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I went to my friends store to drop my tele off for a setup and while I was there I bought this Epiphone Les Paul Standard for $275.

It's got Dimarzio pickups.The neck is an Air Classic and The bridge is a Super Distortion which sounds killer.Came with an SKB case too.















How do you think it would look with witchhats?

witch hats & B/W/B scratch plate

Johno wrote:witch hats & B/W/B scratch plate

That's a really early Chinese model, they were still using the Korean TRC style. The EE at the beginning of the serial means it was made in Qingdao in Epiphone's own factory, and the 03 means '03. Prior to that (like in the '90s-2002) Epiphone LPs were made in Korea/Indonesia/China by other manufacturers like Samick, Saein, etc...

Love Super Distortion in an LP, huge sound. The Air pickups are supposed to be good in the neck too, less mudd.

paul_ wrote:That's a really early Chinese model, they were still using the Korean TRC style. The EE at the beginning of the serial means it was made in Qingdao in Epiphone's own factory, and the 03 means '03. Prior to that (like in the '90s-2002) Epiphone LPs were made in Korea/Indonesia/China by other manufacturers like Samick, Saein, etc...

Love Super Distortion in an LP, huge sound. The Air pickups are supposed to be good in the neck too, less mudd.

Thanks for the info. It's weird, when I posted pictures of this guitar on another forum the thread I started turned into an unexpected debate over the authenticity of this guitar (link)

Fake Chinese, made in Tulsa!

Sometimes the only sane answer to an insane world is insanity. Link

I guess it is odd that it has the dash in the serial number. but if there is nothing else to point to it being fake, I'm still not convinced that it's fake, and I really wouldn't worry about it. if it is fake, it looks like such a good fake that it's difference from a real epiphone could be little to nothing. if it plays well, I wouldn't worry about it.

Why would someone fake a Chinese Epiphone?

there are fake epiphones but this guitar is so much like real epiphone that it just seems far more likely that it is. everything about it is exactly like a real epiphone, except that it has one little dash in the serial number. kind of odd if you were going to put all the effort into making a copy that good and then leave out such an obvious detail.

BacchusPaul wrote:Why would someone fake a Chinese Epiphone?

Profit.

Epiphone Les Pauls are the best selling Les Pauls internationally due to their affordability and prevalence in the market, yet they're still only made for about 1/5th of what they're sold for, by Epiphone or anyone else. There's also a lot of other manufacturers in Korea/Indonesia/China with the exact know-how given that they all used to make guitars for Epiphone. They're also easier to believably fake than Gibsons because their hardware and plastics are generic asian stuff anyway.
Fake Epis are EVERYWHERE. Seems like 1 in 4 Epiphone LPs on eBay are fake sometimes.

The issue with the serial numbers on some fakes are usually that the first two letters are bigger than the rest, and that the middle 6-7 numbers are always the same.
Fakes usually have other telltale signs though, such as logo placement, pickguard bracket screw position, misalignment of control knobs (the treble pair and the rhythm pair following different lines)... and all of those look good on Westy's guitar.

Here's a fake

paul_ wrote:There's also a lot of other manufacturers in Korea/Indonesia/China with the exact know-how given that they all used to make guitars for Epiphone.

which is why I would say if it's a copy this good, there is virtually no difference between it and a real epiphone.

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While some are passable nowadays, there's plenty of differences with fakes in the materials and QC unless you're comparing to a crap Epiphone (plenty of those around too). Fakes usually have terrible fretwork and solder jobs, etc... some issues can arise with the basic manufacture though, many have improperly set necks so that the action can never be nice.
The difference is that fakes are never sent out the door with the aim quite as high. Final finishing/electronics/fretwork etc... would be done by someone else no matter where the guitar is made, and the lemons probably aren't weeded out at that point as they would be with Epi.

And then there was ultra's bandmate many moons ago who had a counterfeit Epi fold in half on her, prompting Epiphone to post a cross-section of one of their bodies to prove they don't build them out of MDF/cardboard. Her counterfeit guitar, while totally looking the part, didn't hold up to regular use. Most fakes are crap, being scams.

It could well be a " factory overrun" or a "third shift" guitar made in a factory that also makes real Epis. Someone else pays for the guitars made during that shift, and management looks the other way.

IME, the highest quality knockoffs of any product come this way.

what makes the neck an "air"? Is it significantly lighter or thinner or both?

paul_ wrote:Most fakes are crap, being scams.

yeah, but this one doesn't look that crap. if it's a fake, it's better done than the one you posted above. the amount of different builders you could be talking about, everything from small one man operations to factories producing guitars for others like mkt3000 described, among many other possible scenarios is far too diverse to paint with one brush. alls well that plays well.

gaybear wrote:what makes the neck an "air"? Is it significantly lighter or thinner or both?

I took it to mean the neck pickup is the "Air Classic" because the bridge is a Super Distortion.

paul_ wrote:

BacchusPaul wrote:Why would someone fake a Chinese Epiphone?

Profit.

Colour me schooled. Makes sense.