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fake fenders

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vtpcnk

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to my delight and surprise my niece (who was always musical and used to play piano) has discovered guitars. she now composes her own songs and plays them on her acoustic!!! (while after 4 years of playing i am still struggling to copy clapton and peter green).

so as a nice uncle i got to buy her an electric guitar.

fenders are supposed to be nigh on indestructible. so i guess i will start with one.

my concern is about fake fenders. any ideas/clues about how to spot fakes?

i saw this american highway 1 strat on craigslist. does it look ok/authentic?

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/msg/2517767912.html

appreciate any insights.
 
I don't see why anyone would want to fake something if it isn't trying to look like something with significant collectors value (like a '54 strat or something like that). I doubt anyone would fake a highway 1 strat.
 
Yeah looks real.

Try Warmoth.com, I've heard great things about them  :icon_thumright:
 
In the 8/9 years I have played guitar I have only physically come across a fake fender once which was bought off the internet, you see plenty on the web. My advice is to only buy from a proper on-line shop, when you go second hand, its never a great idea to buy from the internet. As for the guitar on craigslist - At the end of the day if all you get is a picture, they could have taken it from anywhere.

But to answer your question, price is generally the biggest give away, if something is far cheaper then what you would expect to pay for age/model/components then its probably a fake. That's not to say you shouldn't look for bargains, just be wary of the price. Other factors are things like decals, if they are squint or don't look quite right then its a fake. When looking at decals its usually the black outline that is much thicker then it should be.

On the model I tried how I spotted it was a fake was by quality, it was truly a sub standard instrument, the colours were all wrong and it had the above mentioned decal problem.

Don't risk it would be my advice, if you want second hand go to a proper shop and physically try it out and look at it. If your going brand new and want to buy it online, only get it from a trusted retailer.


I must say though that the majority of people do buy second hand online with no problems, but its really hit or miss when you can't see exactly what your buying.

Good Luck

Pete
 
vtpcnk said:
to my delight and surprise my niece (who was always musical and used to play piano) has discovered guitars. she now composes her own songs and plays them on her acoustic!!! (while after 4 years of playing i am still struggling to copy clapton and peter green).

so as a nice uncle i got to buy her an electric guitar.

fenders are supposed to be nigh on indestructible. so i guess i will start with one.

my concern is about fake fenders. any ideas/clues about how to spot fakes?

i saw this american highway 1 strat on craigslist. does it look ok/authentic?

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/msg/2517767912.html

appreciate any insights.
Click to expand...

Fender guitars are probably the most widely reproduced of all guitars. There's nothing particularly special about a Fender, nothing that's difficult to make or obtain, and in fact you can often get their designs from others done better than Fender does themselves. Does that make them counterfeits? No. About all it says is that they weren't produced in Fender's factories, which isn't necessarily a Bad Thing. Most of their designs have been around long enough that they're in the public domain, or very close to it. The only counterfeits are those who claim to be Fenders when they're not, because many people will only buy the the name brand. So, somebody will build something and brand it a Fender, which is easy enough to do, then ask for Fender prices. So, my advice would be the opposite of elfro's - if the price is high, be suspicious. Somebody may be trying to get one over on you.
 
back2thefutre said:
Yeah looks real.

Try Warmoth.com, I've heard great things about them  :icon_thumright:
Click to expand...

This.  :icon_thumright:

It looks legit to me, too, and I believe they retailed for around $500 new, so the price is about right.  I personally never cared for the finishes on the Highway series.
 
elfro89 said:
But to answer your question, price is generally the biggest give away, if something is far cheaper then what you would expect to pay for age/model/components then its probably a fake. That's not to say you shouldn't look for bargains, just be wary of the price.
Pete
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Cagey said:
So, my advice would be the opposite of elfro's - if the price is high, be suspicious. Somebody may be trying to get one over on you.
Click to expand...

So essentially you want to be Goldilocks in this situation and look for the price that's just right.
 
How old is she? I know that you're looking for a guitar that will have the "WOW" thing going - hence "Fender" - she doesn't want to feel as though you bought some random pawnshop beater. However, in that price range I think that Ibanez and particularly Schecter are making some really great guitars, with better quality all around. I don't mean "OK for a student for a while", I mean great... the reason I ask about age is because if she's heading off to high school soon, I'd bet at least half the guitar players she meets will either be playing Ibani or Schecters or wish they were. And for the most they'll be lusting after higher-end Schecter Jeff Loomis or Ibanez Steve Vai models. Fenders and Gibsons are for old people - stupid ones, mostly.

Sch1.jpg


$323, incl. shipping.
 
well she is 15 and says things like : 'aerosmith is my life'! and 'have you heard steve perry's riffs"? etc

i would have got her a les paul (i myself actually have one i want to let go of) but les pauls are heavy and gibsons are fragile.

so i thought fender strat.

i might actually get her a mexican or a korean fender strat and after a year upgrade it if she is still into it.

but with an am strat even if she loses interest i would gladly take over :-)
 
JOE (not Steve) Perry of Aerosmith is predominantly known as a Les Paul guy, but hes been seen at the wheel of many different axes.  STEVE Perry is the former singer (not guitarist) of Journey, whose guitarist, Neal Schon, is also primarily a Les Paul player.

Which leads one to consider various fake Gibsons as possibilities, especially the Agile line at Rondo Music:  http://www.rondomusic.com/electricguitar-ss11.html

Can't speak to the quality of their bottom-end guitars, but their LP copies starting at 300 or so are bad-@ss-tacular.


