Slash Les Paul Standard Antique Vintage Sunburst "counterfeit" from China (MIC)

In three previous articles I have discussed Chinese counterfeits. First a general discussion, a review of a 160 dollars "Fender Telecaster" and then a 270 dollars "Fender Stratocaster Relic YJM". The last one, # 3, is a Gibson Slash Les Paul Antique Vintage Sunburst "Slash Tribute" for $280. The price tag should easily tell anyone on the planet that the whole thing is a "fake". The original, as you may know, was just manufactured in 1600 ex worldwide and goes for over $3000...Worth every penny. 

I once again must point out that I do not intend to promote Chinese "fakes", I just want to inform you about the phenomenon of "Chinese copies". It´s not illegal to purchase counterfeits, but it is to manufacture and sell them, and especially as "originals".

Even if you don't have moral doubts about buying them, you should know that you support illegal activity and infect the business of high quality instruments.

"Enough" about that ...

# 3 arrived one day after the #2. The walk from the Post Office was much more exciting as #2 turned out to be better than #1, I felt at least not fooled. I was excited all the way home.

The package, also a yellow cellophane package, was heavier than the last two. Once home, I opened the package and found a guitar, the same guitar strap as before, one-piece plastic cable and two shitty picks.

After unpacking the box I met a guitar with an excellent finish. I remember thinking:"how on earth can they make this awesome finish for just $280?". I found virtually no errors at all, maybe a bit more colourful in the burst compared to the original.

I comparison to my original "Slash Signature" I noticed that the "Slash logo" is placed slightly crooked, but it's not something you notice if you do not have an original side to side. The Gibson logo is placed where it should be though.

The neck is straight and under the truss rod plate you actually find a "trussrod". It is the third guitar with a truss rod and it´s not made of silicone, which is important to notice. The counterfeits has become better. The truss rod works fine but it doesn't look like the original at all.

The fretboard appears to be made of Rosewood and it feels great. The inlays looks quite authentic to. The frets are also fine, maybe a bit jagged so they get a little trimming.

The guitar is surprisingly perfect intonated right out of the box, a signal that the factory not just throw stuff together, but the strings are horrible. Not quite as bad as the # 1 (Telecaster), but definitely not classy at all. The three way switch works flawless.

The tuners are "vintage style" and works smoothly. The guitar definitely keeps i tune, even at quite rough playing. They are definitely not Kluson Deluxe, it says Gibson Deluxe on them, but they look almost the same. Another detail to remember if you wanna spot a counterfeit.

Electronics inside are no masterwork, the whole thing looks actually rather "cheap" with sloppy soldering, but it works without "humming".

The pickups are not at all Alnico 2 Pro as it should be in the original. They do not sound bad but they are a bit flat sounding. If you change the pupps to Alnico 2 Pro, you will probably get a much better sounding instrument.

The acoustic sound is surprisingly strong as the guitar is made of less wood.

The bridge is stable with a "Tune-o-matic bridge" and lightweight Stopbar tail piece. It looks ok and works like any other "low cost hardtail" on the market.

This Chinese counterfeit may well cause problems for the ignorant, it is a well-functioning instruments with great looks. Compared to an original Gibson Standard you will notice a difference, of course. But as an instrument it works really well as delivered. If you change hardware it will become a great guitar, there is no doubt about that.

Again, I am pleasantly surprised by the quality versus price. My Chinese # 1, # 2 and # 3 will remain in my possession and will remind me of the globalized world and how it affects us and how it will continue to fool us.

Rating:
4 zombies (5)

2nd article about counterfeits guitars from China

In my articles on Chinese copies, fakes, counterfeits or whatever you call them we are now focusing on three examples that I purchased through the web. The whole idea of this was to find out how these guitars actually are, in terms of quality and how to spot that they are counterfeits. In the last post I discussed the phenomenon of Chinese siunterfeits at large. I also did a survey here in sweden that showed that 36% of the readers actually had bought a counterfeit, for different reasons. I assume it´s like that even i your country. 

It is not criminal to buy a counterfeit, but it is criminal to manufacture and sell it as "genuine" and brand it with someone else name. The problem for a buyer is that one support this murky criminal business.

I also want to state out that I do not support counterfeits and my intention is NOT to help they market their stuff. My intention is to enlighten you to spot counterfeits and stay out of these guitars.  But I also wanted to investigate the Chinese actual ability to manufacture guitars nowadays. Last time I tested a Chinese copy was 10 years ago, and it was actually a very bad experience.

Nevertheless. If you read the different forums it seems to be a good chance to find good instruments, and thats probably the growing problem for the business. But you also risk to get a really crapy one.

I first chose to buy a really cheap guitar, a purple Telecaster branded "Fender". It cost me $160 including shipping. A real bargain don't you think? That means it´s in the price range of "absolute beginner's guitar." The target audience is obviously people who want to buy a really cheap guitar, either as a gift to some child or to hang it on the wall to "flash" of friends or as decoration.

After 12 days, the piece landed in a yellow packages of cellophane. Very well packaged, I must say.

At a first visual inspection of the guitar it seems really good. The finnish is clear as a bell a "Gitar Zombie Purple". The lacquer work is absolutely stunning, even though the pattern looks very "corny" to me. The neck is straight and there is a truss rod in it, which is often claimed opposite. It also comes with a tool for adjustment plus a strap that is too short, a guitar cord in plastic and two completely unusable guitar picks. The whole impression is "cheap".

