Gibson Les Paul Classic – Vintage Sunburst

Serial Number 064429

Police Report 09-7044

Contact Orland Park, IL Police Department (708) 349-4111

Please follow us at twitter.com/gearsecure, myspace.com/gearsecure or facebook for updates.

This equipment has been reported stolen. If you see these items, think of your safety first. We advise you not to purchase the item from anyone claiming to be the owner. If you feel safe with pursuing it further, contact your local law enforcement, referencing the above case number.

Our goal at Gearsecure.net has always been to have a web site that serves both community and business, and gives greater functionality and exposure to our core purpose of loss prevention and recovery. The site as it exists now has been successful at developing community and awareness, but it is now time to take the next step and build our planned web application. We need your help in funding this, and our exposure in the industry. We’re asking for a small donation of only $5 towards our goal of $5,000. Click the “Donate” button to give via paypal.

This information is quoted from our Gearwiki. Please contribute your knowledge.

DATING IBANEZ GUITARS

An Ibanez serial number can tell you two things, year of manufacture and factory (or country) of manufacture. There is no master list to correlate to a model number, these are consecutive serialized numbers only. If you’re trying to figure out what model something is from the serial number, figure out what year it is then go to the catalog library for the corresponding year (or year before or after) to find the model. Some models will never be found in the catalogs, that’s just the way it is.

On typical Ibanez serial numbers the first 2 digits will indicate year, or the first digit will indicate the last digit of the year, but there are also some that indicate no year at all.

This page is for dating Ibanez guitars built in Japan only. See the Factories heading a few paragraphs down for little info on guitars produced elsewhere.

Before 1975 Ibanez did not put serial numbers on their guitars. Most just bore a neck plate simply marked Japan. The only way to date these guitars is to find out what years they were available and then comparing all the minute details like scripts, contours, and inlay variances that only the hardcore vintage gurus know.

1975 – Present

This old style serial number will either be on the neck plate or impressed into the back of the headstock. It consists of a letter, A – L, followed by a 6 digit number. The letter stands for the month, A for January etc., the first 2 digits will be the year, 76 is 1976, 96 is 1996, the last 4 digits will be the consecutive production number for that months production, 1356 would be the 1356th guitar produced that month. This form of serial numbering is still used today on guitars where the number is impressed into the back of the headstock. A761356 – The 1356th guitar produced in January ’76

1987 – Present

These serial numbers will either be on the neck plate or on a serial sticker affixed to the back of the headstock, with some models still following the impressed old school serial numbers shown above. There are many variables of numbering through these years and between different models and are broken down into 3 categories, stickers, plates, and the impressed numbers that follow the old school style detailed above.

HEADSTOCK SERIAL STICKERS

1987 – 1996
Continue reading

This theft occurred on July 26th.

Taylor 714CE

Serial Number 20030915156

Police report 3647-09

Contact Mamaronek Police Department (914) 381-7887

Please follow us at twitter.com/gearsecure, myspace.com/gearsecure or facebook for updates.

This equipment has been reported stolen. If you see these items, think of your safety first. We advise you not to purchase the item from anyone claiming to be the owner. If you feel safe with pursuing it further, contact your local law enforcement, referencing the above case number.

Our goal at Gearsecure.net has always been to have a web site that serves both community and business, and gives greater functionality and exposure to our core purpose of loss prevention and recovery. The site as it exists now has been successful at developing community and awareness, but it is now time to take the next step and build our planned web application. We need your help in funding this, and our exposure in the industry. We’re asking for a small donation of only $5 towards our goal of $5,000. Click the “Donate” button to give via paypal.

A post in a forum lining to us (thanks for linking to our article, by the way) led me to a new source for counterfeit Les Pauls. I’m going to focus on two, a white Custom and a Zakk Wylde, but this site has all sorts of Les Paul knock-offs. Like usual, I don’t want to send anybody to this site, so I’ll keep the name a secret to everybody but the trademark holder.

Here’s the white Les Paul:

Looks fairly good, though the back bout is a little wonky maybe. It is hard to tell, but it looks like regular tolex to me, instead of the Gibson snakeskin. The writing looks a little blurry on the case, but that could be the low quality image. Let’s look at another.

Again, I think the back bout is a bit off, and I don’t recognize that Gibson sticker as anything recent. The red smudge is where I blurred the seller’s logo. Often times, the binding on these guitars will not have the proper number of layers, but we can’t tell that from this image. The biggest giveaway is coming.

Gibson serial numbers are stamped into the wood and painted over, with the exception of several Reissue models, which use stamped paint. The paint on these is usually irregular, splotchy and a little off of a perfectly level line. On a painted white Les Paul, the serial number is hardly legible. If we try to decode the serial number, we find it was made on the 200th day of ’05 and then we come up a digit short, since after July of 2005, they went to a 9 digit serial number.

Time to check out the Zakk

The bulls-eye is in the right place. Case is still obviously not a Gibson.

Serial number is just a few off of the last guitar. Hmmm… Let’s move down the neck a bit.

Wait, is that a nice shiny finish on the back of the neck? Zakks are finished, then the back of the neck is sanded to raw wood.

This site sells these guitars for $374, about the same as a medium end Epiphone Les Paul. I saw one of these on a classified site (actually identified as a copy) for over $700, just so you know the markup on the counterfeit you’re buying from that guy.  For $375, you get a questionable guitar with no warranty and no one to stand behind its craftsmanship. Better to go with the real deal.