Beware fake Gibsons

Voodu Child

A mate of mine went to check out a Gibson LP in the buy and sell.

As most of you know, im not really a Gibson lad, I wouldnt know all the craic with serial numbers etc - thankfully this fella is, and spotted the guitar was a chinese fake with a Gibson logo and walked away.

Anyhows, these things have been floating around on ebay for years, but lately there seems to be a big glut of them actually in Ireland, someone or a number of people are importing them in reasonable numbers, and selling them on in private ads, a little cheaper than the going rate, but not cheap enough to arouse suspicion. Les Pauls Standards, Customs, Supreme's are pretty common, but they do just about anything.

Ive been aware of it in the Ibanez world for donkeys years (a lad on this very forum tried to sell a chinese Ibanez fake, or 'chibanez' to me. Wrong person to try and scam:D ). What is common in the case of the chibanez's, and I presume Gibsons too, is for young lads to buy them unawares, and then try to ditch them as genuine when they realise what they have. So you got scumbags doing it for profit, and other guys trying to cut their losses and pass the scam on to you.

You have been warned. Do your homework before buying, there is plenty of info on how to spot them out there :mad:

Savman

funny thing is, if you can't tell the difference by playing it surely that proves some kind of placebo effect with top brand names?

So Glad

Obviously. I've played 200 euro guitars that sounded better than the 600 euro ones.

NeMiSiS

Visually, what kind of clues should you look for ?
TK

Voodu Child

NeMiSiS wrote:

Visually, what kind of clues should you look for ?
TK

It varies from model to model. There are some good guides on ebay afaik, but the chinese factories change the models every year. (for example the Les Paul Supreme copies of a couple of years ago didnt have flamed backs. Now they do.)

Unlike brands like Tokai, Bacchus, Edwards etc, who are doing their best to make a GOOD guitar, these chinese fakers are ONLY interested in the details - getting the font of the logo right, getting the inlays spot on, right number & size of screws etc.

I'll see if i can google a bit of info.

NeMiSiS

Thanks.
TK

Duff_Man

yeh this has being goin on for a while! there are alot of fake gibson banjos goin bout aswell. you just have to be careful what u buy!

Beecher

Main things to watch out for are:

3 hole thruss rod covers. Gibsons only have 2.

Pickups with 'Gibson USA' stickers on the front, those are Epiphone pickups.

Printed serial numbers on the back of the headstock, should be engraved (not sure how 100% accurate this is, my two previous Gibsons have had the s/n engraved and all the fakes I have seen have had them printed on).

Flathead screwdriver screws for the tunamatic bridge, Gibson use thumb screws.

Other little details can be neck binding under the frets, instead of sculpted. Mis-aligned logo's. Misaligned volume/tone pots etc.

fish-head

Beware, Fake Gibsons!

We're watching you..

Doctor J

Of course, there are many who'd say beware real Gibsons too, but that's an entirely different thing altogether

Ebay, where it's likely most of them were bought through, have a plethora of guides and reviews on the fakes, while a lot of it is to do with buying through ebay itself, there are a few useful nuggets on idenitfying the Chinese fakes in there too

http://reviews.ebay.com/How-to-spot-a-fake-Gibson-Les-Paul_W0QQugidZ10000000001322912
http://search.reviews.ebay.ie/chinese-guitars
http://search.reviews.ebay.com/Fake-guitars

etc etc etc

NeMiSiS

They look from the guides.. to be awfully obvious.. like real heaps of ****e alltogther..

Voodu Child

Some of them are ridiculous, some are spot on.

This is fake, and the case is also a counterfeit. Hands up who wouldnt look twice if these pics were in another thread. (in fairness, i dont actually know if this is a colour/model combo that Gibson do...so maybe it IS an obvious fake, i dunno )








Anyways, my main point was just, yeah these fakes have been on ebay for ages, but there seems to be an awful lot of them in Ireland these days, so if youre the kind of guy who looks at 2nd hand Gibbos, you'll probably come across one sooner or later.

NeMiSiS

The serial num says it was made in 1956...
TK

Yakult

The headstock is incorrect. They are low end is even real grovers.