January 1st, 2010
The Gibson Firebird, (above is a real one), was created by Detroit car designer Ray Dietrich at the request of legendary then Gibson main man Ted McCarty, had a more rounded out Explorer shape with “neck-through” construction*, (neck and centre of the body are one piece with “wings” glued to either side).
This Firebird, (above) was not designed by Dietrich. It’s a weird looking bird.
From left to right; The control knobs are the wrong type, they should be top hats with silver inserts not speed knobs. The pots that they sit on are incorrectly placed, due in part to there not being enough space below the bridge as the body shape is just plain wrong, (the treble front horn far too pointed). The pickups on a Firebird should be mini humbucker style* and no real Gibson comes with decals on the pickups. The pick guard is the wrong shape, again probably to fit the awkward body shape, and it has no Firebird emblem on it next to the pick up selector switch.
Looking at the headstock, which is the wrong shape, we see that the tuners are wrong*, they should be the so called “banjo” tuners. The truss rod cover is incorrect and would usually take up a fair chunk of the headstock and would have the Gibson logo on it, not inlaid into the headstock.
*The Firebird Studio differs from other Firebirds in that it has set neck construction, regular sized humbuckers and regular style tuners. This guitar was advertised as a Gibson Firebird V.
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December 28th, 2009
“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).
Posted in Les Paul, Standard | Comments Off
