While commenting on these fake Gibson guitars I often mention frets going over the binding being a giveaway, or the wiring being really bad or the hardware placement being incorrect, but be aware that that is not always a giveaway. The guitars I have pointed out have been advertised for sale as new and therefore it’s easy for me to say that one of the many reasons that such and such is a fake is the bad wiring, or the hardware is wrong etc. However, If the guitar is getting on a bit, maybe a re-fret is done and the new frets appear over the binding. In the world of guitar customisation/customization, people like to rip the guts out of their gear and install new pickups, a different bridge, hell, maybe slap a Floyd Rose tremolo system on there, so you can’t rely on these differences when deciding the authenticity of a used instrument.
The really easy way to know if your looking at a cheap, mass produced, fake Gibson is not always possible from a photo, because it’s all about the angle of the headstock.
A real Gibson guitar should have a headstock angle of 17 degrees, there is however always an exception to the rule, in Gibson’s case there was a period where the angle was reduced to 14 degrees. Be aware though that a replica Gibson built by a professional luthier probably does have this angle, so the angle rule should not be used to authenticate, just to refute.
There was going to be a joke here based on a double entendre; ”it’s all about the angle”, but quite frankly it was childish and not that funny, I’ll just leave it at that.
