Given the increasing number of people trying to mislead and con people out of money its time to post pics of offending articles. It would be good if it developed into a fake identification resource, but thats not my aim. I'm simply sick of con artists.

The fake Voodoo


Vinny how about a pic of lonelyboy.

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No no and no

I would toss up the URL as well. Buyer/Sucker Beware!

That's a good idea Niki. Maybe we all here can stop or get a potential buyer from getting ripped off. I still think that the buyer should do some homework before purchasing something that sounds to good to be true. We could be a little help and try to steer them in the right direction before GAS grabs hold of their common senses.

FHop to do the homework you got to have somewhere to get the info from. I'm just sick of rip off merchants suckering unsuspecting guitar lovers. After all there was a time when I didnt know the difference between a strat, a ukelele and a pipe organ. If were honest we were all at that point once. In my case a very good friend stopped me ditching a nice tokai in favour of a fender logo'd poor excuse of a fake tele. The guy selling it had even cut through the fretwire to stop the string buzzing on the bad fret. I would have never spotted it without my friends help. That was 22 years ago, I was 15 had a liking for hard work and consequently more money than sense.
'There but for the grace of God and friends, go I', is my motto in this instance. Well i'd certainly like for a few people that may not have such knowledgable friends to think 'there but for the grace of God and those jolly helpful chaps at the fender site, go I'.

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No no and no

I agree 100% !! I think the majority of us are already trying to help people out now, as it should be. The only thing is if we ask for info and pics. the poster sometimes feels offended. We are just trying to help. Lord knows I am limited in my knowledge but will do what I can.

Also the problem is they already have jump off the edge and there nothing but a hard landing. Best advise is that if you don't know for sure what it is let it go your not going to miss what you never had!!!!
Plus lets face it ,deal with a reputable shop let them make there cut at least you know there is someone if there is a problem.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Of coarse if people actually followed this good advice we would never have met our friend Vinnypop. his thread is a huge example, if he hadn't already bought that slab o wood, I would have chimed in earlier with my suspicion of what he owned. as it was I waited a couple days til i was sure. but if he had come here first, and posted some pictures we could have warned him off the sale.

Niki himself is the positive side of this. He came to us when he felt iffy about a purchase, and the hounds were unleashed, and helped him steer away from that fraud. I know I would come here if I came across something like that. You guys know your stuff, and everyone does their best to help.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I'm all for saving someone the heartache of getting ripped off! It's not as easy as spotting the fake Rolex on the corner for $20.

Every once in a while, someone posts the obligatory "is this real or fake" thread and normally there is a pretty concise opinion some people who really know what they are looking at. I would sure like to know if someone is trying to pull of a fraud. At least I would know to stay away from them in the future.

I think the thing that most people forget is that .If something is priced to good to be true it usually is..I own a 73 Fender American Standard which is somewhat collectible but not like a 60's model...But before i bought it i researched it and had it in writing that i would get a full refund if the guitar couldn't be authenticated...
Like in the case of Vinnypop ..Does anyone truly believe they could buy a true 50's era Strat for $6500 ..Lets face it a 50's era Strat is going sell at $25,000 on a very low side..That is a educated guess by the way ...I truly have never been involved in buying or selling something of that value other than a house..

Sellers on eBay are pretty bad. I am always calling out sellers on eBay who claim to be selling authentic guitars or reporting them. One instance got me so mad recently. Guy trying to sell a Chinese counterfeit USA name brand guitar (I will not name the brand but it rhymes with Jibson) for slightly less than a real one and advertised as such. They are usually pretty easy to spot. The Fender knock offs always have a messed up pick guard. The holes don't match and don't seem to fit on the body like real Fenders do. There's little we can do to help 1st time buyers who don't know to do the research. I applaud everyone's efforts here to make 1 less person a sucker.

Great thread, Nikininja. It provides a valuable public service and a bit of a laugh at the same time. In that vein, I recommend creating shorthand way of referring to this deceptive voodoo: the Doodoo.

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

I think lonely boy is in a class of its own- it sparked the Vinnypop phenemon as we know it to be- much like the SRV strat... lets leave old lonely boy out of this one-

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Here is a website that is selling all kinds of Chinese fake guitars.

http://www.dhgate.com/wholesale/guitar/ ... lc164-3309

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The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say.

Well I called out the guy who was selling the fake Frampton Gibson. After my friend and you guys confirmed it was a fake I wrote and told him your guitar is being talked about on guitar forums as being a chinese fake. He emailed me back with the famous I am just as shocked as everyone else. That he got the guitar from a pawn shop and was taken to and that is why he stopped the auction and was just going to hang it on his wall as an expensive lesson learnt. I wrote him back to say how come he did not bring it back from where he got it to say it was a fake and also to remind him he did not stop the auction the guitar did not reach the reserve. Funny I never heard from him again. I have always thought the Gibson Night Hawk was a cool ax but never found a model nice enough to buy. I went on ebay the other night and there were one Gibson and one Epiphone model that looked like they were made yesterday though the guitar has been discontinued for years. I used my new catch phrase on the guy selling the Gibson 'your ax is all over the web as being a chinese fake' and he says it has made in the USA on it .lol I would not buy a Gibson on ebay with Trumps money.I dont know enough about them and the fakes are to good and getting better. Theres even a guy selling chines Gibsons and is reaching out to scammers. AMAZING

People will always be gullible. They dream of finding that '54 Stratocaster at a garage sale - the one that grandpa put in the closet 40 years ago.

The counterfeiters are good enough to fool everybody but real experts. But that's at the high end. A lot of crooks operate at the low end because most people are nowhere near experts. I know I'm not. I'm just a player. So I buy new at reputable places.

And a lot of people think that pawn shop staff are stupid. They're not. You can't stay alive in the pawn business if you don't know what you've got.

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