|
|
|
Forum Menu: Forum Home | Guitar | Acoustic Guitar | Bass | Clips & Pics
Counterfeit Gibsons?
Submitted by lee_UK on Thu, 06/15/2006 - 12:02.
I saw an article in Guitarist mag this month, from a guy who was complaining about the amount of counterfeit gibsons on ebay.
i thought he was getting confused with the old chinese hijackers,
they run a duplicate auction for a 10th of the price, but ive just seen these 2 auctions
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/The-guitar-of-the-perfect-sound-quality-Cheap-of_W0QQitemZ7421909563QQcategoryZ2384QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
both from the same seller, but they arent Gibsons, you can see the quliaty isnt there, and neither is he price tag, he looks to be a genuine seller, only 1 auction behind him but he accepts paypal and he appears to be ok.
Ive not seen counterfeit guitars like this before, has anyone else?
Obviously nobody is buying the Rolex watches and the dodgy Rayban sunglasses anymore.
The blue Les Paul looks quite obviously fake, but the white one looks to be a better job. How can you tell it isn't a real Gibson, or is it an assumption because the seller looks dodgy?
Nice spotting Lee.
Who selling a Gibson, would not use "Gibson" in his/her description or title.
Who needs to assume when the price reaches the dizzy heights of £2.99 + the usual £175 delivery. Whats worrying is, what happens when the Counterfeits get better, and its a struggle to tell it from a real Gibbo?
I have a 1979 Tokai 'Reborn' LP copy, and i would find it hard to tell the difference between that and an original gibson, apart from the obvious 'Tokai' pearl inlay name on the headstock, everything is replicated, headstock as well.
Well, yes, I agree that the seller looks well dodgy, but possibly the picture was of a real Gibson - not one that the seller has, obviously - these guys are adept at ripping off other people's pictures.
Ibanez issue counterfeit warning: http://www.ibanez.com/support/counterfeits.asp
This has been a real problem with Ibanez guitars, especially the Jems. There's a long discussion on the Ibanez Collectors' site, but essentially the word is that China is making more fake Ibanez guitars than Hoshino is making real ones, and there are some rumors about some tooling going missing. There are hints on the site on what to look for (low bid amounts, ridiculously high shipping, misplaced decals, same photos, same serial numbers, etc.), and even some examples of some that look dodgy but turn out to be OK.
Lee, unlike the scam Chinese auctions I've posted up (genuine old USA guitar, hijacked by rogue chinabayers), these are genuine knockoffs. Chances are, if you pay the £5 plus £175 shipping, you will get a guitar. A fake, a copy, a knockoff, but you'll get one. I'm more worried by the hijacks; where some idiot may bid on a '63 Strat or whatever, and pay into a Beijing account for a guitar already sold by someone in Nebraska.
These China knockoffs are the job of the lawyers for FMIC etc to deal with. I don't think anyone's fooled that they're buying a real item. Interestingly, following Mike Blanche's post, I know that Yamaha experimented with production in Taiwan. Wouldn't be too difficult to have tooling copied to the mainland? In any case, CRC routers and a laser printer is all you need these days.
Thats what i mean bass, a lot of people will be fooled into thinking this is a real Gibson and will be very disapointed when a doctored 'Westfield' turns up with a bolt on neck.
The scams are to anyone with a bit of nouse, just that, scams, who would beleive you will get a '63 Strat for £20?
Hopefully, threads like this will warn the buyer who sniffs a rat and does a search. Trust us, people; these things are rodents of the first order.
Post new comment