 
Here's a joe perry(ish) Paul copy from the good people at agile. Please buy it. I want it so bad and I can't justify getting another guitar right now  :toothy11:

http://www.rondomusic.com/al3100te.html
 
swarfrat said:
They fake SM58's, and that's a $98 item.
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That design's been around since Christ was a jack-off, so how hard can it be to reproduce accurately? If they can do it at a fraction of the price, what does that say about Shure? I mean, besides that Shure likes to rip off their customers? They're not claiming to sell Shures, so who's getting fooled? Idiots? I'll never understand the idea that somebody should pay outrageous prices for things just because somebody else has a mortgage or car payment they can't handle. A .10 cent item is a .10 cent item, regardless of the difficulties the supplier finds themselves in. I've got my own difficulties, as I'm sure many do, and I have to adjust for the situations I put myself in. I expect no more or less of anyone else.
 
Seriously, if you haven't already, discuss the purchase with your niece. Find out what guitar she would like to play.

I couldn't think of anything worse than you believing you are being very philanthropic & the greatest uncle alive, but when they open the gift you thought hard about, they say "Oh it's one of those...."  :sad:

I know I was very picky at that age, copies of anything were not on! I probably broke my Mum's heart a few times being overly choosy and refusing to wear jeans that weren't Levis, or shoes that weren't genuine Grosby Hush Puppy Desert boots.

Talking to folks I work with, they have similar problems with kids wanting the exact 'cool' item, not a cheap copy.....Whether the cheaper item is actually a better instrument, the choice of seasoned gig playing musos or not, all that is irrelevant to some teens. To them it must be Fender or Gibson or whatever they feel is the 'in' thing to have.

If your niece insists on Gibson, why not 'loan' her your LP? That's what got me started on electric guitar, my brother-in-law 'loaned' me his old Strat copy from the 1960s when he was playing.
 
Aussie Pete said:
I know I was very picky at that age, copies of anything were not on! I probably broke my Mum's heart a few times being overly choosy and refusing to wear jeans that weren't Levis, or shoes that weren't genuine Grosby Hush Puppy Desert boots.
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That's god's own truth. I know I broke my mum's heart more than once that way. I'd lust over an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Inter-Space Modulator for months on end, and knowing how badly I wanted one, she'd find a way to get something like it for less money (we were pretty poor). Birthday or Christmas would come, and you'd eagerly tear into the package to see the object of your desire, only to find it was an Illusory Space Monitor instead. Heavy sigh. What is it, ma? Are you some kind of sadist, or do you just hate me? But, we were raised heavy-duty catlicks, so you were taught to be thankful for anything, even if it was abuse, so you put on you best game face and tried to figure out how you could modify the thing to where it would be useful. But, hey! At least it wasn't another pair of the dreaded "toughskin" jeans that wouldn't fade or develop holes no matter what and all your friends laughed at <grin>
 
no worries about her liking the strat - we have been looking several over together over the last week.
 
Cagey said:
That design's been around since Christ was a jack-off, so how hard can it be to reproduce accurately? If they can do it at a fraction of the price, what does that say about Shure? I mean, besides that Shure likes to rip off their customers? They're not claiming to sell Shures, so who's getting fooled? Idiots? I'll never understand the idea that somebody should pay outrageous prices for things just because somebody else has a mortgage or car payment they can't handle. A .10 cent item is a .10 cent item, regardless of the difficulties the supplier finds themselves in. I've got my own difficulties, as I'm sure many do, and I have to adjust for the situations I put myself in. I expect no more or less of anyone else.
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I both agree and disagree with what you say and not to hi-jack the topic, but besides the difference between copying a design and faking a brand I have to say that many of the cheaper versions are unreliable in terms of consistency. Obviously a mic's job is to capture sound, when I get an SM57 I know what I'm getting, I can describe the typical type of sound you will get from one, the does not change much from one to the other unless it's faulty. With cheaper copies I can easily tell you exactly the sound difference between one unit and another, and its usually in the high frequencies. It's this uncertainty between each unit that makes cheaper brands unreliable. Obviously I haven't tried every brand that produces the sm57 design but I don't have the funds or time to experiment. If I want an sm57 type colouring I will get a Shure because they are consistent.
 
Shure microphones are manufactured primarily in Mexico and China. Can't get much cheaper than that. And as I said before, the technology has been around forever - there are no secrets there.

Unauthorized trademark use is all about theft. I'm not talking about the nebulous intellectual property rights thing, I'm talking about the same thing you are. Trademarks restrict the use of names and branding specifically to prevent confusion among consumers. You don't want somebody thinking they're getting one thing when they're actually getting something else. Where the theft comes in isn't from the trademark holder, it's from the customer, who unwittingly pays a higher price for something than it would normally command. The seller is essentially stealing from that person.

Not surprisingly, due to technology improvements and globalized markets in the world we live in now it's possible to get better goods than the trademark holder might supply. For instance, almost anybody can make a better Gibson guitar than Gibson does, and for substantially less money. But, since they have traditionally charged a high premium for their goods, there's a motivation for a cheater to put Gibson's name on something that costs a fraction of their price, but still charge a customer the typical price. So, the customer has been cheated. He may actually be getting better goods, but that's beside the fact. He's paying $4,000 when he should only be paying $400.
 
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