A very nice flame top and gold speed knobs but alas, it is a fake. Unfortunately the fretboard is made of what appears to be rosewood, it should be ebony and the stopbar tailpiece and bridge appear to be slightly misaligned
At a quick glance this could easily pass as genuine. It is not a bad looking guitar, thought to be a Custom Plus and according to the serial number was built in 1996. The serial number is however fake and if you compare the picture of the serial number above to that of a real Gibson you can see that the font, if you like, is different.
The headstock, to those who have been over this site before, is clearly a fake, to the newer visitor it could be hard to distinguish from a genuine Gibson, (see others shown on this site for more examples, or here for the Gibson webpage on fakes). Note the angle that the Gibson logo is at as well as the shape of the headstock. The truss rod cover is also a copy and is only single ply. Both the logo and split diamond inlay should be mother of pearl, a far brighter result than the flat off white shown here.
For those handy with a screwdriver who wish to compare the insides of their Gibson to a fake, Stuart took a picture of the potentiometers, as he said so himself, “Would Gibson ever use such weedy potentiometers…and look at the wiring…doesn’t look like Gibson wiring to me.” It really doesn’t look like Gibson wiring to me either.
“Even the case is non standard…is this a genuine Gibson case with this raised embossed Gibson lettering.” No, no it’s not
The case, as is often, er, the case with these copies is nothing like a genuine Gibson case, (usually during this period made in Canada). Late 80’s and 90’s cases tended to be the brown with pink muppet skin variety based on the 50’s Cal Girl style.
Stuart, thank you for your email and for sharing your pictures with us, I think it’s the first picture of potentiometers we’ve had on fibsons.com.
