Gibson: Made in China?

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detroitace

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Check this out! The bootleggers are getting quite bold, indeed

http://cgi.ebay.com/beyond-compare-...oryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It's item 7397859149 if that link doesn't work.

It looks like a total forgery of an historic Les Paul. It even says 'Made In USA' on the back of the headstock and what look like grover tuners.
I'm impressed, because it looks good, but the truss rod cover gives it away: 3 screws!

The cost is mostly due to shipping from china: ~$350. Amazing.
Anybody try one of these?
 
I bought one of these. Definitely a 20 footer. If you were playing for a bunch of drunks in a bar, they would not notice it's not a real Gibson. I have 3 real Les Pauls & the differences are obvious up close. In my opinion, this is how I feel about the quality of stuff I own from Asia. In order: 1] Japanese 2] Korea 3] India 4] China. I expected this guitar to be absolute junk so I'm not completely disappointed . The 2 Love Rocks I bought from Mikes Music are FAR AND AWAY BETTER THAN THIS. If you bought one & changed all the guts, you could make something useful out of it. If it were lost or stolen, the joke would be on the guy who would try to sell it. If you have children who want expensive guitars, I would buy them one of these. They would not know the difference either if they never touched a real one [or a good copy]. The killer is the shipping: $250 to the USA.
 
I have been watching a few of these instruments on my watch list to see what happens to the sellers feedback. Sometimes the seller just dissapears, and sets up again (or so it seems).

Obviously the quality is gonna be a bit pants, but I am still into them in a weird way, like, they are just such bad copies!! I especially like the epiphone copies they make, with weird headstocks. I can't explain why I think they're cool, they just, are. Not for looking like the real thing, but just for not looking like the real thing!! I am tempted to get one! :)
 
UPDATE: I've had this instrument for a week now. The more bits I cut out of it & throw away, this guitar it ACTUALLY IMPROVING! In the first hour I had it, I yanked out the plastic nut & glued in a brass one. On the second day, I cut out the bridge pickup & tossed in a Rio Grande pickup I had laying arond the house. Yesterday I pulled the 3 hole truss rod cover & installed a LP Standard 2 hole bell shaped cover. When I get the matching neck pickup, I intend to cut out all the remaining electronics & throw them away. I don't know what kind of wood this thing is made of, but so far it looks & sounds pretty good! Much better than before. I really should spread for a better set of tuners since I've gone this far. If you want to buy one of these things, I suggest you grab one before the lawyers get involved. Of course, these guitars are junk but I'm having a lot of fun with it!
 
Barry - how could you be sure you'd get what you ordered - or anything at all?

I'm tempted too. It's a very amusing thought.

How about some feedback on the seller :wink:
 
bunbury said:
Barry - how could you be sure you'd get what you ordered - or anything at all?
I'm tempted too. It's a very amusing thought.
How about some feedback on the seller :wink:

You're right. There's an obvious communication obstacle with Bejing to start. What thought I ordered was a GOLDTOP & turned out to be the same color as a 1970 Buick GS hot rod YELLOW! That got lost in the translation. I was pretty ticked off when I first opened the package. Since it costs so much to send stuff back & forth to China, I told the seller I'd keep it. I have already made a workable instrument out of it. About the feedback: I read that one guy bought a Parker Fly for $0.99 cents & gave negative feedback because the guitar was a forgery! Man, did I LMAO when I read those comments! What the hell were these guys thinking? About the money: I'm sure if you don't receive a product after a certain amount of time, you can make a complaint with Paypal. They WILL go after a seller & deduct the money from their account if neccessary. If you want to buy one of these things, just keep in mind that the nut, tuners & electronics are junk & should go right in the trash. You can make a good sounding bang around guitar & you don't have to worry about it being stolen or smashed.
 
Barry, I've done it. A fake 'L** ***' flame-top (well, that's what it looks like in the picture). A ?160 including delivery (that's about US$275 at last week's prices, but with the dollar in free-fall the US price is rising as I write this).

It's an "Absorbing Beautiful Popular Electric Guitar". Wonderful. I almost bought a "Beautiful Music Tool Electricity Ground Guitar" instead. Tough call.

I'll change the electrics and all the moving parts & see what it does. Or rather, I will if it arrives and isn't made of particle board/MDF :D
 
Will do! Do you have a picture you can post of your '1970 Buick GS hot rod YELLOW' Gold Top?
 
