is this "dot" fake ?

[hrnshn]

hi guys,

 

i am currently residing in china and thinking about picking up a nice epiphone from a local dealer in shanghai.

since i am aware of the fact that when dealing with chinese businesses you have to be careful on behalf of possible counterfeit products, i want to ask some things i found strange about this particular guitar i checked.

 

basically theres two different "dots" at that particular shop:

the first one (http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db2-bb7c6d6bd1f88ca7907398f54d4d32e6.jhtml for image) looks like a "regular" dot with dot inlays. altough i am not quite shure whether old epiphones used to have the slogan "dot" on the headstock (i thought it was the epiphone € )

the price of 2400 chinese yuan seems to be consistent with european and american market prices

 

you can find the second one here:

http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db2-ee3c7cf22c7208714f84e343b18b6060.jhtml

 

it has a different pickguard, block inlays and features a "es 335" slogan on the head.

the most important thing though is that the prie of this one is 1000 chinese yuan more expensive.

 

so here is my question:

are you aware of any model similar or equal to the second "dot" ?

if no, do you think it is a fake on or did those guys at the shop actually alter the guitar on purpose to make it "more similar" to the real gibson es 335 ?

 

maybe in the next days i can provide you with some serial numbers of the guitars.

 

thanx in avance and greetings from ??