# Spotting a FAKE Gibson!



## Rawpower

This subject has been coming up more and more as time goes on. The Chinese have been Flooding the market with fake Gibsons for a while now. A real Les Paul will cost you around $700 and go up from there. I have been reading several blogs on this but have never encountered one until today. I saw an Ace Frehley Gibson Les Paul for sale at a pawn shop for 1100 bucks. I thought wow That's a Pretty cool guitar. The lady asked if I wanted to see it and said, sure. I had no intension on buying it but didn't want to pass up the opportunity to look at at an Awesome Les Paul. Immediately red flags start going off. This Les Paul was really Light. The Binding seemed a little off on the frets. The back of the headstock said, Made in the U.S.A.. and had grover tuners. The trust rod cover had three screws, not two like most Les Pauls. I said Thank You and handed it back. I did some research on the internet and found out more about tthe Ace freely Guitar. For one they start at 3,000 and go for as much as 6,000. The Chinese are selling knock offs for 250 bucks!! If you guys are thinking of buying a Les Paul or any other expensive guitar, be sure you do your research. I hate to see anyone get ripped off!! I will try and post some links.

Here is a good site : http://www.samash.com/opencms/openc...counterfeit-gibson-fender-ibanez-guitars.html

This is seller of fake Gibsons ; http://www.tradetang.com/for-sale/W...lectric-Guitar-gray-best-/132349-2837599.html


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## Rawpower

Here are some pics. The Red headstock is also a fake.


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## reelist

*Thanks thats good info*

There is some organization or something i heard of that trys to track every vintage gibson in the usa. as to who owns ,state, town what model, color ect. im told. Their mission is to weed out fakes on the high end and expose con artist. Id ques there are a few real ones never registered


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## BigBay420

Good work thanks for the heads up.


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## TXSURF

Here is a picture of my 74 Custom as one would have looked when Ace got his 74. Only 2 things that are not original are the TP-6 Stop Bar I installed in the 70's and the black witch hats have been replaced with speed knobs. She Bogas at 11.4# with strap.

Ace removed all the black plastic and replaced them with cream colored ones. His Custom was also originally a 2 pickup model that he had converted to a 3 pickup because he liked the look.


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