COUNTERFEIT GUITARS
how it would play or sound? I might hit the jackpot or collect the booby prize. I surmised later
that the photo I was looking at was most likely
one of a real Gibson Custom Shop Boneyard Les
Paul appropriated from someone’s eBay auction.
Pluses and minuses
While I contemplated the purchase, I queried a
few people on The Gear Page about their experiences with counterfeit guitars. After speaking with Peter C******** of Maryland, a man
who has bought at least eight to 10 Chinese
counterfeit guitars, I decided not to order from
TradeTang.
“My first Chinese counterfeit,” Peter told me,
“was a Tony Iommi copy that I bought from
Payless Guitars [more on them later]. It was
pretty crude; pot metal hardware, cheesy tuners, and the body may have been some kind of
pressed wood. I did some work on it and used a
lot of parts from my parts box. When I got tired
of it, I sold it and moved on. That was about
three years ago. Since then, the guitars have
come a long way in quality.”
Peter continued, “There are two types of
places you can buy counterfeit Chinese guitars
today. Let’s call them the ‘real’ and the ‘fake.’
The fakes are places like Trade Tang, SBICU
and DHgate. These are the Chinese versions
of Craigslist. Anyone can be on these sites
and say whatever they want. They often take
pictures of real Gibson guitars and post them.
With these places, you are dealing with an
individual, not a company. You pay them your
money then they go out and find you a guitar. I
don’t recommend them.”
The “real” places, Peter explained, “are
stores, so to speak. Sites like ZXCmusic.com,
Expressguitar.cn.com and Samin.cn.com are all
large, well-run websites, and I have bought from
all of them. The product is no better or worse
than any entry-level guitar.”
I had to ask, “Then why buy them?”
“I’m left-handed,” he replied. “Gibson, PRS
and Fender refuse to make a lot of models in
a left-handed version. I wanted a left-handed
Reverse Firebird and Gibson wouldn’t make it,
but the Chinese were happy to comply. They
are not without their pitfalls, however. Many
times, the Chinese with just ship you what they
have, regardless of the color you ordered. You
could order a red Les Paul and wind up with a
green one. When you complain, they say, ‘Next
www.premierguitar.com
time we give you discount,’ which amounts to
about $20. The Gibson fakes are easy to spot.
The main giveaway is frets going through the
binding. Gibson doesn’t do that. And the bell-shaped truss rod covers of the knockoffs have
three screws, while the Gibsons have two.”
There are two types
of places you can
buy counterfeit
Chinese guitars today.
Let’s call them the
‘real’ and the ‘fake.’
The fakes are places
like TradeTang, SBICU
and DHgate.... Anyone
can be on these sites
and say whatever
they want. They often
take pictures of real
Gibson guitars and
post them.
Peter seemingly took satisfaction in “rubbing it
in Gibson’s face,” a response I heard from others while prepping this piece. Another member
of The Gear Page told me the following: “I
bought one from Samin.com. It took about two
and half weeks to arrive, and I did get tracking
numbers. The quality was equal to an Agile or
an Epiphone; pretty much like all the Chinese
Les Paul models. The pickups were branded
Epiphone—they sounded OK. It needed a good
setup and some of the frets were high and
needed a bit of leveling. The nut also needed
work—the slots were too high. After I worked
on it, it was a pretty nice guitar. It looked very
nice and played fine. By the time I upgraded
the pickups, I had about $450 in it, so not
exactly a steal. If you can’t do some basic work
yourself, I would not recommend [a Chinese
forgery], but they aren’t the pieces of shit some
people would lead you to believe.”
One can also easily find Chinese counterfeit
axes on eBay, who up to this point has done
little or nothing to stop the problem. According
to sources, however, eBay has finally taken some
steps to shut down auctions of bogus guitars.
Knocking it off
What are guitar companies doing to stop
the problem of counterfeiting? John Hall of
Rickenbacker, of Santa Ana, Calif., a fierce
defender of his trademarks and designs, noticed
counterfeit Rickenbacker guitars and accessories
just over a year ago. “I could go online right
now and find all kinds of Rickenbacker counterfeits,” he says, “including nameplates. We filed
our trademarks on body shapes, and so forth,
very early on. After six years, your trademarks
are set in stone. Prior to that, you might say
they’re encased in soft cement. We discovered
the counterfeits just over a year ago, and the
truth is we’re currently very limited as to what
we can do to stop the problem. But without
saying too much, I can tell you that we are on
the verge of controlling it within China, using
political and legal strategies that will cut the
head off the snake at the source.”
When I asked if the counterfeiting problem
could ever be completely solved, Hall responded, “It’s never going to be truly solved …
diminished maybe, monitored and controlled,
perhaps. It’s very hard to gauge whether the
Chinese government is cracking down as they
say they are. We get lots of lip service from
them. They did bust that woman who ran
PaylessGuitar.com, and she got a jail sentence.”
Explaining how the counterfeits negatively
affect Rickenbacker’s reputation, Hall put it this
way: “It’s a matter of brand dilution. Someone
sees a counterfeit Rickenbacker with crude
workmanship, hardware variations and bad finishes, and for an individual who might not know
the difference—like a well-meaning parent buying their child his or her first guitar—it makes us
look bad. It doesn’t affect us as much as it does
Gibson and Fender. We’re more of a niche
