“Austin music store owners warn about counterfeit guitars” |
| Austin music store owners warn about counterfeit guitars Posted: 21 Feb 2011 04:03 PM PST
kvue.com Posted on February 21, 2011 at 5:56 PM Updated today at 9:55 AM Austin is known as the Live Music Capital of the World, so it is not unusual to see someone hauling around a guitar case. Now some believe the problem of knockoff guitars is growing in Austin as more people spend money on a product that may not be the real thing. Sam Cohen's love for music runs deep, but his plan to buy a new Gibson guitar at a local pawn shop did not go the way he had hoped. "I know a little bit about guitars. I'm a collector," 21-year-old Cohen said. "It looked kind of off, just wasn't built really well, and the serial number--I could kind of tell it wasn't the way it was supposed to be, but they assured us it was real and everything." A quick check of the serial number showed the Gibson guitar was a fake. "It's not worth $900, $1,000 for a Gibson Les Paul when what you're getting is a copy made in China," Cohen said. Many professional musicians are Gibson guitar fans. For years, Gibson has warned musicians about cheaply made counterfeit guitars being made overseas. Guitar expert Brent Wilson at South Austin Music showed KVUE News a guitar that had been altered to look like a real Gibson. "It looks like a Gibson Les Paul standard," Wilson said. "But a Gibson would have a serial number, and they've replaced the original logo on this headstock. It's becoming more and more prevalent these days. The fear factor when you look at a Gibson Les Paul -- you may be looking at something that's not real." Music Makers manager Luke Cutchen says the fakes are also hitting his store hard. "I've had them brought in by plenty of people who bought them at pawn shops, Craigslist, these online whatever websites," he said. He believes as more people buy cheaper counterfeits, his store and others are losing money, potentially thousands of dollars a year. "It tears us up because it's just bad for everybody involved, except for the person trying to cash in on somebody's want of a quality thing," Cutchen said. "You're stuck with a guitar that you don't want, that isn't what you thought you were getting in the first place." Cutchen says while many musicians may be lured in by a low price, they need to make sure they're getting the real thing and not a knockoff that could come with strings attached. Share this article:This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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