Fake Epiphone.

[3-Chord-Genius]

The headstock actually looks like the fake Gibson Les Paul Customs (diamonds too small). The fakes are actually pretty decent guitars, but I'm surprised they'd fake an Epiphone.

 

[Archtop Bill]

The headstock actually looks like the fake Gibson Les Paul Customs (diamonds too small). The fakes are actually pretty decent guitars, but I'm surprised they'd fake an Epiphone.

I suspect the counterfeiters feel by faking an Epi, they are less likely to get caught. Expectations for fit and finish of a Gibby are high. Epi buyers, including myself, allow for greater tolerances.

 

[3-Chord-Genius]

I suspect the counterfeiters feel by faking an Epi, they are less likely to get caught. Expectations for fit and finish of a Gibby are high. Epi buyers, including myself, allow for greater tolerances.

This just popped into my head - the Chinese may not even realize that Epiphone is a budget brand, and are simply counterfeiting an American company's product with no knowledge of how pointless it seems to us.

 

[soulman969]

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.

True story. I've even been doing some research on them lately and watching some YouTube vids on the major differences between USA Gibsons and Chibsons.

Xafinity is correct. You can go to Alibaba and find dozens of pre-built LPs and Strats and an "agent" can be located who will help you to have built nearly any copy you like including Epiphones, PRS, and others. You can even customize them in whatever way you like.

Those that are pre-built usually run from the low to the high $200 range and if you want to customize something to your own specs think $300 and up. One one website the sponsor told the tale of a PRS custom copy a buyer was charged over $750 for.

To the inexperienced eye cosmetically they look nearly identical to the real thing but a closer examination reveals many of the corners they cut and the lack of precision at times when installing things like necks and bridges that will affect the playability of the guitar. On top of that electronics, pickups, and hardware are almost always very low grade when compared to actual brand name Chinese imports like Squier or Epis.

Basically you could get lucky with one or you could get very unlucky but one way or another you're gonna end up doing some work on one and probably sinking money into upgrades that may well bring it up to the price of a top end Epi or Squier anyway. It really is a crap shoot and a buyer beware experience for many.

 

[Joe Sailor]

I suspect the counterfeiters feel by faking an Epi, they are less likely to get caught. Expectations for fit and finish of a Gibby are high. Epi buyers, including myself, allow for greater tolerances.

I too wondered why anyone would fake an Epi. You're right, if I were to buy a Gibson, (heaven forbid) I'd be careful. Not so with an Epi. The OP's guitar is pretty. Someone could sell a dozen of them at $250 in a week, whereas you might only sell two "Glibsons" at $600 in a week.

In the US, the most commonly counterfeited denomination is the $20.
It takes the same effort to fake a $20, as it does a $100, but $20's are so common no one looks all that closely at them.

 

[Obsessed]

Wow, buyer beware. I just would have never thought about fake Epis. This amazes me.

 

[3-Chord-Genius]

What makes this whole thing silly to me is that a fake Epiphone probably costs about the same as a genuine one.

 

[Ironwolf]

You seriously undervalue Epiphones. While my two LP junior types cost about $100 and my Dot Studio only ran about $300, My others ranged from $450 to well over $700. And there are models that run into the thousands. The only thing is, the Gibson equivalents (and there isn't always one) still cost way more.

 

[24 track]

this is my Chibson, I wanted one to see what the differences were between a true gibson on the Knock off, I will say this played very well out of the box 240.00 cdn

the differences are
1) this is a copy of a Gibson Ultima , Tree of Life MSR 10,000.00 US, Never made in left handed!
2) Binding around the headstock is wrong for a Gibson
3) the wiring was cheap poorly done, cheap pots and switches
4) Pickups SAID Epiphone but I doubt it
5) the bridge was an Epiphone Type not an ABR
6) serial on back of head stock is punched into the wood after the final finish ( serial # is a valid gibson serial but not for this model)
7) other copies had a scarf jointed neck this one does not
8) 3 piece mahogany body with 2 " flame maple cap ,
9) truss rod is all wrong
10) machine heads were cheap imatations of real Gibsons
11) the frets needed dressing


changes I made
I had a set Gibson 480/490 pickups
I had the Pots from a real Les Paul
I installed a TBX tone control for the bridge Pickup only to prevent the PU from going too dark sounding it worked well I cant remember the cap I put in it but I tried a bunch first.
I changed out the wiring to Gibson braid shield throughout and wired to early sixties wiring
I had a gold Gibson reed swithch (switchcraft)
original Gibson green tulip machine heads
last thing to do is switch out the Epiphone style roller bridge with a Gibson ABR.

No matter what changes I make this will never be a Gibson but I really love this guitar to play and it sounds great ,I took this into Long & Mcquade it took them 40 min to realize it was a fake now I can spot one in the first 3 min. but i had to see one up close first

This Guitar will never be resold

 

[stax]

*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!

Oh I inspected it, played it and even took an amp to hear it but I wasn't aware of looking out for the size of the diamond on the headstock the angle of the logo, the thickness of the binding and a dozen other things that means it's fake.

 

[stax]

Photos?

There is a link in post 7, does it not work?

 

[DMAND]

Hundreds of guitars and posts, everything you could ever want to know about fake Epis can be found here:
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31153

 

[jackinjax]

Nice looking guitar.
I ran the serial number through the "guitar dater project" and it's a legitimate number.

http://www.guitardaterproject.org/epiphone.aspx

Seems like whoever "faked" an Epiphone really went out of their way.