Gibson Artist Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 So i found this video on youtube and watched it and it really irked me. This guy has several chinese counterfeit gibsons and he made this video with a header "how to spot a fake les paul" but the thing is he really doesnt say HOW spot one, nor does he seem genuinely interested in steering people away from it. After watching, it seems to me he is doing the exact opposite, promoting something that he calls a "replica" when it is actually a counterfeit and smiles, laughs and talks about what a great price he got and how he can make it a playable instrument. What irks me the most is these are probably made in a sweatshop using child labor and this guy seems to take great pride in his fake gear. Im sure someone here will say poor people do what they gotta do, but i disagree, you can buy a nice legit Epiphone or LTD for the same price, no need to buy counterfeit gear that undermines the legit Gibsons and their market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottpaine_69 Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 This guy (from Chrimson Guitars) hates chibsons and goes into detail about all the problems and how much the fakes suck.. here is the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 This guy (from Chrimson Guitars) hates chibsons and goes into detail about all the problems and how much the fakes suck.. here is the link. To be fair he's not that enamoured with Gibsons either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pesh Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Agreed; the guy almost seems to say go and get one. And he's so very condescending and opinionated...but hey internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Yea, sure, he may be promoting fakes, but I wouldn't worry. 1) He doesn't exactly inspire anyone to want to play. 2) He doesn't really come across as someone who knows his stuff. 3) He isn't really dripping with "cool", is he? Even wanna-be's don't want to be the fat guy who doesn't seem like he leaves the house that much. They want to get gigs and dates. THIS guy is selling Gibsons through reverse psychology. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Man. Fat Shame and Fake Shame. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Yea, sure, he may be promoting fakes, but I wouldn't worry. 1) He doesn't exactly inspire anyone to want to play. 2) He doesn't really come across as someone who knows his stuff. 3) He isn't really dripping with "cool", is he? Even wanna-be's don't want to be the fat guy who doesn't seem like he leaves the house that much. They want to get gigs and dates. THIS guy is selling Gibsons through reverse psychology. . He has a number of you tubes out there. this particular video is content free, I've seen it before (most of his vids are pretty much the same). It's just more proof that any a s s hat with a video camera and a network connection can become an over night sensation, a legend in their own mind, etc. What ever! Check out the Tone Kings posts, ha! Tone King,, yeaaaaa... Regarding the counterfeits, if you buy it, knowing what you bought, so what? It's gibsons issue to run this down, I could care less. I would never buy one, and I can probably spot one right quick. but if some poser wants to drop 400 bucks on a counter fit guitar with Gibson on the HS, and pretend it's good enough, well go for it.. I got better things to do than give a crap. However, if you buy one, then sell it as a USA Gibson and the unaware buyer picks up on it, then comes after you, well, sorry but YOU deserve to get your head caved in. it's as simple as that IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayinLA Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 I don't think that counterfeiting will ever stop. Right down the street from my building is the fashion district where there are outdoor marketplaces and you can buy fake Air Jordan shoes for $40 or a Luis Vaton purse for $20. The problem is the poor bastard who might be a newbie and buys that guitar for regular price of a Gibson, thinking he finally saved up to get his holy grail guitar, and it's some far east grass hut job of a 9 year old. That being said, there are great instruments coming out of the Far East with Epiphone and my 2nd favorite maker ESP who's custom shop is in Osaka I believe. Like anything else Japanese-made they seem to look at classics and figure out how to make an improvement at an affordable price. I would spend my money on a Custom Shop ESP/LTD before a Fender guitar without hesitation. (Sorry Fender Guys) But that dude is a crack-up. What a doofus. I could see the vaneer from his crappy camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Never seen one except since the internets, and even that would be recent years, don't know anyone that's seen one, don't know anyone that's bought one, don't know anyone in the trade that's had one offered as a trade-in, and I've never been asked to consult on a guitar that turns out to be fake. With all of that said, I just don't care about fake guitars and I don't understand why anyone else does. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Never seen one except since the internets, and even that would be recent years, don't know anyone that's seen one, don't know anyone that's bought one, don't know anyone in the trade that's had one offered as a trade-in, and I've never been asked to consult on a guitar that turns out to be fake. ... rct Same here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Scales Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Just in case your sample size of one - no hang on, now it's two - isn't big enough, my answers are yes, yes, yes, and no but I've had someone show me one they were asked to consult on. In our lil hick town there's been quite a few...so that's 66% haven't seen one - what's the point being raised again? I'd add these things are often well below the price of the genuine article and the buyers think they are 'getting a steal' :D End of the day, it's your money, you earned it, you get to spend it how you like. If it's on something illegal, bad for your health, poor investment...or whatever - your choice, your consequences good or bad I spose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 I've never seen these in a store, but I've had a bandmate ask my opinion on a site that was selling Gibsons at a price that seemed too good to be true. It was a shady Chinese website selling counterfeit guitars (advertised as the real deal) for ridiculously low prices. I think you have to be a bit of a sucker to think you're gonna get a brand new LP Standard for $250, but that doesn't mean it's not wrong. I think if you see one in person