We found a site the other day that sells counterfeit guitars of many major manufacturers, calling them “Ibanez Style” or “Classic Style” in the case of Gibson. We’re usually interested in giving a very detailed point by point look at a guitar if we happen to have one in our hands, but in this case, we don’t. We have just a few photos that aren’t all that detailed. In this case, I’ve going to give you an idea of what we’d look at if we saw a guitar we suspected was a fake. Understand that these guitars are rarely seen in guitar shops. Dealers deal direct with the manufacturer or authorized distributor. These counterfeits make it into the market by direct order from consumer to the counterfeiter or via unofficial channels such as eBay. As always, if you discover an eBay seller is dealing counterfeits, you can notify us at Gearsecure, and we’ll publicize it across our social network, get in contact with the manufacturer and do what we can to stop the practice.

I’m not going to tell you the domain. We don’t want to give these guys any advertising or traffic. Rest assured we’ll be contacting our contacts at the manufacturers in question to make sure they are aware of the site.

No surprise the site in question originates in China. Undoubtedly some of these instruments are in the wild around the world, including the U.S. When you read the site, you can tell that the copy is written by somebody who isn’t a native English speaker, though the grammar isn’t horrible. There’s hardly any Engrish to make fun of, though the copy is far from brilliant or professional.

The site says any of their guitars can be ordered custom, and they show a unique 3+3 headstock with an eagle logo as the “standard” headstock that the guitars come with. This helps to distinguish their guitars from the manufacturers they are counterfeiting, or at least provide plausible deniability. Since most of the photos on the site cut off just below the headstock, I’m guessing they don’t really do this. Instead they probably send you a counterfeit, claim it’s an error, and stick you with it. But you’ll see more of their headstocks in a minute.

One of my favorite lines from the site is to call their instruments “Chinese Replica Guitars”. These are no more “replica guitars” as a counterfeit $20 bill is a “home inkjet replica bill”.

A further example of this deception is evident on their Ibanez page, I’m sorry, “Ibanez style guitars” page.  Look at these images:

Obviously, these are so close to Ibanez’s style that they have replicated the shipping boxes and hang tags.

Here’s another good one: notice these guitars have the Gibson “made in USA” sticker over the pickups.

The Fender copies likewise have a sticker like the Fender Americans do. They’ve done their homework and made things as exact as possible.

Most of the guitars on this site go for $400-550. I point this out as I roll out the biggest joke on this particular site. This time I’ll give you a screen grab, because you won’t believe me otherwise:

Yes, not only have the counterfeited a Squier, but they are selling it for $150 above what they are selling for in Guitar Shops. How you like that?

Since I don’t have the actual counterfeit guitars here, I’m going to make this more of a primer on how to be skeptical when evaluating a guitar that you may be purchasing. We can’t accurately gauge the colors on this site, and we can’t accurately gauge some other physical characteristics, so we’re going to have to look very closely at the clues we are given, and hopefully you’ll develop an understanding of what to look for.

Here’s a few things I notice from the site, a few specific differences that you can use to accurately identify these counterfeit instruments.

Here’s a good example of their Les Paul counterfeit. Note that this is fairly decent as things go. They managed to have the standard Gibson two piece bridge, knobs look close enough to the proper placement. To me, however, the horn on the cutaway looks a bit more rounded than the real deal, and the curve on the back end of the body looks a little more squat. That could be perspective, it’s hard to say.

In this picture you see the back, and the backplate looks close to the real deal. Often times, this panel is shaped a little differently, and that is a giveaway, or pull that cover off and see how well the routing has been done. Gibson doesn’t release hack jobs like the ones I’ve seen in some counterfeits.

In this picture you can see the heel and neck join. This appears to me a bit wrong. The heel looks shorter than the typical Les Paul. On the genuine article, the heel is approximately (?) shorter than the width of the body.

They also have no problems producing artist signature models. There’s the Ace Frehley, the Joe Perry, The Slash (Notice the Gibson Headstock on this one).

They also have an ES-335 copy and an Explorer copy. They call this one a korina, but I’m sure you can’t get a guitar made of korina for this kind of price.

Here’s a photo of a headstock from a “Custom” Les Paul counterfeit. That headstock isn’t blank. Apparently, they’ve also pirated Photoshop, because there’s a big black blob hiding something….

This is interesting, when I look at this image in a preview in my file manager, I get a different image. Should have used the Flatten Image command:

Let’s look at their Ibanez Jem copy guitar. You’ll notice that it is sitting on top of an Ibanez box. This one is very accurate. Unlike other Jem counterfeits I’ve seen, this has the correct Gold pickup pole pieces and the scalloping in the upper frets. They’ve really paid attention to details on this one.

So let’s look at this side by side.

Look at the close-up on the bridge. It does say Ibanez, but the casting seems highly flawed, not the smooth consistent and high quality lines of the Ibanez.

Take a look at the pyramid inlays in this neck. These are very sloppy, and I’m not sure if you know this, but on the official Ibanez models with the pyramid inlays are simply pieces of paper under transparent inlays. Those Ibanez guys, they’re crafty, unlike these counterfeiters.

Here’s a shot of the headstock. Take a look at the swoosh.

Compare it to this photo of the real product.

You can see the font of the word “Jem” is much thicker in the counterfeit. The swoosh also looks a bit thicker to me on the counterfeit.

Notice on this photo, the Ibanez tuning machines, and the lack of a serial number. Ibanez serial numbers are almost without exception on the back of the headstock.

Paul Reed Smith is not immune to these counterfeiters. Here’s a few instruments to look at.Oh, wait, that’s a Guitar Center Platinum Room display with real PRS guitars to give the bogus ones that follow a bit more credence:

Look at this PRS Single-cut counterfeit. Notice that it has exactly the same body as the Gibson Les Paul Counterfeits. I don’t know, can a counterfeit company sue over counterfeit infringement?

Here’s a shot of their headstock copy. It is inlaid just like some PRS guitars. Notice on the back, the serial number follows an approximately correct format, but isn’t hand-written. The tuning machines also appear to be Grovers, or maybe just Grover counterfeits.

Here’s some Fender counterfeits.
Also notice in these and other pictures, the bottom horn in the cutaway seems smaller and just wrong for a Fender.

Notice the heel of this guitar’s neck. On a real Fender, a sticker sometimes is placed here if it is made in Mexico or China. This one has some writing that may be a serial number. The sticker never looks like this, though. Fender’s current Serial Numbers are, like Ibanez, almost always on the headstock.

Here’s their SRV copy. The differences between this and a real SRV are very noticeable. First, the sunburst appears to be the right colors, but the gradation is very smooth on a real Fender. Second, the letters on this counterfeit’s pickguard are very bold in comparison to the real Fender. Third, the real Fender has gold hardware with a lefty bridge, so that the trem arm hangs from above the bridge.

Unless I mention it, all of these images are of counterfeit instruments. I hope this gives you some reference material in what to look for in distinguishing counterfeit instruments, and that you’ll be better armed when making a purchase to identify a genuine instrument.