Fake Les Paul Custom?

[knall]

Hi!

 

I was hoping that you could help med out with this one. I bought this guitar for about 450$ some months ago, and now I'm afraid that it could be fake. When I bought it, it was without the pickup guard.

 

 

Thanks!

[MichaelE]

The first few photos are too poor to be able to really see anything. Can you re-size those down to around 1000 pix or less?

 

Not sure about the older models, but that Epi sticker on the access plate is supposed to be on the back of the headstock.

 

From what I can tell it looks fine. Who would want to build fake Epiphones anyway? Fake Gibsons I can understand.

[HarpBoy]

Nothing about it looks fake to me. It appears to be a Korean (Saein) made, built in 2000. Relax and enjoy it. Looks like a nice guitar. What made you ask?

[knall]

The sticker was probably from the headstock, it's placed over another sticker on the electrics cover. Since I bought it second hand, the previous owner must've moved the sticker down there for aesthetics maybe.

 

If you right click the pictures, they'll probably auto resize. As far as I know, these guitars are popular to fake. Many les paul customs on Craigs list and Ebay are fake.

 

I'm asking mostly because some of the differences from newer les pauls. The knobs are a little different, the truss rod cover also. The pickup guard is missing, and pickup guards is the easiest way to distinguish real from fake if I'm correct. The pickups have been changed, as there are some extra screw holes underneath the pickups. Though I think the previous owner have put the stock pickups back, they are engraved with the epiphone logo. I don't know what's original and not on it.

[MichaelE]

If I remember correctly, if the pickup rings are changed, the pick guard must also be changed because the rings are not the same size as the Epiphone rings and the Epiphone pick guard won't fit. That could explain the different locations of the screw holes.

 

Not sure though.

[RSDx]

Dunno if it's fake or not, but the back of that guitar is REAL dirty - man, wipe it down before posting pics Looks ok from my point of view, but am no fake expert.

[RotcanX]

Could you remove the cover from the control cavity and post a picture of the controls? Preferably an in-focus shot?

 

Overall it looks legit; the truss rod cover, tuners, and serial number all jibe. The tuners changed to Grovers on Epis in 2002, so that's in line with the 2003 Serial, and the Gibson TRCs didn't disappear until 2004. The knobs are different but most likely the previous owner changed them.

[AS90]

Looks legit to me, logo, knob placement, hardware all looks good.

[knall]

Hmm, looks like my cell phone camera is the only camera available just now, so the picture is actually worse than the others. Well well, here goes:

 

 

I'll clean my guitar later

 

Thanks for all the help!

[MichaelE]

Those are the same color wires I have in my Epi. Don't know if that helps.

 

Can you get us some decent pictures at a moderate resolution?

[SlagJones]

I don't know about the guitar but I think your camera is a fake.

[Sinster]

Check your toggle switch it should say epiphone on it.. Unless it was upgraded.

 

[RotcanX]

Looks legit to me. The cavity is very typical, and the workmanship is up to Epi standards. I'd say stop worrying about that guitar.

[BlueLesPaul2006]

Looks legit to me. The cavity is very typical' date=' and the workmanship is up to Epi standards. I'd say stop worrying about that guitar.[/quote']

+1

[knall]

Ok thanks u guys. I'm going to look at the switch, but I think it's changed by the former owner.

[knall]

Btw, the switch have been changed, it doesn't look like the one you had a picture of. It's probably some no name stuff.

[arerife]

its look real epiphone al..

by the way, the fake issues start in 2007 and made from china.

 

the original quality also so poor ...

[clarkuss]

Nothing about this seesm fake to me. Nice guitar!