it will be very obvious that it isn't the real deal. There's no way you can build a guitar that passes as a decent Gibson and sell it for a couple hundred bucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 ...don't know anyone that's seen one, don't know anyone that's bought one... I have played one. It was actually much much worse than I expected - which came as a surprise. A non-guitar playing friend bought one (of the well-known 'Suprome' fakes) to see if he thought he might like to learn how to play the guitar. It was pretty and dirt cheap. He brought it out when I was visiting and asked my opinion. It was indeed VERY pretty. Gorgeous figure and beautiful colour (in a tasteful 'burst kind of way). It was also unplayable due to the fret-job profile resembling a small range of hills and it sounded unbelievably crap because the p'ups were woeful. The tuners were so sloppy that it slipped-out of tune if an attempt was made to bend a note. The 'gorgeous' figure was the notorious 'photo-flame' so the beauty wasn't so much 'skin-deep' as 'paper-thin'. He sold it within a week of it arriving (making quite clear in his ad that it was a fake) and bought an Orville which I've also played and which was, in every way, a wonderful guitar. It even had '57 Classics.... Pip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibson Artist Posted March 10, 2016 Author Share Posted March 10, 2016 I have played one. It was actually much much worse than I expected - which came as a surprise. A non-guitar playing friend bought one (of the well-known 'Suprome' fakes) to see if he thought he might like to learn how to play the guitar. It was pretty and dirt cheap. He brought it out when I was visiting and asked my opinion. It was indeed VERY pretty. Gorgeous figure and beautiful colour (in a tasteful 'burst kind of way). It was also unplayable due to the fret-job profile resembling a small range of hills and it sounded unbelievably crap because the p'ups were woeful. The tuners were so sloppy that it slipped-out of tune if an attempt was made to bend a note. The 'gorgeous' figure was the notorious 'photo-flame' so the beauty wasn't so much 'skin-deep' as 'paper-thin'. He sold it within a week of it arriving (making quite clear in his ad that it was a fake) and bought an Orville which I've also played and which was, in every way, a wonderful guitar. It even had '57 Classics.... Pip. I love Orvilles, owned one and played another. Great guitars they were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryUK Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 There are many on YouTube that shout about Chibsons. About how great they are. Google should remove the videos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Interesting. I wasn't aware of fake Chinese Gibsons. I've never heard of or seen any. But according to the guys video at first, he basically talks about the guitar being total crap and all the work he had to do to make it decent. He laughs at the duct tape and such. Guess I don't see how they can legally stamp Gibson Les Paul on the headstock and Chinese on the back. Obviously Gibson is made in the U.S. And not in China. Sounds like a law suit to me. Even me, being an armature, knows about the high end Gibson prices. Saying that, I have seen a few on the net that were Used that claimed to be a custom or high end Gibson that were at low end prices that I wondered about. I just thought, how can they sell it that low? Too good to be true, but something must be wrong with it and steered away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. C.O. Jones Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 There are many on YouTube that shout about Chibsons. About how great they are. Google should remove the videos. Too much stupidity on the web, if they'll start shutting down stuff they couldn't stop. Another problem would be what I call the hydra-effect, cut one head off and two new will grow. I haven't seen one in person, but I know that there are lots of them for sale on some pages, even ebay.es. But most of them say clearly that they are fake, well most call them replica. IMHO, today you can get a pretty decent guitar in the same pricerange of counterfeits. If you prefere to have a crooked Gibson logo on a wrong shaped headstock of a guitar that plays like crap, sounds like crap and looks wrong from a close distance you almost deserve that kind of fakestrument! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Interesting. I wasn't aware of fake Chinese Gibsons. I've never heard of or seen any. But according to the guys video at first, he basically talks about the guitar being total crap and all the work he had to do to make it decent. He laughs at the duct tape and such. Guess I don't see how they can legally stamp Gibson Les Paul on the headstock and Chinese on the back. Obviously Gibson is made in the U.S. And not in China. Sounds like a law suit to me. Even me, being an armature, knows about the high end Gibson prices. Saying that, I have seen a few on the net that were Used that claimed to be a custom or high end Gibson that were at low end prices that I wondered about. I just thought, how can they sell it that low? Too good to be true, but something must be wrong with it and steered away. From what I understand, Gibson can prevent these from being sold in the US (as we've seen with Feds seizing a boatload of counterfeit Gibsons), but I don't think they have any power over what they are doing in China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 From what I understand, Gibson can prevent these from being sold in the US (as we've seen with Feds seizing a boatload of counterfeit Gibsons), but I don't think they have any power over what they are doing in China. A few years ago a Chinese factory actually got "busted", specifically for the fake Gibson stuff. Also in other cases, a few have been caught importing to the USA that weren't supposed to be, simply changing their name or paperwork, some with direct ties to the Chinese Gov. That was a result of embargo's on certain companies doing trade with countries (Iran) who the USA had embargo's on. What I get from that, is our trade agreements give us some power or rights, but China itself has little interest in enforcing them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 What I get from that, is our trade agreements give us some power or rights, but China itself has little interest in enforcing them. From my limited understanding, this seems to be the real key point. In the case if the factory in china getting "busted", do you know if it was the Chinese gov or American that did the busting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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