good info only thing is dat i dont have gipson.....i have kapok

ozzy 22.04.2007

I recently visited Asia and saw one of these fake Gibsons in a store. My first reaction was, that can't be a genuine Gibson. As this article states, there was an obvious cheapness to the guitar, I didn't even pick it up, just looking at it in the window I could see that it was wasn't a high quality instrument. All of the clues mentioned above were there.

For people who are thinking of buying a Gibson, go to an authorized dealer and familiarize yourself with the the models, features, and price ranges. Or, if buying used, see if you can find info online about the general price range and features of the model you are interested in. If the deal sounds "too good to be true", it probably is. You are far better off waiting and saving your money for a quality guitar, it's well worth waiting a while for it.

Go to the Gibson factory and store in Nashville if you have a chance, they may still offer tours and it's a cool place. Check www.gibson.com for details, also i think a virtual tour. Believe it, you'll see a pretty great selection of Gibsons right there. Thanks Henry, keep on keeping on ;)

shwan 24.04.2007

Also beware of a guy called Mickel Turner (false name, no doubt - uses a hotmail address) whom is trying to flog a Gibson ES-335 Eric Clapton. He is present on several local internet auction houses in Australia and overseas. He uses false UPS documentation to support shipping. He claims the guitar is No66 of 250, but it is all bull**** - just a con. He will request funds be transferred by MoneyGram or other dodgy means. Please be careful as he is very convincing.

Jonathan 24.04.2007

holy...I think I found the guitar you are talking about and I think someone is trying to sell it again...it still looks like a con!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-Eric-Clapton-ES-335-Crossroads-Electric-Guitar_
W0QQitemZ230118700734QQihZ013QQcategoryZ38085QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

someone report this please, as i don't know how to!

Chris 26.04.2007

One thing most of us in the GuitarSite forums have found Chris is that eBay do very little about fake auctions. There are numerous threads posted about the problem. 'tis unfortunate :(

Michael (GuitarSite.com) 27.04.2007

I just bought a Gibson Les Paul Standard. One way to make this a little safer is to take the Gibson product code and serial number and call the Gibson toll free number right in the store and check them out. I did it and the guitar was exactly what they said it was. If the store balks when you ask them to do this-go somewhere else!

Van 28.04.2007

you have good patensial of this website thank for helping

teesarena 01.05.2007

I second one of the previous bloggers. Always get the serial number and call the factory when buying any guitar.
Particularly used........

Tony 09.05.2007

i recently bought what turned out to be a very convincing fake '59 re-issue at a guitar show in valley forge, pa. i bought it to trade, as i'm really an sg player, and the $1500 price sounded like a great deal. when i went to trade for a nice 73' sg, that dealer hipped me to the fake, so my friend and i found the con man outside after the show and "persuaded" him to return my $ after showing him the error of his ways. i don't really know les pauls that well and the info out there available to spot a fake really is helpful,in this case 3 screw truss rod cover, 2 piece neck, and gibson headstock logo was horizontal and not on a downhill angle. this guy was a dealer and DEFINITELY knew it was a fake, so violence was justified. if someone knowingly tries to rip you off of your hard earned $, you should give them a good bash in the chops. maybe these pricks won't be so anxious to screw people.

sg man 04.06.2007

How can you spot an Epiphone fake? Is it the same as a Gibson fake.

Only asking because I can see an EpiphoneBlack Beauty on e-bay for $480AU but when I compared it to apicture on the epiphone website I can clearly see that the one on e-bay is a fake.

Cheers,

Jase

Jason R 12.06.2007

I am old enough to remember when overpaid auto workers and unions were trying to get everyone in the 70s to believe that cars from Japan were "Junk" or "Cheap". Same with guitars and definitely TVs and consumer electronics until both industries were producing better products that we Americans were making. It got so bad with guitars, that Fender HAD TO stop making their basic strat in Japan because they couldn’t sell American ones at a higher price. This bashing of the “counterfeiters” continued. While we called the Koreans, Indonesians, and everyone else’s guitars "Cheap" They were getting better. So much so that just about anything made in Japan is better, and a ton of stuff from Korea like the high end Agiles and Brian Moore’s and FAR better instruments to anything "American" at the price point.
We can continue to cry about "trademark" and insist that our American Zenith television is far better to any of that “Chinese junk” (Notice how we don’t make TVs in America anymore), or we can collectively tell Gibson that if they could figure out a new guitar design that can sell, that isn’t 50 years old and stop lacquer from creeping out the edge of $1500 guitars, then maybe they wouldn’t have to put their name on surge protectors (Made in China by the way).
If you think that the Chinese instruments won’t get better, and fast, you are fooling yourself. If you think they give a crap about trademarks, they don’t. If you think a Gibson logo is worth an extra $800, except in investment terms, then you have sold out to the man, and if you think that Gibson’s are “hand made” then you obviously don’t understand that a guy named Jones and a guy named Chin can both run a CNC machine.

Adam Smasher 18.06.2007

Good call Jason. The Slope heads are best at ripping off the white man's ideas and turning them against him. Difficult one for manufacturers to deal with. Probably Gibson needs to talk to the dog eaters about manufacturing guitars there and then perhaps their local enforcement can clean up the counterfitters.

johntwentythree 18.07.2007

i recently bought a SG for my friend as a suprizeand i found somthin a miss when oi noticed the serial number bas exactly the same as my es 335 that i bought last year

i sent them both to gibson

both are fake

i spent some 25,000 on both of them

i can't get my money back

dang

tom gruda 24.07.2007

I went into a pawn store today and was blown away to see an american strat for $250. but within moments of looking at it I started noticing something was not right. for one thing, the input jack was coming out of the pickgaurd straight. Not angled like a strat. There were only 2 knobs on the pickgaurd. the bridge was bolted into the body by 2 rusted wood screws. There was no tremelo, but some strats did not come with one. The tuning pegs were not fender and in fact you could see the factory screw holes next to the machine heads. It was definately a American strat neck though. I'm glad I took a closer look because I was ready to go up the the cashier and pay right away.

Gary 01.08.2007

Be careful when using the Serial number on the Guitar for validation as the Chinese are using numbers that check out to be authentic.

Woody 24.02.2008

Some Gibsons have three-piece necks. I own a couple, had them for years, NOT from China.

gem spa 17.04.2008

Hi..I'm seeing a number of Gibson 'Specials' on eBay currently and the dot on the 'i' in the Gibson logo on the headstock is touching the 'G' in the logo. The real Gibson logo has clear space all around the dot on the 'it' in the log....it's not smashed up against the 'G'. Also these two 'Specials' have very downsized, skinny trapezoid inlays instead of the 'dot' inlays that I see on the Gibson site. The truss rod covers look okay, with 2 screws, but that logo just doesn't look right to me. These seem to be fakes...one is going for $500.00 right now and I'm NOT buying. I also saw an exact duplicate of one on eBay on sale on craigslist out of Los Angeles...it's like there's a flood of these black lacquer 'Gibson' Specials on the market that are said to be years old (like 2001) but look brand spanking shiny new. Who buys a Les Paul and leaves it in the case for 7 years and never plays it??? Something isn't sitting right with me and everyone needs to do their research before purchasing any high-end guitar because of the number of fakes out there.

Jamie 20.04.2008

I'm being asked to buy one (a Supreme) right now...it looks flawless and the serial number checks out, but for the price asked, it's gotta be a fake...what should I do next except not buy it?

VMan 20.05.2008

Many Gibson Replicas are better quality in terms of workmanship and materials, so its not all bad.

Jack 03.07.2008