Ibanez as we know it now has been around since 1957, and has its roots in the early 1900s. There’s nobody in this thread or on this entire form that’s run a successful musical manufacturing venture for 67 years.
They’ve been solvent and profitable for decades - they know what the heck they’re doing. They have a history of repeatedly embarrassed American guitar companies by staying current, being forward-thinking, and in some cases, simply building better guitars than USA mass manufacturers.
The old notion if “company X makes cool and different guitar Y I’ll be first to buy it” doesn’t hold water. This was proved beyond a doubt in the 19mm string spacing Music Man Stingray 5 debacle of 2011. This is where Ernie ball said they’d make a 19 mm string spacing SR5 if they got 125 orders, since so many players said they’d buy one if EB made it. The number of orders they actually got was a single digit.
It also seems cheap and easy for a company to modify an existing model to make a more focused and esoteric offering, but it isn’t. The costs for tooling, automation, and break from SOP aren’t cheap, even if CNC is involved. This can be a five or six figure venture very easily and companies just aren’t willing to throw that kind of money around. Too much of a ding to the bottom line.
As always, even though we’re talking about guitars and basses and we’re passionate about them, the laws and rules of business still apply. It’s easy to say “Ibanez should make….” when we’re not footing the bill for it.
