Damn Gibson fakes

  • Thread starter Thread starter klugster
  • Start date Start date
These look pretty decent from the pics, but from most of the ones that I've seen, you can tell they're fake from a mile away. I don't understand at this point why they haven't figured out how to step up their game?
 
chumbucket said:
These look pretty decent from the pics, but from most of the ones that I've seen, you can tell they're fake from a mile away. I don't understand at this point why they haven't figured out how to step up their game?
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They will. With the endless videos on how to spot them, they’re getting all the tips they need.
 
japetus said:
I still love watching those Ed Roman videos once in awhile.

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"BC Rich got into a lot of trouble with national women's organizations in the 70s for their sexist ads and bich poster.
I wonder if we'll get into any trouble with these organizations from this video? I sincerely hope so." :ROFLMAO:

I miss the days before political correctness corrupted our will, humor, and confidence.
Where's that budweiser party dog when you need him her?
 
I was already terrified to purchase a used Gibson and this didn't help.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but seeing Gibson and the government working together gives makes me thoughts that this is a false flag operation. Kill the used market and make people buy new. $$$
 
CDawg said:
I was already terrified to purchase a used Gibson and this didn't help.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but seeing Gibson and the government working together gives makes me thoughts that this is a false flag operation. Kill the used market and make people buy new. $$$
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There's been people drop shipping these on ebay for years.
You'll often notice the lack of headstock in the pictures.
Not because it snapped off, but because it's counterfeit.
They often all use the same serial number.
I've seen a ton of them in pawn shops over the years.
 
NeubyWanKaneuby said:
There's a Chibson FB page where people promote these fakes.
I don't understand why people don't get a clone and just leave the Gibson badging off it.
You know it's fake, why pretend you have a real one?
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Back 15 years or so one of my old bandmates started teching for a well known world touring band, I asked what was up with a different sweet LP every few songs like they are Bon Jovi or some shit, and he said they were Chibsons, and that a few other big bands were using them too. I was fooled as I’m sure everyone was, and it just looks cooler playing a “Gibson” than a no name clone
 
CDawg said:
I was already terrified to purchase a used Gibson and this didn't help.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but seeing Gibson and the government working together gives makes me thoughts that this is a false flag operation. Kill the used market and make people buy new. $$$
Click to expand...

It's not like the used market was great to begin with. We all know about the scammers who will send you busted pedals, or just send you nothing at all, or will buy something and then start pointing out non-existent faults and demanding partial refunds.

Most recently. I sold a guitar to a guy in the states, an ESP Ltd JH-600EC. Sent it to him via UPS Express, with pickup on a Tuesday.

By Thursday night, he's agitated, asking me when will his package arrive and if it comes too late he's going to reject it and other crap. Mind you, this is only two days after I handed it over to UPS Singapore.

Two nights later, it gets detained by US customs, who I have no control over. He starts ranting and raving again, and I have to - with great difficulty, mind you - calm him down and assure him that it is now the weekend and customs will be closed and the package will be with him soon.

By Tuesday next week, the package is out for delivery. The guy messages me starts talking about how a delivery attempt had been made, but he wasn't home and how I had inconvenienced him by requiring that a signature be given for any delivery, why can't he pick it up from the UPS depot, if this gets delayed any longer, he'll send it back.

All a great story. Except when I checked UPS tracking, it showed that the package had been delivered to his address.

I kept quiet and reserved that as ammunition in case he started yelling and hollering again and complained to Reverb once he finally admitted to having the guitar in his possession. I had really had enough of this.

Thankfully, he messaged back two or three days later and said the guitar was fine, thank you very much. Which was a relief, cause I would have hated to go back and forth with Reverb to highlight that they were being lied to.

-----

But there also some honest idiots who need to be treated with extra caution.

I had a really bad experience earlier this year when I bought a Rectifier Recording from someone in Australia. I think that I should have realised all was not right when there was just one picture, but I assumed it was because it was rack mounted.

When the thing arrived, he had packed it in a cardboard box. No real packing material, just a few loose sheets of bubble wrap around the amp, not even taped down. The box was just about the same size as the preamp. That was it. No hard material to protect the amp nothing. A cardboard box and some loose bubble wrap for a package that weighed 13kg and was being sent by (get this) regular post from Australia to India.

