Chinese counterfeit super bizarrely shaped thing labelled BC Rich

guitarz.blogspot.com:



Words fail me!

OK, I'll try harder.

I saw this earlier on Aliexpress.com (via Facebook). For those not in the know, Aliexpress is one source of Chinese-made counterfeirt guitars, copies of Fenders, Gibsons, Rickenbackers (often dubbed Chenders, Chibsons and Chickenbackers) amongst others such as Gretsch, BC Rich, Ibanez, etc. Occasionally they have an original design or two, perhaps a hybrid guitar based on a particular brand but which never existed. And then there are things like the above pictured guitar, mad designs of their own. In this case they've cheekily put the BC Rich logo on the headstock (yhe headstock itself has the barest amount of shaping from the basic paddle blank shape). You can imagine the thinking here: "Oh, BC Rich do some wacky shaped guitars, just put their logo on it."

Poor ol' Bernardo Chavez Rico must be spinning in his grave.

G L Wilson

© 2016, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Batman "Ker Pow" knock-off Precision Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This Bat bass features quite a neatly executed home-made finish, with a decoupage of Batman comic strips on the body itself. It's a bit of a pity about the counterfeit decal applied to the headstock when the bass isn't actually a Fender but consists of a Squier body married to a no-name copy neck. Yes, I appreciate the details are fun what with the wholly appropriate serial number and the "Made in Gotham City" legend, it's just a pity that the Fender logo was used. The etching (if that's what it is) of the Batman logo on the pickguard is a nice touch though.

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with a low starting price.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Gitison Les Paul "The Paul" copy from Hungary

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The headstock logo kinda makes you do a double take, doesn't it? Walking a very fine line between copy guitars and outright forgery, this Gitison "The Paul" copy is a Hungarian made guitar, the work of one Mr. Tibor Turcsak (see another one of his guitars here).

This particular example of his work has a Honduras mahogany body, a flamed maple neck, and German-made Shadow humbuckers.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting price of €350.

Thanks again to Zirig Árpád for alerting me to this eBay auction.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

The strange story of the Vietnam Serviceman Stratocaster

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hmmmm... There's something a little fishy about this Stratocaster listed on eBay recently. Note how it has a trem but the lack of a spring cavity on the rear makes it look like a hardtail from the behind.

That trem looks to be a very crude version of the Jazzmaster-style tremolo. And speaking of "crude", just look at that bridge!

The neck bolts are actually beneath the neck plate which is held in place by screws where you'd expect the bolts themselves to be.

The Fender headstock looks a little wonky in shape and - appropriately - has wonky decals applied.

Apparently it's a Philippine-made forgery, as sold to Vietnam servicemen in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Jazzmaster and Jaguar forgeries were more commonplace as these were the top of the line Fenders of the day, and this Strat version is supposedly much more unusual. It could also explain why the choice of tremolo used too. The seller tells us that the middle pickup is a dummy stuffed with paper, and that the pickup selector switch was originally only two-way but has since been replaced by a three-way.

For more information on these Philippine-made forgeries, check this website.

Recently listed on eBay but unsold with a starting price of $399.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Two clichés in one: The Lawson Skull and Axe guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've not looked at a truly incompetent piece of guitar making for a while now (it would be an insult to all the quality craftsmen out there to refer to a major balls-up such as this as "luthiery"), and with this in mind I present you with the Lawson Skull and Axe guitar (or the New Custom Death Kiss Axe electric guitar w Foyd Rose as the seller calls it), giving you two dreadful clichés in one really terrible guitar. Just look at the crappiness of that thing. I'm amazed they even have the nerve to charge as much as $249 for it.

Despite the name stamped into it, I don't believe that's a real Floyd Rose for one minute. But the one touch that I think is the funniest (aside from the deplorable "artwork") is the location of the strap button on the lower horn as if it's been put there for a left-handed player. The whole thing looks so slapdash, I expect someone probably got confused because of the inverted 6-in-a-line headstock.

Surely this is a guitar ONLY for those in spoof metal bands in the Spinal Tap, Bad News mold. Even then I doubt it's a serious playable instrument.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Surely some mistake?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

What the...?

I'll leave you to make you own comments!

(Thanks to Brad Olson who found this oddity on Craigslist).

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Watch this eBay listing get pulled...

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Rickenbacker are known to be particularly zealous when it comes to copyright infringements based on their brand name, designs and trademarks. They are known to trawl the eBay listings looking for cheaper copy guitars listed in conjunction with the Rickenbacker brand being mentioned. The best a seller of a Ricky rip-off can do is to display good clear photos so the buyer can see what they are getting, and avoid mentioning the R-word anywhere in the text. Even derivatives of the name, e.g. Ricky, aren't advised, as these will get pounced on too.

With a feedback score approaching 1000, you wouldn't have suspected the seller of this Greco of being that green in this respect, but he or she is really asking for it when listing this guitar thusly: "1984 Greco Rickenbacker Vintage and Rare COOL!"

They are only making matters worse for themselves when they say:

If you have been craving a Rickenbacker but don't have the funds then this might just be for you, it's a made in Japan 1984 Greco Ricky copy with 3 toaster pick ups and the all important blend knob which helps give it it's (sic) distinctive sound, it plays nice and looks the part, in fact you only need change the tail piece and truss cover to rickenbacker ones and nobody will know it's not the real thing.

Shooting yourself in the foot or what?

Anyone want to bet how long it is before this listing gets pulled?

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Highly optimistic French eBayer

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Someone has applied a very poor imitation Fender logo to this cheap and nasty vaguely-Telecaster-styled guitar from the 1970s. These appeared under various brandnames; it's probably one of Teisco's poorer efforts.

So, how much do you think the seller is asking for this dreadful example?

