Looking for all y'all's feedback on my 1st Gibson

['Scales]

18 hours ago, pippy said:

That's the usual Chinese fake 'Custom Shop' sticker on the usual erroneous cream-coloured inspection plates which the manufacturers seem to think make the guitar appear more authentic. Very Weird.

I don't want to get into a peeing-up-the-wall contest here nor go into details but there are at least nine things which appear to be classic tell-tale signs of a $220 Chibson. I hope I'm wrong but I'm 99.9% sure I'm not. Pics - as mentioned above - would help clear up this matter in seconds.

Pip.

 

C'mon Pip, I realise we are both Scottish (you even by plan), but a thats $250 any old day.

[Big Bill]

Lenny, I'm truly sorry to see this. I do hope you get your money back, please keep us posted on how this works out for you. Perhaps we can assist you in getting the Les Paul you have been wanting all these years.  

[pippy]

2 hours ago, 'Scales said:

 

C'mon Pip, I realise we are both Scottish (you even by plan), but a thats $250 any old day.

 

They are getting cheaper, Scales. Even the briefest of googles shows that the current price range goes from c. $180 for the more obvious fakes to around the $240 mark for what appears to be of a higher quality that the usual stuff. By way of an example here's one "R9" for the $220 asking-price. The web-site involved has been removed so as not to appear encouraging to those who might be curious;

 

I've played a few Chibsons over the years - even one of my mates (who thought he might learn to pay guitar) bought one - and they were all Crap; especially, I'm delighted to say,  the one my mate bought. That taught him not to buy counterfeit garbage.

Perhaps they are a bit better today but it's just wrong, morally, to buy this sort of stuff.

Pip.

Edited June 19, 2019 by pippy

[Big Bill]

Bright white binding, oh so blinding!

[pippy]

1 minute ago, Big Bill said:

Bright white binding, oh so blinding!

I thought it went;

"Thunderbolt and Lightning; Very, Very Frightening Thing!"

Pip.

 

[Big Bill]

23 minutes ago, pippy said:

I thought it went;

"Thunderbolt and Lightning; Very, Very Frightening Thing!"

Pip.

 

"Bright light  almost blinding;  Black night  still there shining"

Edited June 19, 2019 by Big Bill

[kidblast]

36 minutes ago, pippy said:

 

They are getting cheaper, Scales. Even the briefest of googles shows that the current price range goes from c. $180 for the more obvious fakes to around the $240 mark for what appears to be of a higher quality that the usual stuff. By way of an example here's one "R9" for the $220 asking-price. The web-site involved has been removed so as not to appear encouraging to those who might be curious;

 

I've played a few Chibsons over the years - even one of my mates (who thought he might learn to pay guitar) bought one - and they were all Crap; especially, I'm delighted to say,  the one my mate bought. That taught him not to buy counterfeit garbage.

Perhaps they are a bit better today but it's just wrong, morally, to buy this sort of stuff.

Pip.

They look good don't they??  I Also know a guy who bought one and got it setup as best as it wold get and gave it to his grandson. 

The "Dad" plays too and is well aware of what it was. The kid (10/11 yrs old) don't know the diff.

I'm still on the fence with the counterfeits..  I would never be interested in one, but whos to say where you spend your dough,  the only issue I really see with these is if a seller hoses a buyer who doesn't know any better.   Which as we can see, happens....

 

 

[pippy]

17 minutes ago, Big Bill said:

"Bright light  almost blinding;  Black night  still there shining"

 

Oh, Well Played, Sir!

I've obviously never paid enough notice to Percy nor the lyrics - which is a bit embarrassing considering not only have I had the album concerned for well over 40years but I have also owned a copy of the Led Zep. Songbook (I - IV) for the same length of time......

I feel some sort of penance is neccessary.

Pip.

EDIT : OK; Zep III is now up and running. "Must Pay More Attention, Boy!"

Edited June 19, 2019 by pippy

[pippy]

5 hours ago, kidblast said:

I'm still on the fence with the counterfeits..  I would never be interested in one, but who's to say where you spend your dough....

