize the term.
In the early 1970s, American guitar manufacturers (particularly Gibson, Fender, and Martin) were experiencing a steady decline in production quality while more Japanese- built guitars were showing up in the American market. By the mid-'70s, these Japanese guitars consisted of mostly blatant copies of popular American designs and the quality was much better than people wanted to admit. In 1977, Gibson sued the Elger Company (the distributor of Ibanez instruments in the U.S. at the time) and demanded they stop producing copies of their instruments, specifically their headstocks. Japanese-built guitars that are copies of American designs before the Gibson lawsuit are commonly referred to as "lawsuit era" guitars today.
Ibanez was certainly guilty of copying Gibson, Fender, and Martin models, among others, but they were also one of the most proactive companies when it came to introducing original designs. Between 1975 and 1977, Ibanez introduced several original designs including the popular Iceman and the Artist Series. In fact, by 1977 when Elger signed an agreement to stop building copies, their entire line consisted of almost all original instruments anyway.
Your guitar appears to be a Les Paul Custom copy that Ibanez labeled Model 2391. According to the serial number, it was built in November 1977, which is considered a transitional period. The Gibson/Elger lawsuit was filed on June 28, 1977, and was resolved not too long after. By September 1977, Ibanez was ready with their entire new line of instruments and copies were essentially a thing of the past. However, there was a transitional period where models were still produced with both copied and original designs. Your guitar clearly has a Les Paul body shape, but it has Ibanez's original headstock design, a large adjustable bridge, and an elaborate tailpiece, which are all original Ibanez designs.
The Model 2391 was loosely based on a Les Paul Custom and featured a mahogany body, maple top, and clear "See-Thru" finish. Just like a Les Paul Custom, this guitar has multiply body and headstock binding, fancy headstock pearl inlays (another Ibanez original design), and a "Custom" truss rod cover. However, the most notable difference between this guitar and a real Gibson is the bolt-on neck. The pickguard has been removed, as well as the bridge pickup cover. The volume and tone knobs have rubber inserts around them for a better grip, which Ibanez called Sure-Grip knobs. There is some belt buckle wear on the back along with some hardware oxidation, but overall the guitar appears to be in excellent condition.
Based on the condition and missing original parts, your Ibanez Model 2391 is worth between $475 and $550 today. If this guitar was in mint condition with all original parts in place, it would be worth between $600 and $700. In comparison, a mid-'70s Les Paul Custom is currently worth between $2500 and $3000. The Model 2391 probably retailed between $300 and $400 originally while the Gibson Les Paul retailed for between $850 and $950 in 1978. Other Ibanez Les Paul Custom-based guitars include the Model 2335, Model 2341, Model 2350, Model 2386, Model 2393, and Model 2398.
The question many of you may be asking is why the disparity in value between a real Les Paul Custom and a copy if the quality is comparable? No question, there is a lot of value in a name and Gibson is the most valuable name in the guitar world. Bolt-on neck guitars are usually considered inferior to set necks, which also attributes to a lesser value on the copy. For most copy, budget, and value instruments from the 1960s and 1970s, I've noticed that they raise and lower in value proportionally to vintage and collectible instruments, which is the case for this Ibanez.
Copies of American guitars propelled Ibanez as a guitar company in the 1970s, but Ibanez really established their own trademark with unique designs, a commitment to quality, and their relationships with artists. While not very expensive, I challenge you to find an Ibanez that isn't a treasure!
Source: Ibanez, The Untold Story by Paul Specht, Michael Wright, Jim Donahue, and Pat Lefferts.
[Updated 10/29/21]
The typical controls on a compressor can be confusing and often misunderstood. At the heart of the MXR Studio Compressor is the ratio control, which offers up four levels of squish.
Compression might be the most misunderstood effect on your boardāuntil now.
I was recently listening to three accomplished guitar players discuss the how, when, and where to use compressors in their guitar rigs. All three players had wildly different views on all aspects of compressordom, from where they should be used in a signal chain to whether they are even worth the hardware that holds them together.
Their conversation made me reflect on compressors more generally, and their standing as probably the least understood guitar pedal effect. There is a long-running joke about the guitar player who spends 30 minutes dialing in his compressor before the sudden realization that, for all the knob twisting, the pedal itself has never turned on. Most players have put on the compressor dunce cap for at least 30 secondsāif not 30 minutes.
When compared to effects like distortion and delay, compression can be as esoteric, nuanced, and arcane as a clandestine funk-guitar societyās secret handshake. In my experience, a large swath of guitar players cannot even detect compression until they are sonically beaten over the head with it. And of those who can discern the bludgeoning, many donāt know which knob to turn to achieve a more subtle effect. We guitar players should have known we were in trouble when many professional compressors came with buttons labeled āauto.ā If even our know-it-all, front-of-house cousins need a crutch, what hope do we have?
