This fake guitar business is really getting out of hand: here're the pix.

[RotcanX]

So this buddy of mine comes in to the store today with one of the strangest looking Gibson cases I've ever seen in my life. So I'm all 'what the heck is that, man'... and he opens the case, saying, I want you to check this out. So we open it up, and there's a Les Paul Supreme in it... except he then shows me the three-screw creme plastic TRC... oops, bogus. This thing is an unbelievable joke... it's just wrong all over, with fake Gibson pickups (marked 'Gibson USA' on the bottom) and even fake Grover tuners! It just goes on and on... probably a good thing that this one is so obviously a fake, but, still, man... poor sucker paid $600 for it, thought he was getting a steal... and in a way he was, just in the wrong direction. Once again it goes to prove, if it's too good to be true, it's probably bogus. Don't let your greed block your better judgement folks.

 

I'll post some pix tomorrow.

[bluefoxicy]

The real question: Does it play well?

[BluezOldy]

When I used to see an obvious fake on eBay, I used to advise the Gibson/Epiphone Australian distributor, Gibson US and eBay but never received a reply and the fake got sold.

 

I stopped doing it as I got the impression none of those companies care about the matter.

 

Before I knew about the fakes, I almost got suckered in to buying one on eBay but thankfully was outbid in the final moments of the auction.

[RotcanX]

The real question: Does it play well?

 

Nope. The neck has a really lousy profile and it's lumpy... an Epiphone LP Special II has a nicer neck. And guess how good the pickups sound. It plays like a $150 guitar which wouldn't be so bad if the owner hadn't paid $600 for it.

[bluefoxicy]

like they're not potted in wax?

[RotcanX]

like they're not potted in wax?

 

The neck pickup is really loud but muddy and the bridge pickup is very weak and tinny, like maybe there's something wrong with it. All wax potting does is help to reduce feedback; it doesn't improve the tone. Note that the Gibson Burstbuckers (except the Pros) are not wax potted and they are some of the best-sounding pickups on the market.

[charlie brown]

E-Bay...."Ya pays ya money, and ya takes ya chances!"

 

But, I did buy my Epi Riviera, from a decent seller, there.

 

CB

[RotcanX]

Yeah... but you can't blame eBay. I got my '65 SG off an eBay seller and it was all good. But then again he wasn't Chinese. :P

[antwhi2001]

I just bought a black beauty with Bigsby on e-bay. It was described as a Jap lawsuit replica with headstock modification including Gibson logo m.o.p. inlay. The pics were very impressive, the guy said he "thought" it was a Greco that had been professionally re-finished, with Maxon pickups. I paid £299, about $600.

 

So what have I got? Answer : a very professionally-modified brand new Chinese EpI Black Beauty. The headstock shape is Gibson, it actually has a 2005 Gibson serial and Made In USA stamped in rear of headstock. The M.O.P. logo and diamond inlays are spot-on. It has the correct 2-screw TRC and the truss rod works. Everything below the headstock is recognisably Epi. I don't know what the pickups are yet, but they sound pretty good. Intonation needed tweaking, action is good. Finish is perfect, poly not nitro. Fretboard is rosewood not ebony. Hardware is gold plate, including Grovers, but jack socket is plastic. The headstock angle is too flat to be a Gibson; that's the biggest give-away. The controls are 2x volume, 1 master tone, and 1 pot to blend in the middle pup. 3-way switch is neck/middel+bridge/bridge.

 

I e-mailed the guy to say I was perfectly happy with the guitar for the price, but it wasn't a Greco. I asked if it was an Epi....he replied "it could be".

 

I'll post pics over the weekend. Haven't taken the pups out for a look-see yet. I'm going to stain the fretboard ebony with water-based wood dye, and fit a gold switchcraft socket with metal plate.

[RotcanX]

Here's that funky case:

 

The bogus headstock (note the uneven tuner spacing; plus they are too low on the headstock):

 

The Gibson 'logo' (note also how the open book shape is wrong:

 

And the TRC (which should be brass BTW); looks like it actually says 'Suprome':

[RotcanX]

Does this look like a 'AAAA' flame maple top to you? The 19th fret position marker isn't quite right either, and the knobs are too close together horizontally.