 

If the prospective purchaser could not, under any circumstances, purchase a genuine Gibson then I understand why it might pose an interesting moral dilemma.

My own viewpoint, FWIW, is that I have no issues whatsoever with the various LP Look-Alikes such as the Tokai Love Rock models but I would draw the line if the peghead had a Gibson logo in place of the name of the actual manufacturer. My own very first guitar (as I've mentioned before) was a 'Grant' branded Les Paul Gold Top and it was fine. As a 15-y-o kid from an impecunious Scottish family in the mid 1970's there was no way I was going to receive a £600 ($750) Les Paul as a Xmas present but the Grant could be had for 1/10th of the asking price so was good enough as a starter instrument for someone who had never played a note of guitar music in his short existence. After what seemed like an eternity - and, thinking about it, it was another 1/3rd of my lifetime - I bought my first Gibson LP when I was 20 / 21.

Don't have that Les Paul anymore - it was a dog - but I do still have the Grant...

Pip.

Edited June 19, 2019 by pippy
Shocking grammatical error!

[Big Bill]

17 minutes ago, pippy said:

 

EDIT : OK; Zep III is now up and running. "Must Pay More Attention, Boy!"

 

I've always been a "Side B" Zepplin fan. Were Zep III and Presence are my favorites. 

[pippy]

I'm very much with you on Zep III but I never took to Presence for some reason. Don't know why not. Even more unusually I'm one of the weird ones who likes 'In Through the Out Door'.  Again, though, I don't know why I like that one.

Like a shed-load of folks I know I overdosed on Zep IV and can only listen to it sparingly nowadays but I, II, III and Physical Graffiti all still get regular air-time.

Pip.

[kidblast]

1 hour ago, pippy said:

 

If the prospective purchaser could, under no circumstances, purchase a genuine Gibson then I understand why it might pose an interesting moral dilemma.

My own viewpoint, FWIW, is that I have no issues whatsoever with the various LP Look-Alikes such as the Tokai Love Rock models but I would draw the line if the peghead had a Gibson logo in place of the name of the actual manufacturer. My own very first guitar (as I've mentioned before) was a 'Grant' branded Les Paul Gold Top and it was fine. As a 15-y-o kid from an impecunious Scottish family in the mid 1970's there was no way I was going to receive a £600 ($750) Les Paul as a Xmas present but the Grant could be had for 1/10th of the asking price so was good enough as a starter instrument for someone who had never played a note of guitar music in his short existence. After what seemed like an eternity - and, thinking about it, it was another 1/3rd of my lifetime - I bought my first Gibson LP when I was 20 / 21.

Don't have that Les Paul anymore - it was a dog - but I do still have the Grant...

Pip.

This guy could afford the Gibson LP, he bought it to "see" what they were all about.   that he gave to his grandson within a week kind of tells ya more than you need to know!

I got my first LP (Gold Top Deluxe) in 1974,  @17   I was supposed to buy a car, but I backed out of that and bought the LP!   the bank loan officer where I took out the car loan, which I cancelled and instead took out a personal loan for the LP says "So you're going to drive a guitar around instead right?"  "yea, kinda.."

Crazy kids right?!

[pauloqs]

1 hour ago, pippy said:

 

If the prospective purchaser could, under no circumstances, purchase a genuine Gibson then I understand why it might pose an interesting moral dilemma.

My own viewpoint, FWIW, is that I have no issues whatsoever with the various LP Look-Alikes such as the Tokai Love Rock models but I would draw the line if the peghead had a Gibson logo in place of the name of the actual manufacturer. My own very first guitar (as I've mentioned before) was a 'Grant' branded Les Paul Gold Top and it was fine. As a 15-y-o kid from an impecunious Scottish family in the mid 1970's there was no way I was going to receive a £600 ($750) Les Paul as a Xmas present but the Grant could be had for 1/10th of the asking price so was good enough as a starter instrument for someone who had never played a note of guitar music in his short existence. After what seemed like an eternity - and, thinking about it, it was another 1/3rd of my lifetime - I bought my first Gibson LP when I was 20 / 21.

