Fibsons.com – the fake Gibson guitar blog.

While flicking through the listings of eBay I came across one of those horrible sparkly, Liberace variety Gibson Les Paul gold tops you never see in the stores, (because they’re fake – obviously).

This one was advertised as a genuine Gibson, good condition, gold color, (for those who are blind yet for some reason look at eBay!?!).  Well, taking great offense to this guitar yours truly sent the seller a friendly message; I hope you weren’t ripped off, it’s a fake, I can see by the headstock shape and truss rod cover, and I said that there are other inconsistencies (which I didn’t mention), I hope you do the right thing and pull it, etc. etc.  I leave it at that, as expected I get no reply.

Low and behold the seller has another “Gibson” Les Paul for sale, and claims that he LOST the truss rod cover on this one, as you do; Some people lose keys, wallets, tickets, this guy loses a piece of plastic that was screwed, probably with three screws, into some wood.

Man, that’s unlucky. Funny he lost the bit that I told him was a giveaway for a fake? Well that was it, I can’t stand these con artists so, in true vigilante style I donned my famous cowl and raced to the batcave where I, er, well, I sat at my desk and emailed Gibson Customer Service and told on him. Anyway, after a report to eBay both the offending items were removed. The seller then put his location as eBaysucksd**k, or something to that effect, clearly a real nice guy. Anyway, if you ever need help with a Gibson guitar send Gibson Customer Services an email, they may not have time to respond straight away but if you send them pictures and item numbers, (if on an auction site) then they can help with any questions. if you email me and they’re fake I’ll put them on the web.

It’s not “USA MADE, Gibson Les Paul Standard Guitar, with ORGINAL CASE, Owners Manual & Gibson Literature”. No no no no. The seller was SO sure this was original it took several messages and contact from eBay and Gibson to take down his listing. Or so it appeared, I don’t know if those guys pitched in at all, but I certainly messaged him a couple of times, even went into some details as to why it’s phony.

And on third day… It was taken down by the seller with a reply to a message he had received from another eBayer which simply read, “In case u didnt know,thats a chinese copy” (sic). No mention of the logo, headstock, truss rod cover, case, binding, heel, serial number, serial number stamp and jack socket all being incorrect, which is what I tried to use to convince him.

Maybe he didn’t want the information going to the counterfeiters who may use it to improve their copies! No, I’m not getting into it, please check out the pictures and go through the list, from a distance it’s actually a good fake, but a fake all the same.