Would you believe €9,990.00? That's approximately £8,939.96 or US$14,754.10 which is quite frankly outrageous for this horrible plank!

I'm unsure as to whether the seller is incredibly stupid and really thinks that this is a long lost Fender prototype or whether he/she is aware that it's a pile of crap and is hoping someone out there is stupid enough to pay that kind of silly money for something that is actually hardly worth 50 quid (and that's being generous).

My French isn't very good - perhaps someone can translate the listing and what crazy claims the seller is making about this sorry guitar.

G L Wilson

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

Les Paul Six String Bass? Surely Not?

Remember the "rare four string electric guitar"? Well, I've just found the perfect partner for it, namely this New 6 String Bass black electric guitar excellent (allegedly).
Funny that. It looks like a cheap Chinese counterfeit Epiphone to me. (Why did they think it was a bass?)

FIVE pickups on a Strat?

This is one of those "WHY?" guitars.

This Strat-a-like guitar has been fitted with two additional pickups, and wired up so that the 5-position switch can select only one of each of the five pickups at a time. I can't imagine this would be very useful at all. On/off switches for each pickup would surely have been a better idea allowing you to choose pickups in each and every combination you could desire. As it is, it's very silly.

Note also that the seller also has committed the cardinal sin of putting a Fender decal onto the headstock of this non-Fender guitar. It's about time people stopped this illegal and dishonest practice. I don't care if he points out in the listing that it's not actually a real Fender guitar. If it's not a real Fender then the Fender logo does not belong on it. End of story.

I'm still looking for that picture of a Strat with nine pickups.

Do you want spiders or pigs on your guitar?

This seller has a bunch of interesting customisations of cheap guitars for sale on eBay right at the moment.

Several have fabric-covered bodies which are then lacquered over. I thought that these two examples were quite eye-catching. The spider guitar would probably appeal to many up and coming rockers, but I'm not really sure who'd want to buy the pig guitar.

Unfortunately some of his other customisations are spoilt by his insistence of putting counterfeit Fender logos on the headstock. He's also very cheekily added a Gibson decal to an LP clone. Regular readers will know my thoughts on this practice.

If it's not a Fender/Gibson/Rickenbacker/(whatever) then DON'T put that company's logo on it! It's fraud, plain and simple.

A rant about inappropriately used decals

You see it time and again on eBay. Someone builds a "Bitsocaster" guitar - a Strat or a Tele type guitar assembled from spare parts, and they apply a Fender decal to the headstock. In the listing they may say that "This is not a Fender", but in that case WHY put the decal on there in the first place? I do not understand this peculiar way of thinking.

If I play a Strat or a Strat-a-like that is not a Fender then I DO NOT WANT it to say Fender on the headstock. It would be a lie, pure and simple. (Actually, I have five Strats/S-type guitars. Two are Japanese Fenders - a blue flower Strat and a candy apple red 12-string, one is a Japanese Sanox Sound Creator and has that logo on the head, another is my DiMarzio/Charvel which has no logos at all, and the final one is my Feline Holy Panther which sports the Feline logo on the headstock although seeing as the body is from a genuine 1970s American Fender technically it's more Fender than much of the crap bearing that name that you see on eBay.)

How would a copy guitar benefit from having the Fender logo on it? The only answer I can think of is so that the player can pretend that they have the real McCoy, which is a bit sad really.

The same goes for Squiers. If you play a Squier, be proud of it and don't replace the logo with a Fender one. There's nothing wrong with playing Squier guitars, most of which are excellent guitars in their own right. I don't see the point in pretending they are anything else.

What is worse is that there are guitars which aren't even copies that people are slapping the Fender logos on. You see Fender decals appearing on all sorts of weird un-Fender headstocks.

Take a look at this example as pictured above. The diminuitive body is almost certainly from a 1980s Encore starter guitar and is made from MDF. The neck may or may not also be Encore. OK, so the guy has done a nice spray job on it with that blue finish, but it is so definitely not a Stratocaster or even an approximation of one, so WHY put the Fender Stratocaster logo on it? Look at the shape of that headstock! Who does he think he's fooling? Or does he genuinely think it looks like a Stratocaster?

The Biscuit Tin Les Paul

Blimey, just look at that finish on this Les Paul replica. I'm sure my old grandmother used to have a biscuit tin with a design just like that on it.

The seller had this made for him with his own name on the headstock, but is selling because he wasn't happy with another brand name appearing on the back of the headstock. Check the pics on the link - it says "Gibson" which this guitar almost certainly isn't. The case also features the Gibson logo. Now, call me cynical if you like, but why do I suspect this was made in China?

Now, there's nothing wrong with replicas, but with that logo - even positioned where it is - I'd say that this was borderline counterfeit. Except, when did you ever see a Gibson with this lovely biscuit tin finish?

[Note for US readers: biscuits in the UK = cookies.]

Gibson frets over guitar knockoff: the curse of the counterfeit.

Man sentenced for selling fake guitars: Seller of counterfeit Gibson Les Pauls get the book thrown at him, and quite rightly.

Counterfeit Guitars Swarm Auction Sites: wise words from guitarsite.com.

I've more or less given up checking the eBay guitar listings because there are so many fake auctions and counterfeits on there. When I tried selling a Fernandes guitar earlier in the year, the auction was hijacked by a Taiwanese "seller" up to eight times. I was able to change my photos to include a wanring message and my real details on each image, and as the hijacker had just copied my text and image references wholesale, the doctored images showed up in his sale too!

So, my tip for sellers is to superimpose your eBay ID and email address onto each image you use to discourage it being copied.

Incidentally, the Fernandes eventually went for a ridiculously low price. I'm sure that buyers were put off by the confusion.

EBAY - ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU GOT YOUR ACT TOGETHER?