Don't have that Les Paul anymore - it was a dog - but I do still have the Grant...

Pip.

 

I totally agree. The first time I saw a LP shape guitar in person, I was in my late teens. My girlfriend at the time was a vocalist in a band and the lead guitarists pulls this LP shaped guitar from the case and that was when I knew if I'd ever owned an electric guitar it would be similar.

Fast forward several years, I decide to take guitar more seriously. I knew the major, minor and dominant 7 chords and I could already play bare chords, but I usually play on other people's guitars, but I decided I wanted one for myself. First I got a fender solid top acoustic guitar that came in a kit, because I was always told that's the way to start. I got a teacher to come to my place to teach me and he convinced me to get an electric. He would bring his electric guitars and would have me play his electric and he would borrow my acoustic guitar for the lesson. The first electric guitar that he brought was a real Les Paul. I still remember how I was instantly in love with that guitar.

I was in grad school back then and I couldn't afford even a good Epiphone Les Paul. My girlfriend at the time (different from the vocalist) got me a Samick Gregg Bennett Avion Av-3 in heritage cherry. I replaced the stock pups with SD JD and 59s and I absolutely loved that guitar. The pickguard, headstock and somewhat the body was different from a real Les Paul. The guitar itself was going for $300 if I remember correctly, while a lot of the good Epiphones were around $500, which was a huge defference for a grad student. 

Once I finish grad school and was an year working at a good job I got a real Gibson Les Paul. Funny thing is that I always convinced myself that my Avion with SD pickups were just as good as any Gibson, until I played a real Gibson again, since last time had been with my teacher's guitar trough a Rolland Micro Cube or some other small solid state amp.

I think there are several good options for people who can't afford that are not counterfeit and yet are really nice comfortable guitars after a proper setup.  The store who sold the Avion gave me a free first setup and he did an amazing job. 

[mihcmac]

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2019 at 9:25 AM, Lenny C. said:

Right.  Here we go for the first 3 of 6

 

 

Let me just say that the group of commentors in here are very accurate and reliable.

The wood used on this China LP is very unusual, the swirl of grain on the one piece back would be very difficult to mass produce making me think that this was a special order perhaps from one of the Custom Shop sellers on AliExpress.

An equivalent Epiphone LP model, without the unusual wood, sell from 600 up to 900 US.. My point is that the original purchaser may have paid more for a custom order.

Also I am curious how it sounds and plays...

A similar Epiphone LP below.  Note the both Epiphone and Gibson have their logo's marked on the bottom of their hardware..

[Lenny C.]

23 hours ago, TheLeadFlatpick said:

I got burned on my first “Gibson” purchase, too, so you’re definitely not alone here. It did however motivate me to learn how to tell the chibsons from the gibsons, so I guess it wasnt ALL bad

I wasn't even looking for a Gibson.  The friend there with me could go no more than a thousand and I was offerng to cover him the rest of the way to the purchase price on a monthly repayment deal.  I haven't told him.  I haven't told anyone.  And if I don't get any hungrier than this, I'm too embarrassed to even leave this bedroom. 

[Lenny C.]

14 hours ago, Big Bill said:

Lenny, I'm truly sorry to see this. I do hope you get your money back, please keep us posted on how this works out for you. Perhaps we can assist you in getting the Les Paul you have been wanting all these years.  

Thanks, Big Bill, as soon as I finish getting some money back for this one.

[Lenny C.]

6 hours ago, mihcmac said:

Let me just say that the group of commentors in here are very accurate and reliable.

The wood used on this China LP is very unusual, the swirl of grain on the one piece back would be very difficult to mass produce making me think that this was a special order perhaps from one of the Custom Shop sellers on AliExpress.

An equivalent Epiphone LP model, without the unusual wood, sell from 600 up to 900 US.. My point is that the original purchaser may have paid more for a custom order.

Also I am curious how it sounds and plays...

