How to tell a copy

[lefty6898]

I was wondering how to tell a counterfeit Gibson SG? I ran across one that has a dark wood body unfinished with white pick guard but seems very light to be made out of real wood? I have a cheap Ibanez Gio and it is heavier than this SG? It says Gibson on the headstock but I have my doubts?

 

[Go Nigel Go]

The Gibson SG is typically very light, so that is not a cause for concern. Mine is well under six pounds and is the lightest guitar I own. If you post some photos it might help say for certain, but the light weight speaks in favor of it being genuine at least.

 

[Juan Tumani]

I was wondering how to tell a counterfeit Gibson SG? I ran across one that has a dark wood body unfinished with white pick guard but seems very light to be made out of real wood? I have a cheap Ibanez Gio and it is heavier than this SG? It says Gibson on the headstock but I have my doubts?

Do you happen to have any pics?

I have 4 Gibson SGs. 2 are very light, one average and the last (a Custom Shop model) somewhat heavier for an SG.

I wouldn't use weight as a way to determine if it's real.

Many of the fake Gibsons have nice clear serial numbers in comparison to Gibson which stamps their serial numbers before the finishing.

Left is fake and the right is legit.

 

[cerebral gasket]

In addition to the serial number not being the same color as the finish, they always get the font wrong by leaving the baseline off the "1" on the fakes.

 

[laza616]

Pictures would be a huge help to tell you if its genuine or fake

Most common mistakes on the counterfeit Gibsons:
Generic random hardware. Mostly bridge posts are different on the genuine gibsons, this is the most common sign
Fakes are missing the headstock wings , body and the neck are in the wrong angle or no angle whatsoever. Headstock angle is wrong
Gibson has a completely different truss rod, i cant say it in English but fellas there will explain it further
When the fake Gibson has binding on the neck its poorly done when it comes to the finish or it lacks the "nibs"
Poorer attention to the details in general, lack of nitro finish.
Pretty obvious is exactly the serial number, position, font, size, style.
.....these are the Chibson fakes common mistakes
When its done by some good luthier who puts a real gibson hardware and pups in the guitar and knows how to make guitars, its pretty harder to spot

My recent experience. I work as a manager of auctions, not exactly like the realtor but similar, and i was in this house and
I stumbled upon a very good Gibson Les Paul fake... Whoever did it knew god damn well how to make guitars because the guitar was spot on in the angle, had almost believable serial number stamp, logo was identical, it had Gibson hardware, even Gibson PCB board, Gibson pickups, nut was not plastic, it had pretty decent finish and fretboard was also solid. Black finish, i could not see the the headstock wings. Truss rod cover was as on the gibson. Even the pickguard was 5ply.
He took off the truss rod cover and there it was obvious that its fake because it had generic different truss rod.
But other than that it was pretty great guitar. They had the headstock right, almost everything was good. Very good job. The guy admitted that the guitar was fake, he wasnt selling it tho, so i couldnt do anything. Honestly if he didnt show me the truss rod i would have thought it was real Gibson. Anyway he said that he bought it for a fair price and was told it was genuine, so he trusted but found out it was fake later. He kept it. We had a nice chat and he had it well set, it sounded good. I dont blame him for keeping it. He said he will not sell it because its too good to be sold cheap as a fake and he cant ask real money for it as its a fake. Pretty decent guy
I would have kept it too, it was as good as any Gibson you can get really. Other than probably different wood used, glue used and probably not nitro finish it was great.

I dont know. If the company or luthier Can make a such a good copy of a Gibson, why dont they put their name on it and why dont they come up with their logo, model....? If the quality will be that good, it can make some money honest way, guitarists will find it and appreciate it. This way these scummers just risk lawsuits, legal problems and are flooding the market with fakes. It just makes genuine Gibson more valuable in my opinion

 

[Von Trapp]

Youtube and Google will be your friends...

 

[Decadent Dan]

The headstock angle hitting between the nut and first fret can be a clue.