Ibanez epiphone slothead?

[slinkp]

I did not know this was a thing.
https://reverb.com/item/6071678-a-rare-early-1970-s-epiphone-long-scale-sg-eb-3-by-the-japanese-antoria_ibanez-fujigen-factory

So it's an Ibanez-made bass illegally using the Epiphone logo for a bass Epiphone never made? Confusing. Wonder why they didn't go all the way and use a Gibson logo!

[Dave W]

I did not know this was a thing.
https://reverb.com/item/6071678-a-rare-early-1970-s-epiphone-long-scale-sg-eb-3-by-the-japanese-antoria_ibanez-fujigen-factory

So it's an Ibanez-made bass illegally using the Epiphone logo for a bass Epiphone never made? Confusing. Wonder why they didn't go all the way and use a Gibson logo!

No, nothing illegal about it, and not Ibanez-made. There's no "Antoria_Ibanez FujiGen Factory," it's just FujiGen. Ibanez is a brand name owned by Hoshino, FujiGen is a factory that made most of their instruments for years, but the two companies aren't related. FujiGen also made some instruments for Epiphone, Antoria, Greco, and other brands back then.

The comments in italics that claim it's an Ibanez are dead wrong.

[Basvarken]

I don't think it is an Epiphone. As far as I know Epiphone never made slothead EB basses like that.

Looks like the headstock was refinished black and the Epiphone decal was added.

[66Atlas]

I've seen that bass branded as "Electra".  I would agree someone probably resprayed the headstock and put on an Epiphone logo to give it some Gibson family credibility.

[Granny Gremlin]

I don't think it is an Epiphone. As far as I know Epiphone never made slothead EB basses like that.

Looks like the headstock was refinished black and the Epiphone decal was added.

I am with you.

The bridge pup and bridge itself are what were used on cheap knock off hos - I would like to think that Epiphone would have had a 3 point and minibucker with only 1 row of pole pieces, but we have seen lower end (ho-like) hardware and bolt on necks on some Epis from that period,m so there is a sliver of possibility that this is legit (but if so it was a prototype that didn't go to production, and I would be very skeptical).  Case in point: the EA-260.

[slinkp]

The bridge on this slothead looks terrible.

[Pilgrim]

The bridge on this slothead looks terrible.

No kidding!!

[Granny Gremlin]

the worst of both worlds

[Basvarken]

Bridge does look terrible indeed. And so does the rest.
Clumsy thumbrest.
And that fake mudbucker is typical for the cheaper seventies rubbish that the lesser Japanese brands built. These looks almost square instead of rectangular. And the polepieces aren't screws.

[Dave W]

I don't think it is an Epiphone. As far as I know Epiphone never made slothead EB basses like that.

Looks like the headstock was refinished black and the Epiphone decal was added.

I've seen that bass branded as "Electra".  I would agree someone probably resprayed the headstock and put on an Epiphone logo to give it some Gibson family credibility.

It's not resprayed. Look at the last headstock pic. It's no shinier than the body and has the same aging.

There were a number of 70s Epis that were Japan market only. There wouldn't be a reason to put a fake decal on anyway, an Epi from that era wouldn't be worth more than an Ibanez.

But Electra? Aha! Thanks for the tip. Most Electras were made by Matsumoku back then. Most Epi solidbodies were too, and some Ibanez were. Look at this Electra EB-3.

[Basvarken]

I Wouldn't be so sure about that headstock Dave.
First of all there is orange peel. Normally you wouldn't see any of that on original paint.

Second, the face is black. The original is not. Why would they have decided to change that on their copies? The Japanese copied features like that quite slavishly.

The ageing is no proof at all. If the refin was done in the eighties the lacquer had plenty of time to age.

The only thing that is really confusing is the Epiphone logo.
But it is too obviously not a Gibson to put a Gibson logo on. So maybe the person who did this figured it was more credible to put Epiphone on. Still a major upgrade to the other crap from that age...

[Dave W]

The Ibanez and Electra do have black face headstocks like this one. And this one has the identical two-saddle bridge as the Electra.

I don't think what you're seeing is orange peel. No evidence of it in the other two headstock pics. There's a lot of reflected light in these pics anyway. The face doesn't look newer than the rest of the finish.

I'll stick with my assessment.

[amptech]

Although I'm not sure what to think, it certainly looks like orange peel in that first pic. That does not prove anyting, but in the second headstock pic the black seems sanded through right on the slot edge - even on the side where no strings rub against the edge. Does not prove anything either, but getting the headstock uniformly black on top without sanding through the paint edge is not easy. On the last gibson headstock I shot, I think I used nine layers of black before sanding. And at least nine clearcoats on top of that. Just observing here, dont claim anything.

[66Atlas]

To me it looked like a sloppy tape job on the edges of the headstock, especially inside the slots wher black had leeched into to where it shouldnt have been.  Granted that could have been amaturish from the factory.  But the more disturbing thing to me is I've never seen an Epiphone headstock logo with a (R) Registered trademark at the end of it.  Especially on 70's instruments that could well have been made in the same factory.   That to me reeks of pulling a logo off the internet and making a decal out of it. 

All that and the fact he's asking twice what an electra would sell for gives me the heebie-jeebies.

[veebass]

No kidding!!

The same bridge used on my Ibanez Flying V Bass. Probably the same pickups as well.