Another Shipment of Counterfeit Guitars

My guess this is only a percentage of the counterfeit guitars that make it into the US on a weekly basis.
 
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I am curious where the counterfeits end up, that do make it thru? I have probably seen a handful where someone showed them on the web. Are the rest of them some kind of direct order by those who know they are getting a sub $200 guitar, but it'll have Gibson/Fender/etc. on the headstock?
 
thunderkyss said:
Interesting, counterfeit Gibson, Fender, Taylor... no counterfeit Ibanez, Suhr, PRS...
Click to expand...

I was thinking they were trying to hide in the middle of the top sellers, but PRS should be in the Top 5 and Taylor should be out. Maybe they have had more time to refine counterfeiting Fender, Gibson and Taylor?
 
You can get the parts to fake a Fender or a Gibson pretty easy. PRS (not sure about Suhr or the others) has some custom pickup bobbins (that are squared off, or undersize) and rings and parts that are not as easy to get cheap aftermarket to do fakes with.
 
JamesPaul said:
I am curious where the counterfeits end up, that do make it thru? I have probably seen a handful where someone showed them on the web. Are the rest of them some kind of direct order by those who know they are getting a sub $200 guitar, but it'll have Gibson/Fender/etc. on the headstock?
Click to expand...

Some people are genuinely fooled, and some people are quite happy they have a guitar that says 'Gibson' on it without paying the real price of admission. Getting over on 'the man' is a win for them.
 
I am curious where the counterfeits end up, that do make it thru? I have probably seen a handful where someone showed them on the web. Are the rest of them some kind of direct order by those who know they are getting a sub $200 guitar, but it'll have Gibson/Fender/etc. on the headstock?
Click to expand...

I purchased one at an auction house... I took it home, opened it up, found it was fake as a $3 bill, and the next day I went back and raised hell. I told them in no uncertain terms I was going home and calling the authorities - so get rid of it fast! The next day a sheriff investigating the case contacted me, and informed me the same auction house had been caught selling fake Rolexes, too.

It looked, played, and sounded glorious.... but I wasn't going to keep something that was in this country illegally.
https://i.imgur.com/6uI3jdk.jpg
 
^^ Looks pretty close. Knob layout and lack of binding nibs is the main giveaway in that shot. Was it a proper flame top or veneer over plain?
 
ICTGoober said:
I purchased one at an auction house... I took it home, opened it up, found it was fake as a $3 bill, and the next day I went back and raised hell. I told them in no uncertain terms I was going home and calling the authorities - so get rid of it fast! The next day a sheriff investigating the case contacted me, and informed me the same auction house had been caught selling fake Rolexes, too.

It looked, played, and sounded glorious.... but I wasn't going to keep something that was in this country illegally.
https://i.imgur.com/6uI3jdk.jpg
Click to expand...

How does an auction house work? You weren't allowed to inspect it? Or were you going by a photo?
 
How does an auction house work? You weren't allowed to inspect it? Or were you going by a photo?
Click to expand...

Brief eyeball inspection only just before bidding began. There were about 20 guys handling the guitar in the space of 1 minute.
Got it home and opened the control cavity to find those wretched little Asian pots, and upon pulling the pickups found the flame maple was veneer and the pickups looked like Artec units (which in my experience are decent pickups, but they aren't Seymour Duncans).

I should have caught the binding nibs seeing as I was a Gibson authorized repair station for a long time.

As for fake Ibanez guitars - I've worked on a fake JEM for a client. It was assembled by drunken morons, but it played great once I got it setup properly, and we pulled the cheezy pickups for new DiMarzios. The client knew it was fake when he bought it - he already owned 7 real JEM's.

By the way, the Chinese even counterfeit cheap stuff in my experience.
 
Drunken morons, lol! Some of them do look bad, I agree. I assume your client bought it as a beater Jem to go with his nice ones. If you're an Ibanez guy it's usually easy to spot a fake Jem, though some have gotten closer in recent years. If it's subtle or you're not as familiar with the brand, it can go over your head.

Yeah, Chinese pickups have come a long way, you can get them now with nickel base plates and covers, maple spacers etc. Hell, those generic MIK Tri-Sonics available as loose units on auction sites of choice are within spec of vintage ones in terms of dcr, inductance and so on.

There's plenty of fakeroo on Aliexpress, some able to pass better than others. I was looking at the Merle Haggard Tele recently and it looks pretty spot on apart from a few details.
 
beaubrummels said:
I find two things wrong with that story. The 85 COUNTERFEIT GUITARS and WORTH ALMOST $260,000 IF AUTHENTIC
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Yeah - I have a problem there too. They actually likely cost more like $21,000 and every buyer, an individual knew exactly what they were buying.

I bet a number of them ended up as wall decorations.

Now - we are obviously on top of "That isn't a guitar actually signed by Slash...." What worries me is did a GC or someplace purchase those? Or one of their suppliers etc. Are they going to Mom/Pop shops with less than above the board ideas....or even skeeby individual sales. I see those on Craigslist occasionally. But, the point there is I know what I see.

[Political statements withheld, but they matter and apply]

And as for Gibson, who we should all worry about, I'm sure the QC on these is considerably lower than a real Gibson. For now...But the people buying Chibson weren't ever buying a $5k Les Paul. So Gibson did not lose any business there.
 
Last edited:
ICTGoober said:
I purchased one at an auction house... I took it home, opened it up, found it was fake as a $3 bill, and the next day I went back and raised hell. I told them in no uncertain terms I was going home and calling the authorities - so get rid of it fast! The next day a sheriff investigating the case contacted me, and informed me the same auction house had been caught selling fake Rolexes, too.

It looked, played, and sounded glorious.... but I wasn't going to keep something that was in this country illegally.
https://i.imgur.com/6uI3jdk.jpg
Click to expand...

What did you pay for that?
 
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