Professional Guitar Authenticators

[rocketman]

So I was watching Judge Judy tonight and this women was suing this guy for selling her a fake Hermes purse. The plaintiff brought in an expert who started an internet company to authenticate purses. She seems to be doing quite well with her company.

 

This got me thinking. We get a lot of questions from new members about fakes. For us who have been around long enough it's pretty easy to tell. But my knowledge is pretty much limited to Gibsons. I did a search on the web to see if there is a someone who is trying to make a living off of checking out whether or not guitars are authentic. I found a lot of guitar stores but nothing that is dedicated solely to this.

 

Anybody know of a service like this for guitars? I'm not talking about appraisers, just someone who will tell you if a particular guitar is authentic.

[L5Larry]

Last I checked (like I ever have), there seems to be no school, or board certification, for guitar identification and authentication, nor has anyone asked me to run one.

 

But I am open to job offers.

[retrosurfer1959]

Ive never seen anybody that just authenticates because if that's a question your usually wanting a thorough checkout and a valuation most likely. As many fakes as their are though it probably is gonna be a career before long. I'm amazed how careful people have to be now I actually have two companies that buy gold from people that are willing to pay me to come in and test pieces for them not only to check the gold content but that it is all gold as the cost is so high it's not uncommon for artist to mix metals whenever they can and Ive found quite a bit of gold that's closer to 11 or 12 k than 14k it doesn't lose the color and they can get a bit more weight especially in ingots that have been melted down. Even a bigger question is old removed and recovered dental gold which is almost impossible to value without a jewelers high end equipment sometimes it's not even gold and when t is it can be as low as 9k or as high as 22k and even more critical especially in old dent work it can be worth even more than gold if it has Platinum or palladium content so you have to do a lot more than a needle acid test. and with gold thats not pure refining cost can dramatically reduce profits

 

Pretty soon they'll be experts to inspect everything we buy to make sure it's not fake.

[badbluesplayer]

I see a business opportunity.

 

The Gibson Board Affiliate Group.

[Twang Gang]

Maybe not a bad idea considering how many fakes there are.

 

But Judge Judy for chrissakes? That is time much better spent practicing guitar.

[Tim Plains]

Anybody know of a service like this for guitars? I'm not talking about appraisers, just someone who will tell you if a particular guitar is authentic.

Old school way: take it to a music store and ask.

[rocketman]

Yeah but there are many guitars stores that I would never trust. Also some people aren't lucky enough to live near a good one.

 

Here's another example. My wife and I were thinking about adopting a baby a while ago. As part of the process they send us a video of the baby doing basic stuff. The agency said that there is pretty much one doctor in the country who is the expert in telling the mental health of the baby by looking at the video. All the big agencies use him.

 

I'm trying to see if there is something like this for guitars. You send pictures to an expert and they give you their opinion. I can't seem to find something on the web.