Compression originated in the recording studio, where professional engineers were both its inventors and primary users, so its controls tend to be more technical than your ampās bass, middle, and treble knobs. Letās break down some controls in the simplest terms possible.
Introduced in 1972, the Dyna Comp had two simple controls: output and sensitivity. Itās far from transparent, but added a musical coloration that made fans out of Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George.
Threshold: This setting determines what gets squished and what doesnāt. Everything below the threshold passes through unchanged. Everything above the threshold gets squished. This is often labeled āsustainā on many guitar pedals. Sometimes, as the sustain is turned up, the compressorās threshold point goes down, lowering the bar for what gets compressed, and more effect gets applied to your dry signal.
Ratio: How much compression is applied to signals above the threshold. A 1:1 ratio would mean no compression. At 2:1, for every 2 dB over the threshold, the compressor will only let 1 dB through. Some classic compressors have a ratio around 30:1. This means that above the threshold, you can increase the input signal significantly but receive only a small increase in output. Boom, youāre chickinā pickinā.
Attack: This adjusts how fast it takes the compressor to get to work. A shorter attack means the clamping action happens immediately, while a longer attack time lets a brief burst of signal through before they start applying the aforementioned compression ratio.
Release: After the signal drops below the threshold, the compressor takes a certain amount of time to stop compressing or release. A longer release lazily hangs on and stops compressing when it gets around to it. Shorter releases get out of the way faster, and the next transient can get through uncompressed before being re-attacked.
Makeup Gain (or Output Level): The compression process naturally limits gain. To match the energy level of your uncompressed signal, you may need to boost the compressorās output. Compression evens out the peaks, and makeup gain can compensate for any perceived differences in level.
Threshold and ratio are the heart of the compressorās function. Threshold decides what gets compressed and ratio determines how much itās compressed. Attack and release are about how fast compression is applied and how quickly it stops being applied. By controlling these, you are controlling how quickly transients are attacked and how slowly transients are released. Every guitar compressor has an attack and release time, but many designs hide these controls via internal, fixed component values. The designer has benevolently dictated what setting you should use. Output level lets you make up for all that crushing by adding level to compensate.
This is just the beginning of compression. Weāve got the knobs, we know the function, and next time weāll discuss how we can use this dynamic darling
By refining an already amazing homage to low-wattage 1960s Fenders, Carr flirts with perfectionāand adds a Hiwatt-flavored twist.
Killer low end for a low-wattage amp. Mid and presence controls extend range beyond Princeton or tweed tone templates. Hiwatt-styled voice expands vocabulary. Built like heirloom furniture.
Two-hundred-eighty-two bucks per watt.
$3,390
Carr Skylark Special
carramps.com
Steve Carr could probably build fantastic Fender amp clones while cooking up a crĆØme brulee. But the beauty of Carr Amps is that they are never simply a copy of something else. Carr has a knack for taking Fender tone and circuit design elementsāand, to a lesser extent, highlights from the Vox and Marshall playbookāand reimagining them as something new.
Those that playedCarrās dazzling original Skylark know it didnāt go begging for much in the way of improvement. But Carr tends to tinker to very constructive ends. In the case of the Skylark Special, the headline news is the addition of the Hiwatt-inspired tone section from theCarr Bel-Ray, a switch from a solid-state rectifier to an EZ81 tube rectifier that enhances the ampās sense of touch and dynamics, and an even deeper reverb.
Spanning Space Ages
With high-profile siblings like the Deluxe, Bassman, Tremolux, and Twin, Fenderās original Harvard is, comparatively, a footnote in Fenderās wide-panel tweed era (the inclusion of Steve Cropperās Harvard in the Smithsonian notwithstanding). But the Harvard is somewhat distinctive among tweed Fenders for using fixed bias, which, given its power, makes it a bridge that links in both circuit and sound to the Princeton Reverb. The Skylark Specialās similar capacity for straddling tweed and black-panel touch and tone is fundamental to its magic.
Like the Harvard and the Princeton, the Skylark Specialās engine runs on two 6V6 power tubes and a single 12AX7 in the preamp section. A 12AX7 and 12AT7 drive the reverb and the reverb recovery section, respectively, and a second 12AT7 is assigned to the phase inverter. (The little EZ81 between the two 6V6 power tubes is dedicated to the rectifier). Apart from the power tubes and the 12AX7 in the preamp, however, the Skylark Special deviates from Harvard and Princeton reverb templates in many important ways. Instead of a 10" Jensen or Oxford, it uses a 50-watt 12" Celestion A-Type ceramic speaker, and it includes midrange and presence controls that a Harvard or Princeton do not. It also features a boost switch that manages to lend body and brawn without obliterating the core tone. There is also, as is Carrās style, a very useful attenuator that spans zero to 1.2 watts. Alas, there is no tremolo.