I found the same guitar in an ended auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-Les-Paul-Copy-Golden-Yellow-Sparkle-Gibson-Logo_W0QQitemZ7412549616QQcategoryZ38086QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

My fresh shipment from Stewmac arrived today. I'll probably rip out the rest of the guts this weekend. I'm debating changing the pickup rings & pickguard to black with twin zebra pickups. Suggestions?
 
I'm not going to spend much. Seymore Duncan zebras, yes, but only because I can get a pair very cheap.

Is everything standard size? Metric/Imperial/US ...

Writing to the seller is very entertaining. After your bright-yellow experience I asked for comfirmation of the finish etc:

"Dear friend:
please you don't afraid.
me shall give you send with photo same of guitar.
send goods me shall give you tracking number.
it isn't real gibson.
it is imitate gibson.
but it of timbre and quality is good.
if you have any question, please write letter tell me.
good luck! your chinese friends! wish your family very happy!"
 
I finished the "Yellow Peril" yesterday & took it for a spin this afternoon. It sounds & looks much better than it did when I first got it. I changed EVERYTHING but the bridge & threw all the original parts out. Just a little buzz on some uneven frets, but it worked out well & sounds great through my JMP1 rig. The purchase was definitely worth it, but I would like it a lot more if the color was different. Now I see that the shipping price has shot up to $350 for these guitars, so they are starting to look a lot less attractive. All in all, the experiment was a success & good luck to anyone who wants to buy an electricity guitar.
 
Any chance of some pics of what it looks like right now and close up?

How does it fair up to guitars such as vintage electric? Cause I was thinking of getting a guitar to play around with on the cheap, and weighting up what kind of advantages these electricity guitars have over something I could stroll into like 3 out of 6 music shops in town. I have noticed one or two of the chinese auctions have even had 'Stagg' on the headstock, unless that is what they are trying to copy perhaps they come out of the same factory?

I have always had a bit of an interest in dodgy fakes (I have gone out of my way to get dodgy DVDs, toys, and games consoles in the past - just for the kitch value!).
 
One of the more entertaining aspects to this is that you'll pay exactly the same for a Chinese 'Gibson LP custom' (etc) as you will for a Chinese 'Epiphone LP standard' ....

Also, delivery costs are much cheaper if you hunt for Euro or ? prices. Some of the US $ deliveries are north of $300. The same supplier can be quoting half that in ?s or ?s for worldwide delivery.
 
I thought the epiphone LP standards were made in korea, and it was the lower end models, the special II etc, that were made in china?

I would be interested to find out how the quality of these weighs up against the quality of an Epiphone now that you mention it. I am guessing these things probably vary alot from like, something made by furniture company who have no clue how to make a guitar.
 
I think some real Epiphones are made in China, but it's a near certainty that the e-bay Chinese Gibsons and Epiphones have only a resemblance to a real Epiphone or Gibson. They're more likely to be fakes than production over-runs, although if they are overruns, my money's on Epiphone.
 
Barry NYC said:
UPDATE: I've had this instrument for a week now. The more bits I cut out of it & throw away, this guitar it ACTUALLY IMPROVING! In the first hour I had it, I yanked out the plastic nut & glued in a brass one. On the second day, I cut out the bridge pickup & tossed in a Rio Grande pickup I had laying arond the house. Yesterday I pulled the 3 hole truss rod cover & installed a LP Standard 2 hole bell shaped cover. When I get the matching neck pickup, I intend to cut out all the remaining electronics & throw them away. I don't know what kind of wood this thing is made of, but so far it looks & sounds pretty good! Much better than before. I really should spread for a better set of tuners since I've gone this far. If you want to buy one of these things, I suggest you grab one before the lawyers get involved. Of course, these guitars are junk but I'm having a lot of fun with it!


Finally it all comes down that the guitar costed 500 Dollars or more :wink:
 
$500?

?160 G**** LP guitar, including delivery, then ?40 for used '59 Humbuckers and about ?25 for the all the rest used &/or off e-bay. And it can all be done for less.

That's about $400. I hope that when it arrives it is, as promised, "real timbre" and real "imitate Gibson" and not fiberboard or worse.

If you're into fakes, then it's worth a look.
 
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