Can you believe it? This Gibson Les Paul Custom is a blatant fake that was brought in by a regular customer who had suspicions that it might be counterfeit. We looked it over and determined it was indeed a forgery. How can we tell? See photos below:
This nut and trussrod cover were two of the first things we noticed.
The nut is plastic and cut very deep, true Gibson guitars have a string nut made of Corian and are cut much more shallow. The shape of the trussrod cover did not look right as well as the screen-printed silver model name. This is usually white and engraved.
Picture courtesy of Samash.com
Then we turned around the headstock and saw that the serial number looked funky.
The serial number looks too crisp and deep, and is white either from buffing compound or missing finish.
The serial number is impressed into the back of the headstock before finishing at the Gibson factories. This serial number looks like it was cut after finishing.
Picture courtesy of Samash.com
Finally we removed the trussrod cover and saw....no brass nut!
Uh....... that don't look right.
There should be a brass nut threaded onto an exposed rod like this.
There was a hole with a 4mm allen adjustment hiding inside. This was most definitely a forgery most likely made in Asia where many guitars are produced with cheap labor. For more info on how to spot a fake check out this page at Sam Ash.