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.

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