I plugged it into my Vox AC15. Oh My God .... It sounded really bad, I doubt that you should even call the sound "electric guitar". Really lousy pickups and obviously they're bad wired. Plonk and flat throughout and the strings seem to be more wire than strings. I thought that a string replacement might help a little.

When I restring the beast, I discover that the strings have the wrong distance between the E string and A string. A construction error, the saddles are the wrong.
I ran to my local dealer, Halkans´s Rockhouse i Stockholm,  and got a new set of saddles and then straight back home to change them. And then the next problem slapped me in my face. It is virtually impossible to intonate the piece, it´s impossible.

The strings are badly high and the tuners are really bad, they actually barely works. It doesn't  matter if I adjust the "locking screws" either.

The guitar is a complete disaster, I gave up....

My hopes were down to minus 10, the day after, when I brought home another similar yellow packet. began I actually regret that I started the project at all.

The conclusion is that a $160 guitar clearly is a warning signal. Surprised? No, not particularly.


Stay Zombied

Fake guitars from China + participate in my survey about counterfeit guitars...

The market is flooded of Chinese copies of well known and established guitar brands. So it is. The globalized world we live in nowadays creates a fertile ground for an uncontrolled market of these copies. Forgery industry is associated with a variety of problems, ranging from child labor to environmentally damaging production etc, but note that there is a difference between copies (counterfeit) and clones.

Marshall's first amplifier was actually clones of Fender's best seller "Bassman", it´s important to understand that to be inspired is not equal to stealing. Burny guitars from the late 70s and early 80s are considered as fine and desirable instruments today, but when they were made, they were considered "pirate copies". All major brands have been victims of piracy, and it destroys the long term market. But good stuff has always been copied.

I want to point out that I don't  run any kind of campaign for the Chinese copies, I'm just interested in the phenomenon.

However, one should know is that the difference between clones and pirate copies.

Pirate Copy (counterfeit)
The first category is perhaps the one that instinctively feels problematic, Asian made guitars branded as Gibson, PRS, Fender, ESP or Gretch. This category is outlawed. In most countries it´s a criminal act to produce and sell pirated copies, or "fakes" as originals. But, and this is i big but, it´s not against the law to purchase copies. Therefore, if you do not have moral doubts, it´s legal to buy in a "Made in USA Gibson Les Paul" made in China.

Clones
The second category is not at all associated with criminal activity. It´s very difficult to protect a circuit board by a patent. For those who want to create a clone of an amp for example, just have to design the circuit board and mount the circuits differently so it no longer looks the same and  and able it with their own brand. Protecting the shape of a guitar is also difficult, most clone manufacturers change just enough in the shape or  make a deal and pay a license etc. The clans are inherently interesting and creates an additional range on the market, but without "destroying" it.

Our world has changed
The change that made this huge wave of copies available is simply the availability of knowledge and skills and everyone can learn how to make great instruments. The big brands found countries with cheap labor for their instruments to make bigger profits. So the big companies greed lead to more competitors and "piracy of high quality".

Lots of "good enough guitars" is manufactured in China today, legally under trusted brands and illegally under brands owned by others. Chinese manufacturers are on the go when it comes to the handcraft of building guitars, and one big difference from the past is that they are curious and skilful today, and that they have learned how to make money. This force them to do what ever they can to produce better and better stuff. Thats how capitalism works in a way. One thing to note is that many of the dealers on the Internet is well aware of that the customers rule the market. A negative feed back from a customer is immediately handled. At least most of the time.

The market
An interesting question is "where does all these copies end up"? There's a whole bunch of websites where you can buy a pirated guitar from. If you dive in to these you'll find that most of them lives in Russia, Argentina, Australia, Spain, US and even where I live (Sweden). Practically the world buy Chinese guitars. I think this has to do with generally high priced guitars. Gibson guitars today costs over 3000 dollars, and that in itself creates a fairly large group of hungry people who want a Gibson but don't have the actual money. A Chinese "Gibson" goes for 10% of the price of an "authentic". That means the audience that buys copies probably wouldn't  buy a "real deal" in their lifetime. In a long perspective this will damage the business for the big brands.

Quality?
When it comes to the quality of a Chinese copy, it is much better today compared to the quality ten years ago. But there are many manufacturers out there and all of them are not that great. There are really bad items actually. But there are some really nice guitars for pennies in the context. If you don't  have moral problems with buying a Chinese brand guitar you can make really good buy, there's no doubt about that.

A good copy guitar is like any other good guitar, but of course not comparable to something like "Les Paul Custom Shop" or "Fender Custom Shop". You can't  compare them in any way with the originals, of course.  One should remember that if you buy a "copy" you a "copy" and not the original quality. But it's not quite that simple actually. Quality is a subjective concept, and should also be contrasted with "how much you pay" and what you have as the minimum requirement for your instrument of choice.

Do not sell fakes to others
One should NOT sell copies to others as "authentic", it's really not ok. It can be difficult to determine if a copy is a copy though.

International survey about counterfeits
Before I go any further I would like to know if you have ever bought a "Chinese copy". The survey is anonymous and simple. I would really appreciate if you could answer as honestly as you can. I will display the result in a couple of days.

Have you ever bought a "fake" or "copy" guitar?

Yes

No

poll