Decapitated Custom Agent (look-alike)...

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Author Message   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 10:43 am:    Where does one find a good barber these days? !!! Even a spit curl isn't safe anymore! Isn't there any respect left for old rock&roll tradition?? Ebay Item #130125112055 Dave, what would you make out of this one? (apart from firewood). How long does it take for a curl to grow on this one? Ginger   Ibanezkid Username: Ibanezkid Registered: 6-2007 Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 10:49 am:    first a pf 400 then an artist now this!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Dave_g Username: Dave_g Registered: 1-2002 Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 11:48 am:    Guys calm down...its NOT even an Ibanez !Take a god look ant the applicaes -this is a copy of an Ibanez ! I wrote to the seller, who has sold a ton of vintage Ibanez over the years, to inform him that his guitar is mostlikely a Memphis, and he feigns ignorance and pointed me to the Untold Story.......   Ibanezkid Username: Ibanezkid Registered: 6-2007 Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 12:02 pm:    dave, sorry i thought it was an ibanez but thats only because i NEED a custom agent!   Tbplayer Username: Tbplayer Registered: 4-2007 Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 12:05 pm:    the headstock inlay is wrong. that might be an "electa" not a misspelling, they were mostly sent downunder. i saw one on the bay about a month ago. and to a non-ibanez guy....it could be passed off, no logo and all.   Shrap Username: Shrap Registered: 2-2007 Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 1:43 pm:    From what I've seen the Electra looked pretty much the same as the Ibanez. Whit the exception of the Headstock logo, it was pretty much the same. The inlay designs one this one are different than the ones we see on the Custom Agent / Black Eagle and Greco T-Bird, also the MOP used on the top seems different somehow. A copy for sure IMHO but still looks good to me at $100 or something doesn't it ?   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 11:46 pm:    The MOP decal on the top of this one looks like the head of a billy goat (Satan?). When I look at the old Antoria Custom Agent article, which I just found back on the Mrs' laptop (I should mail it to one of my own computers, can't post it because it's 4x 1MB but a search on ICW should reveal the source where I found it: it was originally in the July 2005 issue of Guitarbuyer), I find decals that are the same as on the Ibanez 2405 Custom Agent. Anyway the Antoria guitar model 2405 was called Antoria Memphis Original Deluxe, also described as a Custom '74, and it has MOP decals, which are totally different from the ones in the eBay ad. The two most important differences: between the 2 stars the space should NOT be left open AND left and right from the 2 stars there should be NO billy goat horns! I was hoping you would come up with something like "Electa" of "Electra", but now you mention Memphis..., what exactly is the connection between the Antoria Memphis Deluxe and the Memphis brand? (are they all made by Fuji Gen?) Anyway, I just checked and could NOT find anything about this article (4 pages) on ICW, but I'm only half awake. (Woke up because my lungs are bothering me, and more or less sleepwalked to the laptop)*. So I sent it to my office, in order to reduce it or just mail it to Johns. There are lots of interesting details in it. Ginger *Addict? Who? Me?   Ducati Username: Ducati Registered: 9-2006 Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 9:39 pm:    Antoria = Ibanez in the UK same thing   Sixvsix Username: Sixvsix Registered: 3-2002 Posted on Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 4:35 am:    Yep, same thing. I can vouch for that. six   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 4:40 am:    Yes, I know, but what I read, was that the Ibanez 2405 Custom Agent was called Antoria Memphis Original Deluxe, and that it was also described in the pricelists as Custom '74. So we see Memphis used as a type name, but we also know it as a brand name. Johns always indicated that there was some connection between Ibanez-Fuji Gen-Memphis, (perhaps only the use of the same production facilities): just look at the introduction of his "Other Replicas" department. But now and then some members state that Memphis had nothing to do with Ibanez. But if Antoria has, why would a separate company called "Memphis" allow another company, that uses the brand name Antoria in the UK, to use the name Memphis as a type name? Imagine that Ibanez would sell a model called Ibanez Gibson Original Deluxe.... I guess that would give some fuss. So, what is the reason that we see these two names, Antoria and Memphis, connected here on one guitar? What is the status of the name Memphis? Does it really indicate that an instrument is inferior (B-brand) as is often suggested, or was it in fact a brand name, Hoshino had "big plans" with? (because Memphis Tennessee is of course not just another town in the music scene). Ginger   Dave_g Username: Dave_g Registered: 1-2002 Posted on Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 11:17 am:    I know