The thing was a wreck. Knobs smashed in, one rack ear bent.

I had to run around for a month trying to convince the customs department to give me permission to re-export the damn thing so that I could claim a refund. Finally had to give up because I knew that after a while. the guy would tell Reverb that I was not sending back the product to him.

All in all, even after the refund, I lost about $500 to the corrupt Indian customs department on that transaction. And that poor fool couldn't even claim insurance from Australia Post because they told him all packages must be double boxed.

The reason I call him an honest idiot? The guy reimbursed me for shipping the item to me, as well as for shipping the preamp back to him.
 
RaceU4her said:
Back 15 years or so one of my old bandmates started teching for a well known world touring band, I asked what was up with a different sweet LP every few songs like they are Bon Jovi or some shit, and he said they were Chibsons, and that a few other big bands were using them too. I was fooled as I’m sure everyone was, and it just looks cooler playing a “Gibson” than a no name clone
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Yeah, I can understand it from that angle.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
There's been people drop shipping these on ebay for years.
You'll often notice the lack of headstock in the pictures.
Not because it snapped off, but because it's counterfeit.
They often all use the same serial number.
I've seen a ton of them in pawn shops over the years.
Click to expand...
Thank you for informing me about that. I've been wanting some Gibson LPs like the old Supreme or a Historic but the potential fakes scared me off. I'd rather just overpay Gibson and have piece of mind with a brand new guitar like that. Not happening tomorrow but I can dream :D.

Last year I was in a pawn shop and seen someone faked a custom ESP JH. Took a bunch of pictures and went home to analyze it because I was unsure. I can't remember the specifics but they did a damn good job for a counterfeit.
 
nightlight said:
It's not like the used market was great to begin with. We all know about the scammers who will send you busted pedals, or just send you nothing at all, or will buy something and then start pointing out non-existent faults and demanding partial refunds.

Most recently. I sold a guitar to a guy in the states, an ESP Ltd JH-600EC. Sent it to him via UPS Express, with pickup on a Tuesday.

By Thursday night, he's agitated, asking me when will his package arrive and if it comes too late he's going to reject it and other crap. Mind you, this is only two days after I handed it over to UPS Singapore.

Two nights later, it gets detained by US customs, who I have no control over. He starts ranting and raving again, and I have to - with great difficulty, mind you - calm him down and assure him that it is now the weekend and customs will be closed and the package will be with him soon.

By Tuesday next week, the package is out for delivery. The guy messages me starts talking about how a delivery attempt had been made, but he wasn't home and how I had inconvenienced him by requiring that a signature be given for any delivery, why can't he pick it up from the UPS depot, if this gets delayed any longer, he'll send it back.

All a great story. Except when I checked UPS tracking, it showed that the package had been delivered to his address.

I kept quiet and reserved that as ammunition in case he started yelling and hollering again and complained to Reverb once he finally admitted to having the guitar in his possession. I had really had enough of this.

Thankfully, he messaged back two or three days later and said the guitar was fine, thank you very much. Which was a relief, cause I would have hated to go back and forth with Reverb to highlight that they were being lied to.

-----

But there also some honest idiots who need to be treated with extra caution.

I had a really bad experience earlier this year when I bought a Rectifier Recording from someone in Australia. I think that I should have realised all was not right when there was just one picture, but I assumed it was because it was rack mounted.

When the thing arrived, he had packed it in a cardboard box. No real packing material, just a few loose sheets of bubble wrap around the amp, not even taped down. The box was just about the same size as the preamp. That was it. No hard material to protect the amp nothing. A cardboard box and some loose bubble wrap for a package that weighed 13kg and was being sent by (get this) regular post from Australia to India.

The thing was a wreck. Knobs smashed in, one rack ear bent.

I had to run around for a month trying to convince the customs department to give me permission to re-export the damn thing so that I could claim a refund. Finally had to give up because I knew that after a while. the guy would tell Reverb that I was not sending back the product to him.

All in all, even after the refund, I lost about $500 to the corrupt Indian customs department on that transaction. And that poor fool couldn't even claim insurance from Australia Post because they told him all packages must be double boxed.

