Plus, it’s just not quite artfully executed: Also the inlay doesn’t perfectly fit in it’s route, and so there’s a layer of filler around the edges. This one used fake abalone – you can see that it’s nothing but a thin layer of the fake stuff under a thick layer of clear plastic. Pearl and abalone are expensive, and I assume that the entire modus operandi of a counterfeiter is to make the fakes cheaply. If the shapes look a little wonky, it’s probably a fake:įor contrast, here’s a real PRS headstock (a different model, thus a different shape, but still artfully executed):Īnother giveaway are the inlays. Most of these bigger companies use CNC machines to carve much of the instrument, and they are deadly accurate. The inlay was sloppy, the wooden faceplate looked cheap and discolored, the truss rod cover was misshapen and not flush with the nut, the headstock shape was incorrect and not artfully done, and the nut was ugly and super high. It even came with a really crappy cable in a ziplock bag, which is another give away. They’re solidly built, are well padded, and use good hardware. Gibson, PRS, Rickenbacker, et al., come with a nice case, that usually form fits to that specific guitar. The first and easiest sign that it’s a fake is the case it comes with. It’s a safe bet that if you’re in doubt, it’s probably a fake. Much of what I saw on this fake PRS can apply to any fake branded guitar (which are usually Gibsons and Rickenbackers). Since I’ve had several people ask about how I could tell, I thought I’d share a few tell-tale signs of how to identify a counterfeit guitar. You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to sneak one past this guitar tech. It only took me about two seconds to identify it as a fake. It wasn’t set up well, and had a nasty buzz on the 12th fret, so he brought it in to me to fix up. He took it to a local music store that shall remain nameless, and they mistakenly identified it as authentic (to their credit, I think they must have been drummers). He got a good deal on it, and he was cautiously optimistic about it’s value as a Private Stock instrument. This week I had a counterfeit PRS Santana come in to the shop, which the new owner was rather suspicious of. The thing is, that most times I see a fake guitar it’s actually not that poorly made – it has to be somewhat decent, otherwise nobody would go for it. Building a guitar takes a lot of work, and requires a ton of expensive tools – so if you’re going to build a guitar, why make a copy of somebody else’s work? I guess they think they’re going to fool a lot of people with their fake guitar, but surely there are better ways to make a living. I’ve never really understood counterfeiters.
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