āIād wager the Skylark Special will be around every bit as long as a tweed Harvard when most of your printed-circuit amps have shoved off for the recycler.ā
It goes without saying, perhaps, that the North Carolina-built Skylark Special is made to standards of craft that befit its $3K-plus price. Even still, Carr upgraded nine of the coupling capacitors to U.S.-made Jupiters. They also managed to shave six pounds from the Baltic birch cabinet weightāreducing total weight to 35 pounds and, in Steve Carrās estimation, improving resonance. Say what you will about the high price, but Iād wager the Skylark Special will be around every bit as long as a tweed Harvard when most of your printed-circuit amps have shoved off for the recycler.
Sweet Soulful Bird
Fundamentally, the Skylark Special launches from a Fender space. But this is a very refined Fender space. The bass is rich, deep, and massive in ways you wonāt encounter in many 12-watt combos, and the warm contours at the toneās edges lend ballast and attitude to both clean tones and the ultra-smooth distorted ones at the volumeās higher reaches. All of these sounds dovetail with the clear top end you imagine when you close your eyes and picture quintessential black-panel Fender-ness. The presence and midrange controls, along with the 50-watt speaker, lend a lot in terms of scalpel-sharp tone shapingāproviding a dimension beyond classical Fender-nessāespecially when you bump the midrange and turn up your guitar volume.
The tube rectifier, meanwhile, shifts the Skylark Specialās touch dynamics from the super-immediate reactivity of a solid-state rectifier to a softer, more-compressed, more sunset-hued kind of tactile sensitivity. But donāt let that lead you to worry about the ampās more explosive capabilities. There is more than enough high-midrange and treble to make the Skylark Special go bang.
Anglo and Attenuated Alter Egos
The Hiwatt-inspired setting is still dynamic, but itās a little tighter than the Fullerton-voiced setting. Thereās air and mass enough for power jangling or weighty leads. The differences in the Bel-Rayās tube selection (EL84 power tubes as well as an EF86 in the preamp) means the Skylark Specialās version of the Hiwatt-style voice isālike the amp in generalāwarm and round in the low-mid zone and softer around the edges, where the Bel-Ray version has more high-end ceiling and less mellow glow in the bass. It definitely gives the Skylark Special a transatlantic reach that enhances its vocabulary and utility.
Attenuated settings are not just practical for suiting the amps to circumstances and size of space youāre in; they also offer an extra range of colors. The maximum 1.2 watt attenuated setting still churns up thick, filthy overdrive that rings with harmonics.
The Skylark Specialās richness and variation means youāll spend a lot of time with guitar and amp alone. Anything more often feels like an intrusion. But the Skylark Special is a friend to effects. Strength in the low-end and speaker means it humors the gnarliest fuzzes with grace. And with as many shades of clean-to-just-dirty tones as there are here, the personalities of gain devices and other effects shine.
The Verdict
Skylark Special. Itās fun to sayāin a hep-cat kind of way. The name is trĆØs cool, but the amp itself sounds fabulous, creating a sort of dream union of the Princetonās and Harvardās low-volume character, a black-panel Deluxeās more stage-suited loudness and mass, and a zingier, more focused English cousin. It can be sweet, subdued, surfy, rowdy, and massive. And it works happily with pedalsāmost notably with fuzzes that can make lesser low-mid-wattage amps cough up hairballs. The price tag smarts. But this is a 12-watt combo that goes, sonically speaking, where few such amps will, and represents a first-class specimen of design and craft.
The author dials in one of his 20-watt Sonzera amps, with an extension cabinet.
Knowing how guitar amplifiers were developed and have evolved is important to understanding why they sound the way they do when youāre plugged in.
Letās talk about guitar amp history. I think itās important for guitar players to have a general overview of amplifiers, so the sound makes more sense when they plug in. As far as I can figure out, guitar amps originally came from radiosāalthough Iāve never had the opportunity to interview the inventors of the original amps. Early tube amps looked like radio boxes, and once there was an AM signal, it needed to be amplified through a speaker so you could hear it. Iām reasonably certain that other people know more about this than I do.
