GERRINEZ guitars

[Ket-Art.com]

In the seventies of the last century there was a music store called Gerritsen in the The Hague, the Netherlands. This music store was named after his owner.
They put guitars on the market which were build in Japan. The owner called this guitars Gerrinez, after GERRItsen and ibaNEZ.

These guitars where mostly imitations of Fender and Gibson models. This was normal for Ibanez in those days.

But were they really made by Ibanez like told by many people?
The quality is of a low standard guitar, nothing compared with a good Ibanez.

Can someone tell more about the Gerrinez guitars? Where they really made by Ibanez? Who knows something about this history? The shop is closed for many years now, so no one can tell a lot about the guitars so far. It's only speculation (and that can be fun). But maybe there is an Ibanez specialist who knows something about it.

I own one, can someone tell me from which type of guitar this is a copy. It looks like Fender. But which Fender and what model? Or is it a copy of an other factory?



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[dex]

I doubt these guitars have anyhting to do with Ibanez.
I used to have a 70's Kay that looks very similar to your Gerrinez and mine had a "Made in Taiwan" sticker on it - check the last 4 pics.
http://community.webshots.com/album/118881039gGmQhN

I remember trying to find info on the Kay and there was something about the original Kay Co. out of Chicago went bust or something and was bought by someone who started making guitars abroad (Japan and then Taiwan) and market them at department stores under different names.

These were terrible guitars by the way, we don't realise how good we have it today when even $99 Squires are playable.

ilia

[Ket-Art.com]

Well, the guitars have surely similarities: the pick-ups, the colour, the bridge, and indeed their "not so good" quality. It could be that Gerritsen named the guitars Gerrinez because he wanted them to be associated with Ibanez (which was the best guitar branch from the east, so good for sales).

Then again, many guitar branches made this kind of guitars, and with this kind of pick-ups and bridges. I have a semi-acoustic Galanti from Italy (nice to see), which uses also this kind of material. And your guitar has some Italic design elements also (for example the two switches).
I must say, your guitar was used well ;-)

So maybe you are right that the guitars came from Taiwan. And you are surely right about the quality of these guitars compared with nowadays cheap guitars.

[jim777]

The '70s saw Ibanez making some really high quality guitars. By the time '76-'77 guitars were available, Ibanez was making superb instruments. This particular guitar in your post looks more like a '60's intro instrument from a Taiwanese company, as Dex points out. It isn't a '70's Ibanez. Ibanez did sell some instruments with blank headstocks in the early 70's, but they were usually identical to the standard Ibanez line. This is not one of those guitars, either.
There are people who consider the '78 to '82 Ibanezes the best they ever made. That should give you an insight into the Gerrinez guitar line. It very likely never had anything to do with Ibanez.

jim

[Ket-Art.com]

Here is a link to a marketsite where some guy offers two Strat Gerrinez for sale.

http://www.marktplaats.nl/index.php?...-29028-4128-37

Of course he is telling his guitars are made in Japan and are from the Ibanez factory. What do you think?

[Ket-Art.com]

And it's becoming more interesting:

http://www.maxguitarstore.com/store....92d5913fb0e661

Could it be that Gerrinez is Ibanez?