 

Another shot of the top; check out that flame maple, ooooh:

 

Something not quite kosher about the shape of this cutaway:

 

And I don't think Gibson uses scarf-jointed necks (hard to see but it's there):

[RotcanX]

Another thing you never see on a Gibson is a felt washer under the strap button. You can just make out a joint between two blocks of the body wood to the left of it, where that big black blemish is:

 

These tuners are just 'tu' much. A real Supreme would have gold keystone knobs BTW. The serial number probably checks out, but again it does not look authentic; Gibson serials aren't burned into the wood like that:

 

Here we see the sloppiest, most pitiful Grover tuner ever. Obviously a counterfeit.

 

The bridge is a joke. It should be a Nashville, not an ABR-1. This one is missing the retaining wire, and those posts are the Asian style, definitely not Gibson. The crappy finish and overall shoddiness give it away as well.

[RotcanX]

This backplate is the wrong colour and shape; and the screws are too big.

 

This is not what the inside of a Gibson guitar looks like:

 

Just look at the size of the pole screws on these suckers! The height adjustment screws are way oversize too, and the rings should be black, not ivory (actually Gibson never uses ivory rings):

 

Here we have a rather sloppy gibson imprint that would probably fool a lot of people:

[hoobiepatrol]

Aha! The exceedingly rare Gibson Suprome model. As I understand it, this was Gibson's attempt at replicating a gen-u-wine Chinese counterfeit guitar in their eternal quest to make as many pointless limited edition models as possible and squeeze every last penny out of hapless collectors across the world.

 

I love it.

[Tukinator]

The Gibson 'logo' (note also how the open book shape is wrong:

 

I really feel for the buyer on this one, but that said that thing is LOADED with red flags. The above picture alone would have made me put the thing down and walk away.

 

Too bad.

[RotcanX]

Yeah, but unfortunately the guy that bought it (my friend's nephew) doesn't really know anything about guitars. He only recently grew suspicious after reading about three-screw truss rod covers, which would have been the most obvious indicator. The interesting thing is that my friend, who owns a Gibson Les Paul Classic Plus and a Gary Moore LE, really couldn't positively see that this was a counterfeit until I pointed out all the flaws. It seems that many people are blind to the quality of a Gibson instrument as compared to an Asian knock-off.

[Atomheart]

I've seen many of these cool things for sale in Sweden lately. It seems like they often are custom type models.

Questions - Who is making these things? How come they don't get caught?

[Tukinator]

There's nothing illegal about making a Gibson replica. You can make one yourself down to the most extreme level of detail. Same wood, same parts, same measurements, same headstock, same logo even.

 

The minute you try to pass it off as a real Gibson though, or more specifically when you try to sell it as a real Gibson is when you've started breaking laws.

[RotcanX]

They are made in China. It is difficult to stop these outfits because the Chinese Government does not cooperate in pursuing this kind of criminal activity.

[ken361]

They are made in China. It is difficult to stop these outfits because the Chinese Government does not cooperate in pursuing this kind of criminal activity.

Nice job pointing those out! I looked at a lot of them and you can see the flaws, like the grovers always look like crap and dull or not in line with each other. just sloppy work.

[hybrid77]

eBay has some pretty good guides to buying guitars and avoiding scams. Here's a few links -

 

http://reviews.ebay.com/Electric-guitar-copies-Do-your-homework_W0QQugidZ10000000000942123

 

http://reviews.ebay.com/CHINA-GUITAR-SCAM_W0QQugidZ10000000001420916

[RotcanX]

That first article was a bit inaccurate. He doesn't really understand how Gibson serials work. Some good points but you can see that he's not exactly an expert either. Still, better than nothing.

[evol04gt]

honestly, the only people that are really going to know these are horrible fakes are the people that recall every single detail of an original.... i would have fallen for this guitar in all honesty..............maybe as a second or an 80s model.... granted, im not seeing it in person, but the pictures all look pretty decent as pictures... if the price were higher, i could easily have fallen for it (truss rod cover is my only dead give away)...... BUT i also dont play my les paul enough...

 

 

a collector can tell....

 

the good honest working man that wants a deal that doesnt realize that even a crap gibson will sell for 1000, wont really know...

 

and thats whats sad.

[mrjones200x]

RotcanX wrote:

 

The Gibson 'logo' (note also how the open book shape is wrong:

 

How can you tell from the open book shape? Is it just the line dosnt finish?

[RotcanX]

It doesn't turn up at the ends enough, and the center notch is too deep. It's easily noticeable and just for fun we compared the shape to some Gibsons in the store and you can really see a difference.

 

...and the logo is crooked too.