What are some of the traits attributed to fake Les Pauls? One of the guys here at work brought in his '82 Les Paul Standard and a couple of things caught my attention. The first was the 3 screws on the truss rod cover and the "O" in Gibson was completely closed at the top. I know the 3 screws in the truss rod is a big indicator but I thought the fakes had more of a "U" in the logo. I didn't have the heart to tell the guy it might be a fake.

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I looked up some '82 Les Pauls on Gbase and they have the closed "O" too but modern Gibsons have the "O" being open at the top. When did Gibson change their logo?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

The biggest giveaway thats largely overlooked by forgers is the wings on the back of the headstock.

If you look the wings are glued on seperate pieces of wood. The join is about 1/3rd into the line of the tuners.


Heres a goldtop that shows the joins a little clearer

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No no and no

A dead giveaway is the electronics,the fakes rarely have the tidy solder joints that Gibsons have and the pots are usually small substandard MIC makes whereas Gibson uses CTS as far as I know.The route for the electronics cavity is usually quite different also.There's a good article about spotting fake LPs on the Gibson website,I've seen it but don't know the link,it has detailed pix etc.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

if the cavity for the electronics is painted i am pretty sure that means it is a fake.

jackpot, got this off of the gibson website:
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/F ... itGibsons/

As said earlier, the first giveaway is the 3-screw truss rod cover..it is most likely an Epiphone, which does have the above. The cavity will be painted in a fake, the logo may be off-center or tilted at an angle. The cavity covers on a Gibson are black, not the cream of the pickguard.

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Gibsen, on the headstock, should raise an eyebrow............ Mike

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First off most fakes have a bolt on neck and not a set design.
- The truss rod cover will have only 2 screws
- The truss bolt when cover is removed will be a nut on the rod and high enough that it can easily be seen and not set deep in the head stock
- the angle of the head stock will be extreme. Most companies that fake a guitar will not do this as it is a bad design and prone to breakage far more likely.

Cheers
Bill

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Any body who misses that little detail is an idiot ...

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Authentic Gibsons have two screws in the truss rod cover.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

I have both a copy and an authentic. I plan on getting rid of the authentic. The copy stays in tune better than the real thing. G string always goes out of tune.

DP -- sorry

On a recent "Pawn Stars" episode, a dude brought in a 1960 black Les Paul Custom to sell. He said he was a
professional guitar player who played on tour behind Triumph and Toto. Anyway, they called in an expert who determined it was actually a '74.
Still a nice guitar, but not worth the stratosphere money of a 1960. He decided not to sell it.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Slightly off topic, but.... I was in my local place yesterday, the tech wanted to show me something. So I took a gander, a beautiful silver Les Paul (real I miight add ) unfortunately the owner had taken it to a party, someone knocked it over. The headstock snapped right off it was a mess

I have a `69 LP and the serial number is stamped into the wood, not a decal ...if thats any help.

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