Originally made by IBANEZ sold to rondo music

[Bass4real]

I'm a die hard IBANEZ bTb Bass player for years. in my opinion IBANEZ BASS GUITARS , not every model though , 

I'm talking premium series , custom shop models , sdgr , and prestige series, being best of the best.

I bought a Brice FREAKOUT 535 single cutaway bass in 2018 . It's a great bass guitar and for the money I paid $399.00 it's even greater.

2 days ago I was just browsing Bass guitars online , I do alot of research on and before I choose a new bass .

My Brice is the only bass I ever bought without holding and playing it first.

Honestly it is a monster BASS in every way basses costing 10× more.

I've never understood why this bass is, for the money I paid for it one of the best basses I've ever owned , and I've owned alot of high end , Big money basses and also got rid of most all of them in under a year after buying them.

My Brice FREAKOUT 5 is still with me sounding and playing as good 7 yrs later as the first day I got it .

It was designed by IBANEZ to be sold as an IBANEZ , 

But before that happened , IBANEZ sold the rights to RONDO MUSIC then rondo music after a few years just stopped making , I think , all the basses they sold on their website All  Brice basses disappeared from RONDO ? All models of BRICE BASS guitars are not being made anymore 

RONDO MUSIC acquired the rights to an absolute big money maker Bass guitars.

Sold the Brice bass line for next to nothing.

Took the money and ran 

My Brice FREAKOUT 535 is an actual IBANEZ design from top to bottom.

It's gonna be regarded as a rare bass in the the not too distant future and its value will 

No doubt go through the roof

Maybe I'll sell it 

NOT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[prowla]

On a point of order, I don't think Ibanez make instruments; they commission manufacturers like Fujigen & Cort to make the instruments for them.

[MichaelDean]

They do have a workshop in Japan that makes custom shop instruments, owned by the parent company of Ibanez, Hoshino Gakki.

[LeftyJ]

18 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

They do have a workshop in Japan that makes custom shop instruments, owned by the parent company of Ibanez, Hoshino Gakki.

 

And one in Los Angeles too. But otherwise their manufacturing is indeed outsourced to other companies.

Famously, this also includes some smaller workshops. In the past they commissioned the likes of Sugi (for some Gary Willis signature basses), Bunker Guitars (for the USRG and USATK instruments with Bunker's Tensionfree Neck) and the late Swiss luthier Rolf Spuler (who designed and built the first Affirma series for Ibanez). 

[Bass4real]

On 26/01/2025 at 09:16, MichaelDean said:

They do have a workshop in Japan that makes custom shop instruments, owned by the parent company of Ibanez, Hoshino Gakki.

 

On 26/01/2025 at 03:37, prowla said:

On a point of order, I don't think Ibanez make instruments; they commission manufacturers like Fujigen & Cort to make the instruments for them.

I'm aware of this , Fujigen Is just 1 of IBANEZs Japanese factories that make Ibanez higher end basses like premium

( (Indonesia ).  and

prestige bTb series( Fujigen ) basses.

CORT actually does produce the majority of  bTb basses at more affordable prices . But

IBANEZ - Hoshino Gakki is the parent co. They do all design , some production , distribution, Cort manufactures IBANEZ BTB basses to IBANEZ designes, exact

IBANEZ specs., this is common for Many Big name brands of guitars and bass guitars , amplifiers , effects ,you name it 

Cars , furniture , televisions , clothes.

Im not saying you're wrong, but only half right about IBANEZ.

RONDO MUSIC rebranded and acquired the rights for the Brice line from Ibanez who acquired the rights from BRICE GUITARS .

So my Brice Bass wasn't made by IBANEZ it was redesigned by IBANEZ before rondo acquired the line it wasn'tmade by ,  or designed  by Rondo music 

RONDO MUSIC actually had CORT do production at the same factory IBANEZ uses.

and on and on and on.

Practically All of Brand named products do the same.

And try their best to hide this , I call it ,

(bullshit) they call it good business it's all about increasing profit.

Which has nothing to do with being honest to customers.

But all of what I told you was told to me by IBANEZ HOSHINO management.

Who were %100 honest 

One of the main reasons Ibanez is my favorite Bass, I like the truth and those who speak it 

.

Have a good one M.D

and 

prowla

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SurroundedByManatees]

4 hours ago, Bass4real said:

One of the main reasons Ibanez is my favorite Bass, I like the truth and those who speak it 

 

But you voted for Trump, right?

