Scam of the week.

[Thundergod]

I get lots of people coming to my place to help them "validate" a guitar, which means they don't know what they have (real, fake, moded) and they don't know where to look for info on it. Most of them are Gibson and Fender guitars, some guys come with a Samick or something like that asking if it's a fake or what and some come looking for an estimate on a guitar/amp/pedal so they can make a fitting offer and/or know if the seller is trying to scam them and every time I try to be as helpful as possible.

 

Have you ever been scammed? Did someone sell you something that wasn't what they said it was? This happens a lot, sometimes it's not the intention of the seller to sell you something that's not what he advertised, he just has the same level of knowledge about the item as you do, and probably thought he is selling what he is advertising (we know in today's world most of the time that's not the case and the seller is actually well aware of what he is selling and just wants to scam you).

 

 

What I propose:

 

Maintain this thread updated with the latest scams/mistakes you find, don't matter if it happened to you or a friend or if you read about it on an email from a nigerian prince just post it so others can read about it and hopefully those others will be ready when scammers come knocking at their door.

 

 

I'll go first (next post)

[Thundergod]

For me the scam of the week is this one: A guy I know knows this guy (isn't it that way every time?) and he's got a daughter. The friend's friend,s daughter has a boyfriend. The friend's friend's daughter's boyfriend will be refered to as "FFDB" from now on.

 

So my friend visits the store to have some lace sensor pickups installed on his beautiful black strat with maple neck. He comes with his friend who I have never met before but as it turns out is a guitar player. The guy tells me he's got some guitars he hasn't used in a while and that he would like to bring them in for me to set up and clean up (years of dust over them). He also tells me his daughter's boyfriend (FFDB) plays guitar and he is helping him put a band together and doing things right, for this he is allowing them to rehearse at his place which is equipped with everything. What a great guy, if a punk the likes of Dem00n was bangin' my daughter I wouldn't lend him my guitars and place!

 

Anyway, FFDB has recently bought a guitar from the local version of Ebay which is called mercadolibre (translates to free market) and it doesn't sound when plugged to an amp. He is a little worried 'cause he doesn't know if it's fixable. Now I ask why he got it if the thing didn't work and he says "it's because it was a Gibson and it was only 300 bucks, so he figured if he could get it fixed it would be a great guitar to own".

 

I ask for a description of the guitar and before he's finished the first sentence I know what guitar it is... then I tell him to bring it in so I can take a look and see what the problem is.

 

FFDB came in today, brought the guitar with him and... just as I thought, it's an Epiphone Special II in really bad shape (1 broken tuner, dirty fretboard and body, damaged pots, damaged switch, needs the mother of set ups, the jack is useless, you know, the whole "vintage look and feel" package).

 

 

 

Now, nobody likes to be told "you were scammed" or this thing costs half of what you paid, and that's a new one out of the box.

 

So I asked him where he got it and from who, he tells me this guy at mercadolibre had it listed, as a Gibson and that the ad said it was really cheap ($300) because it didn't work and whoever bought it needed to know it would cost about $100 to make it work, but that it was still a steal, as $400 for a gibson is a great deal.

 

I showed the guy the same guitar and didn't tell him the price, just showed him the box it came in: epiphone. Explained that epiphone is not the same as Gibson and that he should contact the seller and ask for his money back, to which he said "no, I just want it fixed". And so I'll make it usable for him. Too bad people don't know there's homework to be made before buying online.

[jaxson50]

The people next door heard me playing my guitar and said they recognised the song and it was one of thier favorites....lying bastards....

[jnastynebr]

If "FFDB" fell for it, he almost deserves it. For my Senior project, I refused to use any online sources because I was convinced the internet was a fad that would die out. This kid has no excuse.

[This_Dying_Soul]

the ol' Gibson/Epiphone scam

 

 

I see it daily on ebay and Kijiji.

 

Irritates me to no end, because there is a huge difference between Gibby and Epi.

 

Epi's are not bad guitars, but the Gibson version of the same model is double or triple, sometimes even quadruple the price for a reason and it's not that they look prettier.

 

First concern is that someone that doesn't know about guitars will pay more than the guitar is worth; the second is that when I want to buy a Gibson, I don't want to waste time looking at Epi's that are being advertised as Gibsons.

[Searcy]

When I was first starting out in the pickup thing I bought what was supposed to be a 1960 PAF at a guitar show for $75. Turned out to be fake and by the time I figured it out the show was long gone. Be careful buying at guitar shows.

[daveinspain]

Not a scam but somewhat related... We have been working with a new guitar player in my band who also plays keys and is partners with my drummer who owns the house where we rehearse. He shows up at rehearsal a while back with a bran new black Les Paul(Epi) very nice looking guitar. I usually bring my Robot to rehearsals but one day I brought my black custom. When he saw my guitar he started telling me how his Epi black LP was basically the same guitar as my black custom... :blink: It's just not made at Gibson USA but it has all the same electronics and construction... That must be what they told him at the music store Then he went on to tell me about all the other guitars he tried but that one was "THE GUITAR" when he picked it up he knew it was his... I didn't say anything just that it looked great...