Monday 8 December 2008

Epiphone Les Paul Standard - FAKE or European made?

This Les Paul was purchased second hand from an individual at the end of November 2008. It has been suggested that this is an European model as the serial number starts with "B" and that the previous owner bought this in Italy at Bandiera Franco, one of the largest musical shop in Rome. I ran a quick check at the Gibson website and found that this shop is one of their dealers in Italy.

However, there are signs which also suggest that this may be a fake. I took the guitar myself to a Gibson dealer who thinks it is a fake but would not confirm it as there are various versions of Epi LPs made by the many factories over the years. They pointed out some features which are not common for an Epiphone LP and said that if it is fake, it's the best they've seen.

I've posted the pictures below and would appreciate comments from anyone - fake or real?


Photo 1:
The "Epiphone" word should be slanted a bit more?
The top screw on the trust rod cover is not exactly center.

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The serial number print appears to be a bit dodgy.

Photo 13:
The black paint a bit messy at the side of the headstock.

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The pickguard has 2 screws to the body rather than 1.

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Nothing printed on the underside of the pick-up

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Normally would see "Epiphone" printed underneath.

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Pick-up selector


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Doesn't look like a typical Epi LP input.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice guitar

Anonymous said...

Hello. I also purchased a second hand Epiphone Les Paul that has very similar features to yours. It also has a "B" serial number, which according to the guitar dater project
(http://www.guitardaterproject.org), my guitar was made in 1997 at the Bohima Musico Delica plant in the Czech republic. It has a wine red finish which is good but not great. I too also began to have doubts about it, so I emailed some photos to Gibson in the USA. They were very prompt in their reply and told me that the guitar was genuine.
Perhaps you should do the same with these photos. I know that there is a lot of concern about the growing number of fake guitars coming in from China at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Hello, you're guitar is definately genuine. The biggest indicator for it beeing genuine is the long tenon with the hole in it, that's typical for the Czech Epiphones.
For reference feel free to check www.mylespaul.com. I'm a member there (-=[Shifty]=-) and we're putting great effort in fighting the chinese counterfeiters.

Anonymous said...

Seems to be completely genuine. I have a very similar one (except for the bridge and the tailpiece, but maybe that has been changed by the first owner? Or maybe this is due to the fact that yours was made a few years later...)

You can check it here, and see that it's fully genuine:
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/epiphone-les-pauls/50378-info-97-czech-epi-les-paul-standard.html