Re: I can't believe it. Bought a fake JEM. God I'm REALLY STUPID
I'm not questioning whether the transaction went down or not. I'm sure it did.
I think you knew it was fake when you got it. To be honest, I really don't care about that either. There's tons of Jem knockoffs out there. I don't really see this as any different than all those bodies and necks to make your own Jem on Ebay.
What I don't agree with is the "Oh look at me, I got screwed over" attention seeking post that came a long with it. You knew if you posted that you got a "fake" Jem intentionally, you'd get the verbal beating of a lifetime on here. It's happened with others before. Best way to avoid that is make it seem like you got the crappy end of the stick on it.
It would have came out eventually that you had it. In a picture or some crap like that later on and someone would have pointed it out. Might as well just put it out there and be done with it right. That way you get to post your NGD and have a nice little story to go with it. Those are the more memorable ones anyway right?
Just to be a little more realistic. Used Jems of that model go for $1300 to $1500 used and are over 2 grand new. Nobody is going to TRADE a real Jem for 2 old guitars that might be worth half the going the rate combined. I could see someone being in a hard spot and taking $800 cash for one, But not TRADE. Not when you'd have to find 2 or more transactions to get the cash out of them. That just does not make any sense to me and would have thrown up a red flag to me. Even if I didn't know anything about them.
Moving on to the obvious signs that it's a fake. OK, I agree that if you didn't know anything Ibanez guitars, those details could get by someone to some degree. Even the excitement blinders could cloud judgement. Not arguing that either. Most people, especially gear heads that frequent a forum like this know Jem's are expensive guitars. Mos of them also know Ibanez wouldn't use a $20 Floyd on a $2000 guitar. That's another big red flag.
But here's the catch. You're not a novice with shred style super strats and you've openly admitted that you own and have experience with an upper end Ibanez. So from personal experience, you should have seen the quality difference mainly the bridge and you still went ahead with the trade without even questioning it. Now Ibanez might be a lot of things, but inconsistent isn't one of them. Having that 2550 as a benchmark, you had to have seen some of those quality details not matching. Even at a glance. I just don't buy it. You knew that guitar was a fake and the story was so you didn't get chewed out on here for doing it.
So I stand by it whether it makes me unpopular around here or not. It wouldn't be the first time someone's called me an Ahole over something. Won't be the last. I'm sure I'll live.
