Particle board.

[Geolo]

HI I'm just curious as to what plyboard/particle board/fake guitars look like. With all the fuss about ebay having scammers selling fake epis it would be great to know how to spot the difference between Mahogony and fakes. Does anyone have pics of what it looks like inside the control cavity??

 

Thanks

[RobinTheHood]

Paticle board guitars or fake guitars? A particle board guitar isnt necessarily a "fake"...usually just a low end version of a better guitar. And "fakes" arent necessarily made of particle board.

 

You can tell a plyboard guitar by the layers in the control cavity. But...sometimes the cavity routing looks layered even though it may be solid wood. There are several threads in this forum that address this issue. Take a look around and see what you find.

[RotcanX]

The cavities on Epi guitars are painted with a flat black conductive shielding paint so it's hard to verify the wood composition. However that black paint is one thing to look for if you're not sure if the guitar is real or not. The thing is to learn to recognize the tell-tales of a real guitar. For instance, Epiphone started using quick connectors to hook up the selector switch in Les Pauls a few years back... so if you see an Epi from say 2005 that doesn't have the connector... and typically the inside of the cavity on the fakes will be extra sloppy. Epi uses full-sized Alpha pots these days so that's another thing to check.

[jozluck]

Dan Electros with that old lipstick pickup were made out of partical board and covered/coated.

 

Gave it a unique sound when amplified and you just can't do a lead on some of the 80s junk without one...but they are CHEAPO.....kinda like the orginial mustangs..they were only produced as a 'poor man's sports car' and if you ever worked on them, you'd know. Put a good engine in a cheap frame and body.

[Red 333]

. Epi uses full-sized Alpha pots these days so that's another thing to check.

 

RotcanX,

 

When do you reckon Epi started using the full-sized pots (and do they use them consistently, from what you can tell)? Does that correspond with them starting to use the quick connects, or are the two unrelated?

 

Red 333

[mrjones200x]

Just finishing off my project kramer which is a ply wood body. Looks crap when sanded down and is a ***** to get a smooth finish unless your paint is real thick but is supprisenly quite heavy. i've got a few lumps/bumps/grooves in it which i couldnt get out but its gonna be a halen kramer copy that im gonna relic slightly so wont be so bad. Just gotta do the red coat and laquer the relic it slightly then put it all back together!

 

Will let you know how it sounds when done and will add pictures. Gonna put a real high output hum in there to play van halen type music prob a hot slag by iron gear as they cheap and sound awesome.

[RotcanX]

Dan Electros with that old lipstick pickup were made out of partical board and covered/coated.

Actually I believe that was Masonite... similar to particle board but with one finished side that was easy to paint.

[RotcanX]

 

RotcanX' date='

 

When do you reckon Epi started using the full-sized pots (and do they use them consistently, from what you can tell)? Does that correspond with them starting to use the quick connects, or are the two unrelated?

 

Red 333[/quote']

Mmm... they've had the larger pots for some years... five or so I think; but there's no consistency. I popped open a 2008 Prophecy Futura and it had the mini pots.