The reason I call him an honest idiot? The guy reimbursed me for shipping the item to me, as well as for shipping the preamp back to him.
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Those are heart breaking stories and I hate hearing things like that. I just want people to be FAIR and HONEST when it comes to buying and selling gear. If people abide by those two things there's rarely a problem.

I heard so many similar stories I made a policy a long time ago for most gear. Local pickup with cash or shipping with e transfer. Other than that the answer is no. You can come to my house and I'll have it set up for you or you can bring your gear here set up and play around and I'm willing to help you with whatever. I'll even get you drinks and snacks and make sure the bathroom is clean before you come. I'm not leaving my house. I understand that won't work for everyone but I've had great success with that.

In 10-15 years I made one exception. Guy wanted a pedal and said I'm disabled and unable to get mail. I made the delivery which was about a 30 minute drive away. He was not lying.
 
I just bought a Chibson Explorer Custom about a month ago on Ali-Express. It got held up in customs for a week or two. Showed up and it wasn't even cut open. There are some fine details that would make it obvious it's not a Gibson, like a 4mm hex truss rod, pick guard a little off and the switch being cheap. I'd rather spend the $288 again rather than $5,799. Sure I grabbed new pickups, electronics, tuners and tune-o-matic.. but I'm still far away from $6k.
 
vultures said:
I just bought a Chibson Explorer Custom about a month ago on Ali-Express. It got held up in customs for a week or two. Showed up and it wasn't even cut open. There are some fine details that would make it obvious it's not a Gibson, like a 4mm hex truss rod, pick guard a little off and the switch being cheap. I'd rather spend the $288 again rather than $5,799. Sure I grabbed new pickups, electronics, tuners and tune-o-matic.. but I'm still far away from $6k.
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I got a ESP MX-II copy off ebay delivered today,$255 shipped got it in 2 days! White with the fake EMGs.
It feels good in the hands ,neck is not bad :cool: Im going to replace all the hardware and put some real EMG 81/85 in it. I like working on guitars and shit like that,gives me something to do. Maybe have $500 to $600 in it when done.

Here is a real one that was sold on REverb for $4,250 the one I got today looks identical to this one. Ill try to post pics later

cros0cju11oiairntr5p.webp


1732928991939.png


Here is the fake one
1732929091519.png


1732929121419.png
 
MetalHeart said:
I got a ESP MX-II copy off ebay delivered today,$255 shipped got it in 2 days! White with the fake EMGs.
It feels good in the hands ,neck is not bad :cool: Im going to replace all the hardware and put some real EMG 81/85 in it. I like working on guitars and shit like that,gives me something to do. Maybe have $500 to $600 in it when done.

Here is a real one that was sold on REverb for $4,250 the one I got today looks identical to this one. Ill try to post pics later

View attachment 367736

View attachment 367739

Here is the fake one
View attachment 367742

View attachment 367745
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I've thought about grabbing one of those ESPs too, got a link? Looks pretty sick.

On mine I ended up grabbing D'Addario Tuners (got for free with points), ordered a Gibson case and EMG Het Set. I'm still debating what TOM bridge to go with, whether it's Gibson, Gotoh or TonePros. I'm going to refret it to Stainless Steel. I'm also debating if I want to sand down the neck and do a natural oil/wax finish. Just doing things to it that you wouldn't want to do on a $6k Gibson. Here's a link to the one I bought if anyone wants to take their chances.

p (1).jpg
 
vultures said:
I've thought about grabbing one of those ESPs too, got a link? Looks pretty sick.

On mine I ended up grabbing D'Addario Tuners (got for free with points), ordered a Gibson case and EMG Het Set. I'm still debating what TOM bridge to go with, whether it's Gibson, Gotoh or TonePros. I'm going to refret it to Stainless Steel. I'm also debating if I want to sand down the neck and do a natural oil/wax finish. Just doing things to it that you wouldn't want to do on a $6k Gibson. Here's a link to the one I bought if anyone wants to take their chances.

View attachment 367802
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Very nice dude :cool: I think Im going with the Tone Pros
here ya go if it works
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3650297040...uid=ogbdth2wsza&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 
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