Re: Checking legitimacy of a Les Paul.
Usually, the first thing people look at is the binding (obviously doesn't work for this guitar.) The inlays are usually a dead giveaway. Gibson uses mother of pearl on most of their guitars, while most Chinese ripoffs use pearloid mother-of-toilet-seat. It's very easy to spot because real MOP is sharp and shiny while MOTS is usually dull. Another really easy one is checking the electronics cavity. The cavity should be neatly-routed with 4 rounded corners and the wires should be neat as well. Another thing is that Gibson for the most part DOESN'T use conductive paint inside their guitars. So if you look inside the cavity, and it's crudely painted black, it's most likely fake. Finally, ALWAYS take note of the serial number. The internet is a great thing, just google "Gibson serial number search" and you should find out if it's real or not pretty quickly.
That's all I could think of. There are thousands minute details to find that out, but I covered some of the big ones.
