Fake Epiphone.

[stax]

I can understand faking the old Epi's but I had no idea they faked the modern Chinese ones too!
I saw a Epi custon a few months ago a bought it, didn't bond with it, put it on ebay and now been told it's fake and on doing a quick search I do believe it is, normally a bit more careful buying stuff but got burned on this one!

 

[jonzer]

Hey maybe those fakes will make my decade old Korean Epi a collectors item.

 

[dhmpan]

I can understand faking the old Epi's but I had no idea they faked the modern Chinese ones too!
I saw a Epi custon a few months ago a bought it, didn't bond with it, put it on ebay and now been told it's fake and on doing a quick search I do believe it is, normally a bit more careful buying stuff but got burned on this one!

could you just share with us some details, so as not to get fooled ourselves?

 

[stax]

could you just share with us some details, so as not to get fooled ourselves?

There is quite a lot of info online on how to spot a fake that maybe I should have read lol.
The diamond on the headstock has to line up with the tuners a certain way, the h in Epiphone needs to be slightly right off center, (my headstock is all good), draw a line through the vol and tone pot and it should run parallel with neck (again all good).

Bad bits
Scratch plate near neck is badly cut on my one and doesn't follow the contour of the cutaway, the bottom horn is slightly too sharp, the binding around the headstock is half the thickness and should be thinner, the post/screws that fix the tailpiece are domed not flat and apparently the serial no although a correct one is the wrong font.

 

[Obsessed]

I'm a big Epi fan and own three, but seems like a fake Chinese Epi is an oxymoron. I don't get it. Are these made up of rejected parts from the Epi factory? Kinda spooky that these exist and I'm glad you posted about it. Thanks.

 

[radiocaster]

They exist, but the real ones had some variations too.

 

[stax]

It's actually not a bad sounding and playing guitar, the last time I had a fancy to get a LP I got a Chinese Tokai and would definitely say this was better.
Anyway I'm lumbered with it now unless I can sell it cheap for what it is, the ebay listing is down, here is a link to the guitar in question.

(link removed)

 

[Abu Twangy]

There sure can be some variations in Epiphones due to multiple subcontracted builders, changes in specs over the years and different part suppliers.

As an example I owned three Epi Dots over the years--one Korean one built by Unsung and two Chinese-built ones. All three "Epiphone" inlays were different and none was exactly like my 1996 Peerless-built Casino. This is unlike Gibsons where inlays are relatively consistent and the contours of the headstocks are obviously different compared to the fakes.

The Dot bodies showed variations in the cutaways from the "mouse ear" style to a more typical '50s-60s ES 335 style. And neck contours vary. My slim profile '60s style neck was shallower on my '04 than the '12; both had scarf-jointed headstocks, the '09 had a built up head stock with a thick '50's style neck.

Even today with most Epi manufacturing done in China there are at least two factories. The Epiphone City one and an older joint Gibson/Chinese government factory.

I won't even get into the inconsistencies in the Junior and Special LP models I have owned

 

[stax]

I typed the serial no into google and another unlucky guitar player has a similar "is it fake" thread with exactly the same number, his is a Slash model.
You can also see in the pic of the "Grover" heads that the two in the pic are actually different? I have 4 of one kind and 2 of the other, I can't see that being normal on a real Epi.

 

[xafinity]

go to alibaba.com and search guitars. alibaba is like a online expo mart for chinese manufacturing. They said they were trying to clean the creeps out but $300 LPs and $300 Custom Shop Strats still show up there. Order one or a hundred. Or a Hanjin container load. LOL
Couple years ago US customs seized a whole warehouse in NJ full of "Gibsons" Lots of guitar factories in china. Good and bad. Still as close as the clones are that tells you something about the actual possible cost to build a 2500 guitar.
I guess real Squiers and Epiphones are a good example of that.
Its a good thing new youtube vids keep popping up showing the nowdays very hard to spot clues in a fake.

 

[dhmpan]

I don't know a thing.
All I know is I have a dot it plays fine got it second hand and you got me into thinking....

 

[flyingbanana]

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/97935-fake-epiphone/

 

[soulgeezer]

Couple years ago US customs seized a whole warehouse in NJ full of "Gibsons".

Ain't no Gibson like a Jersey Gibson. Clearly, the greatest guitars on the planet, bar none!

But, seriously, that happened in Long Island:

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/fake-gibsons-seized-seller-arrested-1

I mean, you assumed it was NJ like we have a Mafia problem here or something!...

 

[stax]

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/97935-fake-epiphone/

That is the one with exactly the same serial as mine.

 

[Ironwolf]

The Epiphone Forum has a stickied thread on fake Epis. It would probably be worth checking out.

http://www.epiphonetalk.com/forums/epiphone-guitars.2/

 

[flyingbanana]

That is the one with exactly the same serial as mine.

Yes. That was why I posted the link.

 

[Stringbanger]

Hey, this is a Tele forum, aren't all Epiphones fake?

 

[xafinity]

I mean, you assumed it was NJ like we have a Mafia problem here or something!...

Actually YES but thanks for the correction. My bad impression of NJ is more from your politicians not the citizens.

 

[Stingfan73]

*ALL OF IT* further reinforces my strongly held conviction to never, ever, ever, buy any guitar that I can't put my hands on, firsthand, and play/demo, before forking over the money, NO MATTER how much of a "screaming deal" it looks to be. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[TeleFunk Man]

I can understand faking the old Epi's but I had no idea they faked the modern Chinese ones too!
I saw a Epi custon a few months ago a bought it, didn't bond with it, put it on ebay and now been told it's fake and on doing a quick search I do believe it is, normally a bit more careful buying stuff but got burned on this one!

Photos?