May 25th, 2009
Gibson’s Guitar Of The Month program had come out with some great pieces, some have been so popular that they have gone on to be reissued, Reverse Flying V anyone? Most of these interesting and sometimes quite experimental versions of Gibson’s best will never be repeated and in most cases go on to be very collectable due to their limited numbers.
I was therefore very surprised to find a Gibson SG3 for sale on a Chinese site selling fake Gibson’s. This is going to be painfully bad, I thought to myself, until I saw the pictures. Absolutely spot on in every detail, I couldn’t see anything wrong at all. How could they get away with that? Well, a closer look revealed the eBay watermark in the right hand corner. Beware sites selling Gibson guitars at $363.20 plus postage, usually the fakes are obvious, but now they use pictures that they have lifted from legitimate listings to coax you into buying, then they send you the 山寨 (Mountain Village – Definition: Forgery).
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January 22nd, 2009
The Les Paul Custom, as it was called in 1961 until 1963 when it was renamed the SG Custom, is a classic Gibson solid body and you pay top dollar if you want to get your hands on an original. Fortunately for those with (only slightly) skinnier wallets the Gibson Custom Shop now sell the early 60′s Les Paul (SG) Custom as part of it’s Vintage Original Spec program, (aka VOS). Unfortunately the counterfeit makers have also jumped in on the game, fortunately they look a bit crap.
The beautiful SG Custom, (as it is now known, above) is a brilliantly crafted guitar, 3 pickups to play with and an optional maestro vibrato for those who like that sort of thing.
This crappy looking fake SG Custom, (above) is a pitiful copy – here’s why; The headstock is the wrong shape, the gibson inlay is wrong, the split diamond inlay is wrong, the pick guard is wrong, the pickups have Gibson USA Stickers/Decals on them – a real Gibson does not, the pickup surrounds are wrong, the pickup covers are wrong, the bridge is not set correctly, the stop bar tail piece is not set properly, The Les Paul logo on the plastic between the pickups and neck is wrong, the tuners are wrong, the block inlays are wrong, there is no selector switch surround and the placement of the pots appear to have been done by me, (breathe) after half a bottle of Jägermeister. Best avoid.
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