2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

[Rainmaker]

Hey guys - I'm Billy and am old member from years ago, am wondering if some of the guys from the 2000s are still here!

In any event, one of my friends is selling his 2006 Les Paul Standard (Tobacco Burst) to me. The serial number is 017160681 and searches of this serial number on Guitar Dater Project indicate that the Les Paul was made on 20 June 2006 in the Nashville factory with a production number of 381.

I wanted to share a handful of high resolution photos of the Les Paul to see if any of the members here can spot any characteristics/elements of the guitar that may suggest that it is a counterfeit Les Paul.

If you don't mind taking a look, I've included them in this post. It's quite light, weighing at only 8.2lbs (so quite possibly chambered, even if it was a 20 June 2006 LP - I think they only started chambering later in that year).

Many thanks!

Billy

 

[dystrust]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Definitely fake; not even a good copy IMO.

Things I've found wrong so far for Gibson USA:
The poker chip is wrong
It has an Asian ABR-style bridge
The font on the back of the headstock is wrong
The trussrod cover is wrong
The logo shouldn't be tilted that far
The electronics covers should be black
The binding should go over the fret ends
The jack plate should be metal
The knobs are wrong.
Double-slug pickups

Edit: Honestly it looks a lot like an Epi with a Gibson headstock.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Not a Gibson.

Firstly, you can just tell the finish is poly and the metal parts are metric/Asian.

You can tell the plastic parts are of the type used on Asian-made guitars. Color, thickness, size, edge bevels, etc.

You can tell the serial number looks nothing like a "real" Gibson's.

The knobs are in the wrong spots.

You could go on and on and on with this list. Basically, nothing at all on it looks even close to "right."

You obviously have access to the guitar, so you can determine whether it's a good guitar or not. But if it is, and you want to buy it, it should be in the $150 range, rather than the $1,500 range that a Gibson would go for.

 

[regan]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Plastic jack socket plate.
toggle switch nut is wrong type you wan tone that looks like this:


& not this:



Gibson has to use the former to accomadate a their maple caps

& as previously mentioned the truss rod cover, these are the 2 easiest giveaways.

I'd suggest the solid coloured neck hides a 3 piece construction also.

Don't go anywhere near it

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Double-slug pickups was the first giveaway for me, then wrong truss cover, wrong tuners, serial numbers are not painted on any of my Gibsons. Plus everything already pointed out.

 

[MythicGuitarCo]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

.

 

[MythicGuitarCo]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

What is more likely, is that someone decided to replace older parts with new ones and cheaper out, buying a bunch of crap from Amazon and Ebay to replace it with.

How do you think this is the most likely scenario? Its well documented that such fakes are flowing out of China, but to do the work necessary to try and fake the headstock and and not leave evidence of it seems like a more likely scenario to you? I can see someone swapping around parts. I cannot see someone doing all the finish work.

Why would you measure the frets to determine if its a real neck? You can see thats not a real gibson neck. That thing is faker than a 3 dollar bill. You can see the open book curves on the headstock are wrong giving it the wrong profile. You can see the overlay is wrong, the type faces are wrong, the binding is wrong. the truss rod cover is wrong. But you want him to measure the fret wire cause there is some doubt in your mind that this neck isnt fake? :smash: The mind boggles.

 

[Aceman]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Rainmaker! Bro!! How it Bee??? My general call is OMG that is fugly no matter what - and we know you like beautiful things.

But yeah...I'd stay away from that for so many reasons...Looks like a bad Epiphone burst.

Problem is Gibson can make some crappy stuff and put it out. Still, they never get the headstock inlay wrong....

 

[JMP/HBE]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Pathetic Fake.
Not even close.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Oh man, I hate the execution on that paint job.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Yeah on my Chinese builds they will put a fake serial number on them as well

I dont want a Gibson logo or serial number

But they will dress up one any way you want it

That one was probably 180 bucks shipped from Shenzhen

Look on Aliexpress

Hundreds of them

Some are much better fakes
Some with fake double slug Seymour Duncan pickups

You just want it to be real
We all want that deal of a lifetime

This ain't it

If you like it , buy it

But you can probably order one with your name on the headstock for less money

 

[MythicGuitarCo]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

.

 

[Wattage]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

it is wrong as rain

 

[MythicGuitarCo]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Look.
Take a us Gibson. Strip the neck off. Take an epiphone. Strip the neck off. Put the us one on the epi, then re-paint it. That seems far less likely than someone buying the guitar for cheap, not liking the stuff that is on it and buying cheap Ebay parts to replace with. Right? I mean am I wrong there?

Tell me I'm wrong.

However yes it could very well be a chibson. Most likely is...

But it could have also been that someone DID in fact strip the neck off of a broken US and glued it to a kit guitar and painted it. Which would mean that it is a real neck at minimum. So why would giving the man a way to verify that be a bad thing?

mythicguitars.com

Naw that's just not what that is


Oc·cam's ra·zor
/ˌäkəmz ˈrāzər/
noun
unpunctuated: Occams razor
the principle (attributed to William of Occam) that in explaining a thing no more assumptions should be made than are necessary. The principle is often invoked to defend reductionism or nominalism.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

No way is any part of that guitar genuine. Neck is fake. Body is fake. Parts are fake. It's cringeworthy.

And what a truly hideous tobacco clownburst!

Probably bought off Alibaba a few years ago for $150 - these days most of their fakes are far better than that, I bet.

EDIT: It's so lightweight because it probably isn't even mahogany...

 

[dystrust]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Look.
Take a us Gibson. Strip the neck off. Take an epiphone. Strip the neck off. Put the us one on the epi, then re-paint it. That seems far less likely than someone buying the guitar for cheap, not liking the stuff that is on it and buying cheap Ebay parts to replace with. Right? I mean am I wrong there?

Tell me I'm wrong.

You're wrong.

As myself and several others have pointed out, that's definitely not a Gibson neck. And the parts aren't from eBay, they're the original parts because it's a Chibson.

 

[AlexR]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

Complete 100% Chinese fake.
Interestingly, they have added another digit to the serial number to match the current format (9 digits) but the date of the serial is equates to a time in Gibson history when the format was only 8 digits long.

 

[MythicGuitarCo]

Re: 2006 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Burst - Legitimate?

.