The Electra Forums

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-70-Electra-Lawsuit-DA-copy-Custom-Lucite-Guitar_W0QQitemZ290406485684QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item439d934eb4#ht_3192wt_1044

1 OF 300 Made?!?! By whose records? Lawsuit? Ampeg (Dan Armstrong) never filed a lawsuit against anyone and nobody ever filed one against Electra to the best of my knowledge. In fact I'm of the opinion that anyone who uses the word "LAWSUIT" in the sale of a guitar should themselves be subject to a lawsuit for being grossly misinformed...LOL And $1499.95?!?! AN ORIGINAL 1971 AMPEG DAN ARMSTRONG in better shape sold on eBay for $1299.00 10 days ago! COME ON! Ebay ads like this used to make me crazy, now they just crack me up. No disrespect meant, but Stephen King novels have more factual information than this ad!

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Yep that's the version of the story. Gibson (Norlin)did threaten Ibanez (Hoshino), but Ibanez complied before it got ugly and everyone else followed suit. Urban legends can be a wonderful thing if it'll get some sellers 10 more bucks on a guitar.
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Courtesy of Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibanez#Lawsuit

Lawsuit
Harry Rosenbloom, founder of the (now-bankrupt) Medley Music of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, was manufacturing handmade guitars under the name "Elger." By 1965 Rosenbloom had decided to stop manufacturing guitars and chose to become the exclusive North American distributor for Ibanez guitars. In September of 1972 Hoshino began a partnership with Elger Guitars to import guitars from Japan. In September of 1981, Elger was renamed "Hoshino U.S.A.", retaining the company headquarters in Bensalem, Pennsylvania as a distribution and quality-control center.
The lawsuit was brought by the "Norlin Corporation", the parent company of Gibson guitars against Elger/Hoshino U.S.A. on June 28th, 1977 in the Philadelphia Federal District Court, and was based on the Gibson headstock design. Hoshino settled out of court in early 1978 and the case was officially closed on February 2nd, 1978 [5].
After the lawsuit Hoshino Gakki abandoned the strategy of copying "classic" USA electric guitar designs and moved to the popular superstrat era in the mid-1980s. The newer Ibanez models began incorporating more modern elements into their design such as radical body shapes, slimmer necks, 2-octave fingerboards, slim pointed headstocks, higher-output electronics, humbucker/single-coil/humbucker pickups, locking tremolo bridges and different finishes.

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It started out a direct SG copy but once named Outlaw everyone knows outlaws don't follow anyone's rules...and where there's outlaws can lawsuits be far behind

Don't mean to dig up an ancient thread on my first post but I bought this guitar two years ago and the bastitch is only just getting around to mailing it. Long story But I was hoping you learned folks here could help me out with dating it and just some general info?

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"We were drug addicts dabbling in music rather than musicians dabbling in drugs..." - Joe Perry

Two years is quite a time to wait for shipping. I am not the expert on these but I seem to recall hearing that they were produced in the pre catalog days around 1971 or so. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forums.

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"This is the way that pop ends, Not with a BANG but with a box set whose fourth disc you never get around to playing” - Simon Reynolds

"My guitar wants to kill your Mama" - Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention

Awesome! Thanks man. I did wonder, because I've only seen a couple without the logo. Except for the tuners and non-original knobs its virtually identical to a DA. Do you think some original DA pickups would fit it as well? Pretty sure it's only coming with the one pickup.

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"We were drug addicts dabbling in music rather than musicians dabbling in drugs..." - Joe Perry

Welcome to the forums. Well that is a bit of a shipping delay I think. How did he manage to get away with that? I guess ebay litigation ain't that great after all. The DA models do come up now and again and we have a few forum members that do own these models. They seem to be a little like the SG models in that the manufacture and quality differ somewhat depending on when it was built.

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

nice. that does appear to be the 2246 model with the logo removed.

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

Ebay is a hoot sometimes. I see folks asking more for a 2266 or an x-410 than Heritage 525s. I've had all 3, I liked the Electras but they were not in the same class as my Heritage.

Apples to oranges there, Gadget....different animals. The 410 is my favorite Electra....the materials choices and build quality/attention to detail on these 410's are astounding, most especially at the price point offered. Absolutely beautiful pieces of guitar art....and very useable in their original state.

I must admit that I've never owned a 525 personally...but, I have owned plenty of P90, P100...full bodied Gibsons and copies by Ibanez, Ventura, etc. I didn't like 'em enough to keep any for very long. I'm definately a thin body kind of guy.....talkin' about guitars here folks.....I think.

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JD's Electras

I thought this was high but maybe not: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/msg/3594643758.html

Negotiations have been long and painful but I want the guitar more than I want my money back so I've had to be tactful. eBay can bring down the hammer on him but that wont get me what I paid for.



Would that have been done professionally?

Also does anyone know if Electra copied the whole range of DA pickups? I'm sure they're as rare as hens teeth...

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"We were drug addicts dabbling in music rather than musicians dabbling in drugs..." - Joe Perry

some of the early model Electras just had the logo screen printed onto the headstock and would be easily removed.

there's a good web site out there somewhere with a list of a bunch of DA copies and the differences...

some member here who has one may need to chime in on the pickups. since there's no known literature on these, it's hard to say what they had available if anything...

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!