A similar Epiphone LP below.  Note the both Epiphone and Gibson have their logo's marked on the bottom of their hardware..

I sure appreciate the comments and  info you folks are sharing.

[Lenny C.]

It dawns on me that this may be the peerfect place to finally get the anser to a question that's been riding me like I'm a rented mule for years now.  Why do videos of people playing guitar never show the head stock of the guitar to see what brand of guitar it is?!

[NePb]

Hi Lenny, sorry to hear its a fake. I hope the auction house will work with you for some mutually acceptable recourse.

As a quick aside, I grew up in the Coast Mountains of B.C., and I'd really like to move back someday.

 

[kidblast]

12 hours ago, Lenny C. said:

It dawns on me that this may be the peerfect place to finally get the anser to a question that's been riding me like I'm a rented mule for years now.  Why do videos of people playing guitar never show the head stock of the guitar to see what brand of guitar it is?!

It probably has more to do with royalties, and the like than anything.

I guess it depends on the video (who's doing it, what purpose is it for).   It's not uncommon to obscure brands and not just guitars.  In movies and shows when you see actors using cameras, the brand is taped over with black tape so you can't see what they are using.  (Canon, Nikon, etc)

Also if you watch cooking shows, when they use things like Bourbon, you don't ever see the label,  you can usually tell what it is if you drink the stuff b/c most of the bottles have some shape to distinguish the brand. (don't ask me how I know this..)

[pippy]

I'm not sure if it is still the case - but I think that it is - that in the UK the B.B.C. was forbidden to show any branding on BBC-scripted shows because it was a publicly-funded channel and, as such, the rules of broadcasting stated that no brand-name could be shown as it was, in effect, an advertisement for that brand which the competition could, quite rightly, claim was Unfair Practice.

One high-profile example of this being the song 'Lola' by The Kinks. The first line as written and originally recorded went;

"I met her in a bar down in North Soho where you drink Champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola. C-O-L-A Cola..."

As this, obviously, contains a brand name of a well-known soft drink the BBC's rules forbade the song from being aired and so another version was released with altered lyrics;

"I met her in a bar down in North Soho where you drink Champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola. C-O-L-A Cola..."

Pip.

[Big Bill]

2 hours ago, pippy said:

"I met her in a bar down in North Soho where you drink Champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola. C-O-L-A Cola..."

As this, obviously, contains a brand name of a well-known soft drink the BBC's rules forbade the song from being aired and so another version was released with altered lyrics;

"I met her in a bar down in North Soho where you drink Champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola. C-O-L-A Cola..."

Pip.

Wow, never knew that one. I always heard the Coca-Cola version. Just listened to the cherry cola version, Dave sounds a bit snarky...

[pippy]

17 minutes ago, Big Bill said:

Wow, never knew that one. I always heard the Coca-Cola version. Just listened to the cherry cola version, Dave sounds a bit snarky...

 

It's strange because every time I heard it on the radio it was the Cherry-Cola version but, back home, I Had The Album  which featured the original version so wanted to know what was going on. I can't remember who told me the story originally (it was over 40 years ago!) but I've just this minute looked up the wiki entry and the following extract might explain why Dave was, as you very succinctly put it, "Snarky"!...

"The original song recorded......had the word Coca-Cola in the lyrics but because of BBC Radio's policy against product placement Ray Davies was forced to make a 6000-mile round-trip flight from New York to London and back on June 3, 1970, interrupting the band's American tour, to change those words to the generic "cherry cola"..."

I rather imagine I might have been a bit snarky, too!

Pip.

Edited June 21, 2019 by pippy

[Big Bill]

Can you imagine? The whole session probably lasted 3 minutes, one take, then Davies was out the door headed to the airport. 

Edited June 21, 2019 by Big Bill

[Twang Gang]

Don't feel too bad about it.  Hopefully as it was an auction situation you didn't pay a real lot money for it.  And you mentioned in the first post that it played well and sounded good.  So enjoy it, play it.  The fact that it is not a "real" Gibson doesn't mean you can't make good music and enjoy it.