that there has been some discussion of a connection between Memphis and Ibanez guitars, for the most part I do not believe that these two brands were produced in the same factory. Most of the models of Memphis brand guitars , especially prior to 1976, are PLYWOOD bodies with either a scarf joint or even a box joint right where the headstock joins the neck and real low end firewood. This is the cheapest method of making a guitar with a 17 degree neck offset-you use smallet billets of wood. I don't recall ever seeing an Ibanez clone without at least a block construction wood body and a full lengthwise laminated neck. In 1976, Memphis put out a series of Egyptian themed guitars with a radically improved build including a neck thru (Musician type) guitar, and Artist copy (M 300-very nice build) and the "F300" which was refered to as a "venetian design" ..this guitar featured the mandolin headstock,goofy pickguard, fancy banjo style neck inlays (thicker than the Custom Agent)but NO faux MOP body inlays. This effort also included a set neck carved solid maple LP clone without bindings (looks a lot like a deluxe 59er), a jazz box, LP bolt on clones, Tele and Strat as well a jazz bass in long and short scale, a LP jr, Mustang, and melody maker clones. This appears to be a completely new lineup of better quality guitars wich might indicate a switch to a different factory...remember 1976 was a big year of change in the US guitar scene. Antoria on the other hand was simply the Ibanez marketing group deciding that the Antoria name was a better choice for GB...the guitars are IDENTICAL with the exception of the name on the headstock.   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 2:15 pm:    What I know is that my sixties idol, Hank Marvin of the Shadows, had been playing an Antoria until he got the fiesta red Fender Stratocaster from the British Rock&Roll star and Elvis and Ricky Nelson fan, Cliff Richard (Harry Roger Webb) in 1959. They actually wanted the Fender that James Burton was playing and assumed he'd play the most expensive one in the catalogue, which was a custom colour strat with gold hardware. So, it actually started with a mistake: a good one, as it turned out to be. He became the "King" of the vibrato guitar. OK, back to Antoria: in this interview he doesn't talk about the type of the Antoria he had been playing, but it must have been one that was older than a 1959. He had be been playing the banjo and the piano until he got inspired by Buddy Holly, so it must have been an Antoria from between 1955 and 1959, if he played a NEW one. I sure would like to hold that guitar in my hands: the link between Hank B. Marvin and Ibanez. I guess nobody knows where it is now. Ginger   Sixvsix Username: Sixvsix Registered: 3-2002 Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 7:02 am:    Dave/Ginger The Antoria brand in the UK were distributed by a different supplier from Ibanez. Same guitars but different supplier that's all. Antoria's came out a little cheaper than the Ibanez brand. I'm talking 70's here. Paul-A has done a lot of ground work on the Antoria brand and has printed a couple of articles in the UK guitar press on the brand. I'm sure he could clear it up. six   Paul_a Username: Paul_a Registered: 8-2002 Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 3:43 pm:    In the UK Antoria was distributed by JT Coppock and Ibanez by Summerfield Brothers. The 'Antoria' name originated with a line of gramophones (phonographs) that Coppock carried back in the 1930s. The Antoria guitar that Hank played in 1950s was NOT built by Fujigen Gakki. Virtually identical models were also offered under the Guyatone and Star brand names. I believe they were built by the Tokyo Sound Company. Steve Howe played a Guyatone LG-50 at one time.   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 8:29 pm:    Hey, I just found the old pics of Padraic's Antoria Memphis 74 as he calls it. Nice! http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/discus/messages/21 /19280.html?1161324166 I had found the Guyatone info in the Bluebook online last night: https://store.bluebookinc.com/download/Category.as px?product=ELECTRIC&id=35 Your description has a lot of elements that are verifiable in the Wikipedia article on Antoria, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoria but there the gramophones are not mentioned. Is that article from your hand? It certainly is not mine... (it's too short for that! Haha) It would be nice, if it became a little expanded, with a nice Antoria Memphis 74 pic etc. This is what I found on the MEMPHIS brand: https://store.bluebookinc.com/download/Category.as px?product=ELECTRIC&id=628 Ginger   Dave_g Username: Dave_g Registered: 1-2002 Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 9:19 pm:    Ginger..I bought Padraic's Antoria and I have another as well, thats why I can state that these guitars are IDENTICAL to Ibanez, right down to the capacitors !   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 11:09 pm:    In that case... I've got something for you! Happy reading! Ginger   Chucke99 Username: Chucke99 Registered: 2-2007 Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 1:30 am:    What's the Antoria Custom Agent worth?

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