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Chibson Gold Top Rivals the Real Thing?

El Gringo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
Eating Teles for breakfast? Maybe for your taste, as I don't think that Greco sounds that much like Classic Tele tone, but I do really like your song Melinda, and the tone you got for it. That tone is reminiscent of some tones Andy Summer's got on his record Mysterious Barricades. Great job. I listened to most of the songs on your Soundcloud page, and I like the guitars tones you got and really liked your melodies. I don't what songs you actually wrote, but what I heard I liked.
179679 - Copy.jpg179680 - Copy.jpg
 

El Gringo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
1969 Fullerton's finest Fender double bound alder , one piece maple neck which is a very large profile, frets are in very good shape . This neck has flame that doesn't show in the photos which was an added bonus . 1969 Fender Telecaster Custom which has tone to die for , and sounds like "Keef" on steroids . All stock and original , courtesy of Gruhn guitars until she came home to me .
 

rockabilly69

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 29, 2001
Messages
2,872
View attachment 17969View attachment 17970

That's a sweet Tele! I love the sunburst and the binding!

Two nights ago I built this one from a variety of Fender parts, although the pickups are Wolfetones (Bitch Bridge pickup, Cub Neck pickup), I found the neck in Germany (ebony fingerboard, firsta red headstock, high ratio tuners)...

s4TgX6P.jpg
 
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El Gringo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
swee


That's a sweet Tele! I love the sunburst and the binding!

Two nights ago I built this one from a variety of Fender parts, although the pickups are Wolfetones (Bitch Bridge pickup, Cub Neck pickup), I found the neck in Germany (ebony fingerboard, firsta red headstock, high ratio tuners)...

s4TgX6P.jpg
I like it and my compliments on your skills ! Ebony is a good fingerboard and I always was curious about Ebony fingerboards on Tele's or Stratocasters .
 

devnulljp

New member
Joined
Feb 2, 2010
Messages
6
Fraud sets in when the Gibson/Les Paul name is put on it, no matter how good a copy it is.
...unless for some reason it's a Bob Burst or Derrig, then it's a replica.
(Not necessarily disagreeing with you, just not clear on why the double standard)

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bb1.jpg
 

rialcnis

Active member
Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Messages
221
...unless for some reason it's a Bob Burst or Derrig, then it's a replica.
(Not necessarily disagreeing with you, just not clear on why the double standard)

7f541654-c4e2-436a-b275-ac22ec8f0903.jpg


bb1.jpg
Of course good replicas are good replicas. I think the main issue most would have is selling them as though they are Gibson Les Paul's and not disclosing what they are.
 

Big Al

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
14,537
...unless for some reason it's a Bob Burst or Derrig, then it's a replica.
(Not necessarily disagreeing with you, just not clear on why the double standard)

7f541654-c4e2-436a-b275-ac22ec8f0903.jpg


bb1.jpg
Not good replicas, but sure 'nuff fraudulent.
 

Vistor

New member
Joined
Jun 4, 2022
Messages
5
So I saw an ad for a Les Paul Gold Top, read it, and while disclosed as being a forgery, I decided to at least go look at the thing. For $150 the SKB Pro Case was worth the price of entry. Got there and couldn't say no, so home it came! The woman said it had been 'upgraded' by her husband, so I decided to check it out a bit further before restringing and set up. Sure enough, a nice new set of Lindy Fralin vintage PAFs in it. Nice!! At this point Im just going to make a long story short. The guitar was playable, but frets were horrible and it fretted out all over above the 12th fret. So I had an expert friend of mine look at it and he was amazed with the neck carve and overall build quality but appalled with fret job. So, he refretted it! It is now an amazing 'pro-quality' player, and a definite 'keeper'!!! When I consider having had to return to the factory a recent 'new' Gibson I purchased, I can't help but wonder: Like Americans with buying Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans and more, when will we (Americans) abandon Gibson, Fender, PRS, etc in favor of these 'Asian' beauties? Maybe the answer is simply: When they learn to do a decent fret job (which is about all that's left to be critical of).
You got a guitar for $150 used with case. The guy who bought it probably paid $200 to $400 for it originally. For arguments sake let's say $300. When he received it, it likely wasn't playable which is why the woman mentioned he upgraded it. More than likely, he replaced the tuners, pots and pickups which likely cost him another $400 - $500 given your saying the pickups he put in usually cost about $300 used for a set. Then he bought a case for it because it almost certainly didn't come with one which cost him another $200 or so. That put his total cost around $900 plus his time and he still had a guitar that wasn't good because it needed a fret job which likely would have cost him a couple hundred more if he didn't know someone like you that could do the work. He is then stuck selling the guitar to you for $150 and basically committing a crime when he does it because it is a counterfeit. If he had used the same $900 ($1100 if you count a fret job), he could have bought a top of the line new Epiphone or a very nice used Gibson LP Tribute or Studio with a gig bag or case depending on what he chose. He would then lose a couple hundred if he sold the Epi and likely break even on the Studio if he decided to sell instead of losing the $750 or so on the Chibson. A Chibson that I doubt has the same quality, and costly materials such as real maple top and quality rosewood/ebony fretboard as well as a labor intensive nitro finish. Most of them have veneer tops with mystery wood fretboards and virtually all a poly finish.

