Fake Gibson guitars in New York...
is there nothing sacred anymore?
Hang'im!
Posted on 09/18/2007 5:14:02 PM PDT by Drew68
An Oakdale music store owner was arrested Monday for selling fake versions of the legendary Gibson guitar at his Montauk Highway shop, the Suffolk police said.
Investigators seized 15 fake Gibsons from the store, the police said.
Bernard Musumeci, 44, of 2 Domino Way, Centereach, surrendered to the police Monday night, and was charged with trademark counterfeiting.
After he was released, Musumeci turned over another 18 guitars from his home, and Gibson Guitar Corp. experts will determine whether they're authentic.
The arrest came after a two-month investigation by Fifth Squad detectives, working in conjunction with the Nashville-based Gibson company.
After authorities were alerted that Musumeci may have been selling fakes at Oakdale Music, at 925 Montauk Hwy., an undercover security expert from Gibson determined that several guitars from the store were, indeed, counterfeit.
Suffolk detectives applied for and executed a search warrant earlier this week and the 15 guitars, all of which were determined to be counterfeit, were seized at the music store.
Now based in Nashville, the original Gibson Guitar and Mandolin Company was founded in 1894 in Kalamazoo, Mich., by shoe clerk and musician Orville Gibson.
Gibson now produces what many consider the world's foremost guitars, especially reissues of the Les Paul model first manufactured in 1952.
Authentic Gibsons are pricey. An original 1959 Gibson Les Paul Flame Top guitar was listed on eBay Monday at a buy-it-now price of nearly $100,000. And a 2007 reissue of the same guitar was listed for $4,500.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
But the real difference noted was the 1954 D28 that my wife bought me for Christmas this year. Oh my .... the others now sit in their cases ... this one is a wonder to behold. It maybe one of the best Martins ever built.
Guitars are funnny ... often they improve with age. I have a friend that has an early Taylor 800 series. It is stored sound hole facing and inches from the face of a large stereo speak when he’s not playing it. The constant mimicking of the reverberation from the speaker keeps the sound board in motion ... he claims it is “guitar exercise.” Not sure how true that is, but that Taylor is just about as sweet as my old D28.
Funy
I give up.....enjoy your toys, when a real man walks in with a real Stat, explain your chinese toys and ask for autographs.....make sure you tell him how superior chinese guitars are.....
I’ve had a couple thousand guitars pass through my hands over the years and you get familiar with the key details over time. Since the net has permitted ready exchange of pictures, though, the knowledge base has really exploded....in fact, way past the point where I care enough about it to keep up. Long before I could actually afford to buy guitars, I used to obsess over the old catalogs, but even today you can learn a ton of stuff just looking at the pix on ebay. Going even deeper, you can search for user groups for every type of guitar you can name. These days, I just don’t have the spare brain cells to keep track of all the “affinity” models coming out by the major mfrs, much less the smaller mfrs. One thing I’ll say is that when I (rarely) go to guitar shows, I can’t even believe the market is big enough to absorb all the zillions of guitars I see for sale. But apparently it is!
At a quick glance the headstock is the wrong shape, the “gibson” inlay is too big, the “diamond” inlay is too small, the truss rod cover is the wrong shape and has the wrong text inscribed in it, the fretwork isn’t typical of Gibson, the custom shop logo doesn’t look right and it appears to be a one piece neck instead of a three piece neck. Otherwise, a pretty convincing forgery.
Later bump
I hear ya about the market.
It always amazes me how many people bid on guitars on Ebay, when you wouldn’t think there were enough people in the U.S. to even buy them.
It applies to nearly everything you see for sale. Not just guitars.
When I was younger I used to keep up with the different model and makes of cars. I could even tell, with some, what was coming down the road just by the sound.
Not anymore. The market is so flooded now I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Hyundai and an Chrysler Eagle.
Matter of fact. I don’t think there is any difference because they are both made from Japanese parts.
I’ll just stick to my two Strats and Epi.
Unless, of course, I could find a really good deal on another ARTISAN.
Man, I miss that guitar.
:0(
I suspect that what this is actually about is Chinese copies that are actually cheap garbage and aren't even accurate copies. That's been happening a LOT lately on ebay, where people are getting ripped off left and right and spending big money on these copies. People are fooled because either they aren't knowledgeable enough, or the pictures in the auction aren't clear enough.
And it's not just Gibson that's affected by the Chinese copies, it's Ibanez (people call them "Chibanez"), Fender, pretty much all the big name makers.
Basically any guitar that' made in China I wouldn't touch with a 50 foot pole. I've NEVER seen a Chinese guitar, by any company, that holds a candle to a real Gibson. Some Japanese guitars are awesome (Ibanez, Fender Japan, the Epiphone Elitist series), and even the Koreans are pretty good, but Chinese - no way. I'll never buy one, just on principle.
Some young kid would buy it and never know the difference.
Unless he played a real one, that is.
I could tell that was a fake right off. The headstock doesn’t look right.
$250/$350 for an American strat is a great deal. I had a 1992 Strat Plus Deluxe and I think I paid around $800 for it. That was the last new guitar I bought.
I like the Hwy 1s too, but I can't deal with that flat finish. If I got one I'd buff it out. The newer upgraded Highway 1s are great though. I like the big frets and flatter radius and the 70s headstock. I'd like to get a black one and put a black pickguard on it and look like David Gilmour!
I don’t know beans about guitars but I did get a kick out of that recent Wall Street Journal article about “distressed” reproductions of rock veterans’ old classics. Recreated right down to the dings and scratches, so perfectly that well-known guitar legends are touring and recording with the reproductions and keeping their priceless originals in the vault.
I hear ya. Mine was a pressboard Kay strat copy that I got in '90 when was 16. It actually was pretty functional and probably represents an early example of the trend towards good-quality low end guitars. It stayed in tune and had good intonation and a comfortable neck. But the pressboard body was a throwback to earlier times. Like you say, these days you could get a Squire or something with a solid body that could be played professionally. It seems to me that even the pickups on low end guitars are pretty good these days.
Of course I also got a kick when in ‘01 the late George Harrison appeared on the Howard Stern show. Howard administered his Beatles Trivia Quiz and George flunked.
Yeah, a ‘54 D-28 I would expect to be simply awesome. Nice wife, too!
Yep. Three cheers for standardization.
Before that conversation I always assumed that older was better.
It's funny how you go through stages of belief with this stuff and have these revelatory moments. The older-is-better thing is so pervasive in guitar culture that breaking out of it is a little like leaving a cult. I still love the vintage stuff but it's clear to me now that the modern instruments can be just as good.
Now, what do you suppose a 1939 F-Five Gibson mandolin would fetch (in excellent condition)?
Gibsons are more 'trapezoid' shaped.
It depends on the model. Les Paul Customs always had rectangular inlays.
Mark
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