[NGD] Need expert opinions on headstock Gibson logo though

  • Thread starter Thread starter sixstringking713
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sixstringking713

sixstringking713

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Purchased this explorer from guitar center used. Pretty good cosmetic condition (except the logo) and it had the pickups I wanted in it.

There is one thing that is bugging me and it's the headstock. The gibson logo either looks chipped or almost like someone installed it really bad. Is there any reason for me to believe this guitar may be a counterfeit? I have taken a bunch of pictures with the guitar apart and tried comparing them to online photos and it seems like the pickup cavities and whatnot match up with a typical explorer. The headstock appears to have a thin layer of wood ontop and I tried to take photos of it. Is this typical construction for an explorer? it's like a veneer ontop on the face of the headstock.

I'm not very familiar with gibson, this is my first gibson guitar, so if you guys think the gibson logo is odd or if you see anything else out of ordinary please tell me. I have 30 days to return the guitar.

There are some pictures with black schaller tuners and some with klusons. I bought the guitar with the klusons on it, but it looked like they were installed by the previous owner, so I was curious if the holes on these black schallers I have lined up with the old holes and they dont. Long story short, guitar came with grovers I believe, previous owner put klusons on it, and I was just test fitting these schallers I had laying around. I'm probably going to put the klusons back on it.

Build date for serial 01953622 is 2003 as I understand it.

other than the gibson logo bothering me, the guitar plays great, stays in tune fairly well, and sounds HUGE. :thumbsup:

any thoughts on the gibson logo?

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Good day, I have the same guitar, except mine was made in 1990. The logo looks legit, it looks kind of sloppy on mine also. I can also see something similar to the veneer thing to are seeing on the headstock, although it's not as prominent on mine. The stock tuners should be Grovers, but it looks legit to me, but I am no expert.
 
It's legit it just wasn't very well cared for in it's past life. All the cracking around the logo, around the edge of the headstock where the laminate is and around the nut is from it drying out due to a lack of humidity. The wood contracts when the humidity drops since it's evaporated out into the air and the clear coat can't move with it so it chips, flakes, cracks or checks. It also seems like the board is absurdly dry too.

Being in NY where it gets cold and very dry in the winter back when I was doing repair work we'd get tons of guitars in with checking, finish cracking and frets poking out of the board due to the lack of humidity drying them out.
 
If you want to be 110% sure you can always email the pics to gibson. They have a dedicated email for verifying if a guitar is counterfeit or not. I have used it in the past, and they reply very fast!
 
XSSIVE":1jkczcks said:
It's legit it just wasn't very well cared for in it's past life. All the cracking around the logo, around the edge of the headstock where the laminate is and around the nut is from it drying out due to a lack of humidity. The wood contracts when the humidity drops since it's evaporated out into the air and the clear coat can't move with it so it chips, flakes, cracks or checks. It also seems like the board is absurdly dry too.

Being in NY where it gets cold and very dry in the winter back when I was doing repair work we'd get tons of guitars in with checking, finish cracking and frets poking out of the board due to the lack of humidity drying them out.
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How can you tell the board is really dry? What can I do to take care of it properly, should I apply something to the fretboard?
 
That is a real Gibson. I have seen logo's look like that quite often. I even had a custom shop lp custom that had sloppy cutout for the Gibson logo.
 
its just the clearcoat lifting around the logo edges. It looks good to me and would be of no concern really. Cool explorer ane HNGD!
 
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