The New FAKE Epi thread

[JohnnyGoo]

ya no kiddin.great lookin fake.im mean crap even the plastic on the pickups.what gives it away ??? headstock ???serial number ?? hell it even has grovers.

 

[RTH]

ya no kiddin.great lookin fake.im mean crap even the plastic on the pickups.what gives it away ??? headstock ???serial number ?? hell it even has grovers.

Oh, there are a lot of things wrong with this guitar. Wrong serial font and factory code, binding too thick, wrong font & typos on the inspection sticker just to name a few. There are more things wrong with this guitar.

 

[eS.G.]

Sure would fool lots of folks you would think.

 

[HeavyHalf]

Some pics of another faked Epi, the seller at least tried 3x to sell it....

View attachment 706 View attachment 707 View attachment 708 View attachment 709 View attachment 710

So how do we know that one is a fake? To me, the TRC and where the veneer is matched look a little funky. Are those the red flags?

 

[RTH]

So how do we know that one is a fake? To me, the TRC and where the veneer is matched look a little funky. Are those the red flags?

Yes, but you cant determine a counterfeit by those things alone. TRCs can be replaced and veneers arent always perfect. But if you do see those things, you should scrutinize the guitar for other things that are inconsistent with a genuine Epiphone. See my previous post.

 

[RTH]

Sure would fool lots of folks you would think.

It does fool lots of people. Most dont know to look for the less obvious details or just assume that an Epiphone would never be counterfeited.

 

[eS.G.]

Seems like a lot of effort for a 400.00 git. Grovers (perhaps knock offs) and Epi pups..... Now that said do you think this is a true Knock off forgery or something that went out the back door of the Epi plant and got "remarketed" ??

Not arguing just curious. And beginning to think I may have purchased a fake or two in my time unknowingly......HEll I might have one now! :(

 

[Paruwi]

Seems like a lot of effort for a 400.00 git. Grovers (perhaps knock offs) and Epi pups..... Now that said do you think this is a true Knock off forgery or something that went out the back door of the Epi plant and got "remarketed" ??

Not arguing just curious. And beginning to think I may have purchased a fake or two in my time unknowingly......HEll I might have one now! :(

I can't imagine it went out through any backdoor,

Why should anybody change the tools to do a wider binding, just to produce fakes?
Why can't they do the serial#format right, they would know how it had to be?
Why should they use different tunerwashers ?
Why don't they use the correct 'Inspected by...' sticker?
And I bet the control-cavity routings are not identical to the 'legit' ones

 

[eS.G.]

True.

Just seems like a whole lot of ----TBTH not to bad work ---I mean looking at it as a whole--- it looks good (might play like crap) but looks good......the counterfeiter is talented.

So I guess the "Chibson" factory is the culprit? OR similar? Not arguing just trying to understand the concept.

I guess they have very little in production costs......and as Epiphone prices go up up up why not do knock offs eh?

 

[RTH]

Everything on it is fake. The tuners, the pickups, the truss cover and I'd bet dollars to donuts that the top is foto flame. The amber knobs are probably real though.

 

[Paruwi]

So I guess the "Chibson" factory is the culprit? OR similar? Not arguing just trying to understand the concept.

I guess the roots of the fakes go back to the times where Epis had been made in many different OEM factories,
currently they're only made at their own factories or at Unsung and Samick,
both do business with Epi for some decades, so I can't think they'd risk to play foul..

 

[RTH]

Yes, I would gander to say that fakes are probably coming out of the front door of previous Chinese OEM factories.

 

[eS.G.]

I see. Thank you for the info guys.

 

[HeavyHalf]

Oh, there are a lot of things wrong with this guitar. Wrong serial font and factory code, binding too thick, wrong font & typos on the inspection sticker just to name a few. There are more things wrong with this guitar.

I hadn't noticed any of those things. Thank you for the education!

 

[CraigG]

Hi Guys,
Lately I've been looking at this particular Les Paul at a local shop. I'm really thinking hard on bringing this one home, but I want to run it past you guys to see what you think. All in all it's a nice guitar. Obviously it has had a PU change. They sound pretty decent but I'm not sure what flavor of SD's they are. I'ts had a bone nut installed but I'm not sure about the bridge. It more narrow than a newer Epiphone bridge, and it's turned around with the screw heads facing the PU's. The body of the guitar is 5 pieces glued together with a veneer top. The neck has a scarf joint at about the 3rd or 4th fret. My biggest concern is the headstock. The Epiphone logo is horizontal when viewed strait on. The truss rod cover
is a bit crooked. This might be because of some shoddy repair work to stripped screws...not sure. Don't know anything about the serial number printing or fonts, so here they are.
What do you guys think? Legit? I've never even held a Korean Epi before so your knowledge will be appreciated. I won't buy it if it's a knockoff.

 

[Paruwi]

Don't worry, the guitar is legit,
it was made April '94 at the Samick factory in Korea

 

[eS.G.]

Gorgeous Guitar .......and GO MUDHENS!

 

[1stEpi]

Hi guys....first time poster and first time Epi owner...I hope! I recently bought an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro off of...gulp....ebay. The guitar got me interested in discussions about Epi Les Pauls which led me to this forum. I had no idea that the Chinese were knocking these things off. I'm not a complete noob, but I'm obviously naive to think that wouldn't be a possibility. I've attached pics and if a pic of the back of the headstock is necessary for the serial number I'll take one and upload it. Here we go.....fake or real?

 

[MarkB]

Looks gorgeous to me... But then I'm no Les-xpert! A question for those that are... The above has no tail on the 'n', latest versions on shop sites are the same, but the wiki has them with the tail... When does the n's tail dissapear?

 

[Paruwi]

Hi

Welcome here @ Epitalk

Your guitar looks good to my eyes