For me, the story of guitar amps picks up with early Fenders and Marshalls. If you look at the schematics, amplifier input, and tone control layout of an early tweed Fender Bassman, itās clear thatās where the original Marshall JTM45 amps came from. Also, Iāve heard secondhand that the early Marshall cabinets were 8x12s, and the roadies requested that Marshall cut them in half so they became 4x12s. Similarly, 8x10 SVT cabinets were cut in half to make the now-industry-standard 4x10 bass cabinets. Our amp designer Doug Sewell and I understand that, for the early Fender amps we love, the design directed the guitar signal into half a tube, into a tone stack, into another half a tube, and the reverb would join it with another half a tube, and then there would be a phase splitter and output tubes and a transformer. (All 12AX7 tubes are really two tubes in one, so when I say a half-tube, Iām saying weāre using only the first half.) The tone stack and layout of these amps is an industry standard and have a beautiful, clean way of removing low midrange to clear up the sound of the guitar. I believe all but the first Marshalls came from a high-powered tweed Twin preamp (which was a 80-watt combo amp) and a Bassman power amp. The schematic was a little different. It was one half-tube into a full-tube cathode follower, into a more midrange-y tone stack, into the phase splitter and power tubes and output transformer. Both of these circuits have different kinds of sounds. Whatās interesting is Marshall kept modifying their amps for less bass, more high midrange and treble, and more gain. In addition, master volume controls started being added by Fender and Marshall around 1976. The goal was to give more gain at less volume. Understanding these circuits has been a lifelong event for Doug and me.
Then, another designer came along by the name of Alexander Dumble. He modified the tone stack in Fender amps so you could get more bass and a different kind of midrange. Then, after the preamp, he put in a distortion circuit in a switchable in and out āloop.ā In this arrangement, the distortion was like putting a distortion pedal in a loop after the tone controls. In a Fender amp, most of the distortion comes from the output section, so turning the tone controls changes the sound of the guitar, not the distortion. In a Marshall, the distortion comes before the tone controls, so when you turn the tone controls, the distortion changes. The way these amps compress and add harmonics as you turn up the gain is the game. All of these designs have real merit and are the basis of our modern tubeāand then modelingāamplifiers.
Everything in these amps makes a difference. The circuits, the capacitor values and types, the resistor values and types, the power and output transformers, and the power suppliesāincluding all those capacitor values and capacitor manufacturers.
I give you this truncated, general history to let you know that the amp business is just as complicated as the guitar business. I didnāt even mention the speakers or speaker cabinets and the artform behind those. But whatās most important is: When you plug into the amp, do you like it? And how much do you like it? Most guitar players have not played through a real Dumble or even a real blackface Deluxe Reverb or a 1966 Marshall plexi head. In a way, youāre trusting the amp designers to understand all the highly complex variations from this history, and then make a product that you love playing through. Itās daunting, but I love it. There is a complicated, deep, and rich history that has influenced and shaped how amps are made today.
Tobias bass guitars, beloved by bass players for nearly half a century, are back with the all-new Tobias Original Collection.
Built for unrivaled articulation, low-end punch, and exceptional ergonomics, the all-new Tobias Original Collection comprises an array of six four and five-string bass models all offered in both right and left-handed orientations. The Tobias range features Classic, Killer B, and Growler models, and each is equipped with high-quality hardware from Babicz and Gotoh, active electronics from Bartolini, and the iconic Tobias asymmetrical neck design. Crafted from the finest tonewoods, Tobias Original Collection bass guitars are now available worldwide on Gibson.com, at the Gibson Garage locations, and at authorized Gibson dealers.
The bass world has been clamoring for the return of the authentic, high-end Tobias basses, and now, Tobias has returned. Combining the look and tone of the finest exotic tonewoods, such as quilted maple, royal paulownia, purpleheart, sapele, walnut, ebony, and wenge, with the feel of the famous Tobias Asym asymmetrical neck and the eye-catching shapes of the perfectly balanced contoured bodies, Tobias basses are attractive in look and exceptional in playing feel. However, their sonic versatility is what makes them so well suited to the needs of modern bassists. The superior tone from the exotic hardwoods, premium hardware, and active BartoliniĀ® pickups and preamps results in basses with the tonal flexibility that todayās players require. Donāt settle for less than a bass that delivers everything you want and need āthe look, the feel, and the sound, Tobias.
āIām thrilled to release Tobias basses, emphasizing the use of exotic woods, ergonomics, and authenticity to the original Tobias basses,ā says Aljon Go, Product Development Manager for Tobias, Epiphone, and Kramer. āThis revival is a dream come true, blending modern craftsmanship with the timeless essence of Tobias.ā
āItās amazing to see this icon of the bass world return,ā adds Andrew Ladner, Brand Manager for Epiphone and Kramer. āThese models are truly a bass playerās bass, and true to the DNA that makes Tobias world-classāthe ace up the sleeve of bass players around the globe since 1978. Todayās players can find that unique voice and feel that only Tobias can offer.ā
For more information, please visit gibson.com.