Originally founded in 1957, Ibanez is one of the original manufacturers from the formative decades of the electric guitar as we know it today. Ibanez was one of the first Japanese companies to break through to the international music industry as well as, even more impressively, the very first brand to mass-produce seven and eight-string guitars. That makes extended-range guitars an important part of the Ibanez legacy alongside their many classic 6-string models.