 

😉

Edited Tuesday at 06:25 by SurroundedByManatees

[Sean]

Why did Ibanez decide to not market these but sell the design?

[prowla]

5 hours ago, Bass4real said:

 

I'm aware of this , Fujigen Is just 1 of IBANEZs Japanese factories that make Ibanez higher end basses like premium

( (Indonesia ).  and

prestige bTb series( Fujigen ) basses.

CORT actually does produce the majority of  bTb basses at more affordable prices . But

IBANEZ - Hoshino Gakki is the parent co. They do all design , some production , distribution, Cort manufactures IBANEZ BTB basses to IBANEZ designes, exact

IBANEZ specs., this is common for Many Big name brands of guitars and bass guitars , amplifiers , effects ,you name it 

Cars , furniture , televisions , clothes.

Im not saying you're wrong, but only half right about IBANEZ.

RONDO MUSIC rebranded and acquired the rights for the Brice line from Ibanez who acquired the rights from BRICE GUITARS .

So my Brice Bass wasn't made by IBANEZ it was redesigned by IBANEZ before rondo acquired the line it wasn'tmade by ,  or designed  by Rondo music 

RONDO MUSIC actually had CORT do production at the same factory IBANEZ uses.

and on and on and on.

Practically All of Brand named products do the same.

And try their best to hide this , I call it ,

(bullshit) they call it good business it's all about increasing profit.

Which has nothing to do with being honest to customers.

But all of what I told you was told to me by IBANEZ HOSHINO management.

Who were %100 honest 

One of the main reasons Ibanez is my favorite Bass, I like the truth and those who speak it 

.

Have a good one M.D

and 

prowla

 

 

That history stuff is all interesting and intriquing, but the thread title is "Originally made by IBANEZ sold to rondo music".

[LeftyJ]

6 hours ago, Bass4real said:

RONDO MUSIC rebranded and acquired the rights for the Brice line from Ibanez who acquired the rights from BRICE GUITARS .

So my Brice Bass wasn't made by IBANEZ it was redesigned by IBANEZ before rondo acquired the line it wasn'tmade by ,  or designed  by Rondo music 

RONDO MUSIC actually had CORT do production at the same factory IBANEZ uses.

 

Absolutely not. Agile and Brice are brand names owned by Rondo, but they were originally made by Saein (Shine) and Unsung in Korea - and most Brice instruments were just rebranded Shine instruments with some minor changes like maybe a different headstock shape. They have absolutely nothing to do with Hoshino. Saein and Unsung appear to both be out of business: Saein went bankrupt somewhere in 2014-2015 but rumours as to why are mixed. Some say it was due to a factory fire, other say it was after their largest client, Epiphone, moved production elsewhere. So Rondo had to switch suppliers and is now apparently with Cor-tek, but this singlecut is definitely not an Ibanez design. Ibanez has or had various singlecut designs of their own on the market, one based on the BTB and one based on the Soundgear, and they were involved with Tosin Abasi for a while until he took his design elsewhere and started his own brand which now also includes a bass. Ibanez doesn't design instruments for others. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:44 by LeftyJ

[Bassassin]

Hoshino Gakki Ten, owner of Ibanez, has always had issues with the fiction that other instruments were 'really an Ibanez'.

 

Back in the 70s, people conflating instruments from other brands with Ibanez was enough of an issue for Hoshino that they did this:

 

The irony was that the guitars at the time - copies of American designs made exclusively by Fujigen Gakki - were in fact sold under dozens of other entirely unrelated names around the world, some of which (including UK brand Antoria) even had the same redesigned headstock shape.

 

I mention this because I have something of an interest in the 70s/80s MIJ era, and have always found it curious how people often want their guitar/bass to be something it's not. You see that currently with the Rockinbetter Rick 4003 copies, where people really badly want them to be Tokais, but they stubbornly remain the unrelated Korean/Chinese knockoffs that they are.

 

These Brice basses look like good, if fairly generic budget instruments, much like Thomann's Harley Benton range - including their similar, but by no means identical fan-fret single cut. The only connection is likely to be that they may have been made in a factory contracted by Hoshino for other instruments.

 

I think the takeaway from this is to reinforce how good inexpensive instruments can be, compared with the trash a lot of us had to make do with decades ago when starting out.