We’ve been in contact this past weekend with the administrators of a new web site devoted to the Ibanez mandolins made in Japan during the 1970s.

IbanezMandolin.com publishes exclusive editorial content that explores the history of the mandolins and is compiling a serial number database and a collectors journal online.

These mandolins - and a companion line of four and five string banjos - were marketed worldwide, and endorsed by Bill Monroe himself, the definitive creator of bluegrass mandolin. The Ibanez instruments were based on classic designs and mixed styling of then-contemporary and vintage Gibson products.

IbanezMandolins.com would also like the help of mandolin and Bill Monroe fans worldwide…

IbanezMandolin.com is currently seeking information on Bill Monroe’s Ibanez Mandolins and Ibanez endorsement details for a future article. Anyone with pictures of Bill playing an Ibanez mandolin, pictures of Bill’s personal mandolins themselves (from a museum or auction display), or first-hand accounts of the events related to his endorsement deal and the current whereabouts of these instruments is encouraged to contact 527@ibanezmandolin.com.

They are also interested in having any owners of Ibanez mandolins visit the site to contribute photos and details about their instruments.

The site operators also sent along a few Ibanez posters from 1975 that featured Bill Monroe, and images of the Ibanez model 527 mandolin. This was the most costly of the vintage Ibanez Mandolin catalog, of which they tell us only two examples have been documented so far.