Fibsons.com – the fake Gibson guitar blog.

“GIBSON LES PAUL STANDARD INK BLUE TOP GUITAR” Condition: NEW

and it sold for $1900 in Australia!!! At first glance it looks very legit, appears to be a one of the limited edition colors from a while back, lighter than Manhattan Blue, more like on those fake Epiphones… uh oh.

A very convincing copy, the case is one giveaway as you would expect the correct case to come with a new guitar, this guitar also has the “gibson” decal on the pot cavity cover which is never seen on a real Gibson. The seller states in the ad that it was a gift 6 months ago, so perhaps they didn’t know it was a fake. A message was sent to them encouraging them to double check it’s authenticity and not to rip off an unsuspecting buyer but sadly it appears that it was ignored.

The main giveaways, as usual, lie in the headstock. The truss rod cover had several things wrong with it. It could be blank. or it could have Standard printed on it, but not Les Paul standard. The shape of the headstock is close to the genuine article but the placement of the Gibson logo, (which should be mother of pearl inlay, not a block color decal) is off, as is the font used as the Les Paul signature, though very subtly.

The frets should not travel over the binding, this is common on fakes, it could be argued that the guitar had had a re-fret but this guitar is listed as new, (well, 6 months old, which would not require a re-fret).

Ho hum, amazed these are still being chucked around as “genuine made in the U.S.A.”. From a distance you have to say, hmm, ok, that’s a Les Paul, but then look at the inside of the case lid, hmm, that looks a bit different to the one I saw for sale at the dealers, kinda sunken in a bit, funny coloured/colored lining too and there’s no shroud.

Weird, it says it’s a Gibson Custom, Art, Historic case, maybe that’s it, though surely that comes with the top of the line stuff, not a regular LP Standard!

Still, it must be a real Gibson Les Paul, look, it has Gibson on the headstock and… on the truss rod cover… with possibly three screws hidden from view by the way the photo is cropped… Aww crap, it’s a fake.