I worked in engineering and quality control at Fujigen for eleven years and know Kosakabe san, whos signature can be found on all your Ibanez mandolins. Kanda has never sold any instruments outside of Japan.Īs mentioned all the references to the mythological lawsuits were off base as well.Īs most here know, I live and work in the instrument industry here in Japan. Kanda and Hoshino are FIERCE competitors and Kanda never worked as a sales agent in America with or for Hoshino. Greco on the other hand is owned by Kanda Shokai, who is also Fender Japan. Ibanez banjos and mandolins were exclusively made by Fujigen, Fujigen owning the Bluebell name also made the exact instruments with the Bluebell name on them for exclusive sales in Japan. Penco instruments were made at a number of lower end factories all over Japan depending on what it was. Penco was phased out when the Ibanez brand took off like lightening. Fujigen has always been the sole source for ALL Ibanez instruments made in Japan from electrics to acoustics, mandolins and banjos. Penco instruments were NOT ever made at the sole source factory for ALL Ibanez instruments, Fujigen, period, end of discussion. To start, Penco DID have a connection to Hoshino Gakki. More holes in it than a screen door on a sub. Well well, this Wikipedia article has to be the award winner of absolute junk. So, basically an Ibanez, differently labeled? The Ibanez line was distributed on the West coast of the U.S., the Greco was exclusively for Japan, and Penco was distributed on the East coast of the U.S. These were identical to the Ibanez Destroyer and the Greco Destroyer of the same period. The Penco brand was also put on "lawsuit" Korina-finished Explorer styled guitars. They also made excellent 12 string acoustic guitars. They also made bolt neck copies of Les Paul electrics, SG guitars and basses, Rickenbacker 4001 basses, Stratocaster/Telecaster copies and the odd mandolin and banjo. Many are unknown because they were not intended for export, others were produced for small markets. Some were fully solid wood, & some were laminate. Here is a non-exhaustive list of brands of Japanese or Made in Japan guitars. Penco made Martin and Gibson style acoustic guitars. The Penco brand was of relatively high quality and part of the "copy guitar/lawsuit guitar" craze of the 1970s.
Penco was a brand of guitars manufactured circa 1974 to 1978 in the same factory (Hoshino Gakki) in Japan as the Ibanez guitars and was distributed by the Philadelphia Music Exchange. Not that it's the ultimate authority (and the article is labeled as an "orphan"), but here's what Wikipedia has to say about Penco:
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