As far as Gibson prices go, besides higher priced materials they are paying American worker wages for not only their factory workers but also their sales reps and customer service people. They also have to meet US labor laws and EPA standards. They are also selling through retailers who need to make a profit on the guitars. The Chibsons are all being sold over the internet from a broker working directly with factories bootlegging them. Lastly, they have to deal with returns. Not sure why you returned your recent Gibson but I'm guessing it was far less than it having crap electronics and a really bad fret job. Even if it was, Gibson took the return. Never heard of anyone being able to send a Chibson back because of some of the minor reasons Gibsons get sent back. Instead, there are plenty of stories of people receiving Chibsons that are unplayable and unfixable or broken/seized during shipping and taking a 100% loss on their purchase because they aren't dealing with a real legal company.

The car analogy also seems flawed to me. I'm old and remember when Japanese car makers came on the scene. At the time American companies were a mess because of bad labor deals and a bloated process. I remember sitting with my step father when he ordered a car and he basically filled out a 3 or 4 page order sheet checking off each individual option he wanted. The car was big and road great when he got it but lasted the typical time for an American car which was garbage by today's standards. When the Japanese got in the game there was some copying early on but they quickly went their own way. Their cars were very quickly not clones of US models and focused on reliability and sold with an efficient buying model where you didn't pick four pages of custom features that they would then have to produce. Japanese guitars were the same even when they were copying Gibson. From very early on people sought out LP copies from companies like Tokai because of their quality and not because they were trying to pretend they had a real LP.
 
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Vistor

New member
Joined
Jun 4, 2022
Messages
5
You got a guitar for $150 used with case. The guy who bought it probably paid $200 to $400 for it originally. For arguments sake let's say $300. When he received it, it likely wasn't playable which is why the woman mentioned he upgraded it. More than likely, he replaced the tuners, pots and pickups which likely cost him another $400 - $500 given your saying the pickups he put in usually cost about $300 used for a set. Then he bought a case for it because it almost certainly didn't come with one which cost him another $200 or so. That put his total cost around $900 plus his time and he still had a guitar that wasn't good because it needed a fret job which likely would have cost him a couple hundred more if he didn't know someone like you that could do the work. He is then stuck selling the guitar to you for $150 and basically committing a crime when he does it because it is a counterfeit. If he had used the same $900 ($1100 if you count a fret job), he could have bought a top of the line new Epiphone or a very nice used Gibson LP Tribute or Studio with a gig bag or case depending on what he chose. He would then lose a couple hundred if he sold the Epi and likely break even on the Studio if he decided to sell instead of losing the $750 or so on the Chibson. A Chibson that I doubt has the same quality, and costly materials such as real maple top and quality rosewood/ebony fretboard as well as a labor intensive nitro finish. Most of them have veneer tops with mystery wood fretboards and virtually all a poly finish.

As far as Gibson prices go, besides higher priced materials they are paying American worker wages for not only their factory workers but also their sales reps and customer service people. They also have to meet US labor laws and EPA standards. They are also selling through retailers who need to make a profit on the guitars. The Chibsons are all being sold over the internet from a broker working directly with factories bootlegging them. Lastly, they have to deal with returns. Not sure why you returned your recent Gibson but I'm guessing it was far less than it having crap electronics and a really bad fret job. Even if it was, Gibson took the return. Never heard of anyone being able to send a Chibson back because of some of the minor reasons Gibsons get sent back. Instead, there are plenty of stories of people receiving Chibsons that are unplayable and unfixable or broken/seized during shipping and taking a 100% loss on their purchase because they aren't dealing with a real legal company.

The car analogy also seems flawed to me. I'm old and remember when Japanese car makers came on the scene. At the time American companies were a mess because of bad labor deals and a bloated process. I remember sitting with my step father when he ordered a car and he basically filled out a 3 or 4 page order sheet checking off each individual option he wanted. The car was big and road great when he got it but lasted the typical time for an American car which was garbage by today's standards. When the Japanese got in the game there was some copying early on but they quickly went their own way. Their cars were very quickly not clones of US models and focused on reliability and sold with an efficient buying model where you didn't pick four pages of custom features that they would then have to produce. Japanese guitars were the same even when they were copying Gibson. From very early on people sought out LP copies from companies like Tokai because of their quality and not because they were trying to pretend they had a real LP.
 
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