Bought when drunk on e bay , the winner....and people are bidding on it !

MattNovak

So..... what is it really? 

ICBM

Seziertisch said:

Any idea what it actually might be?

Not sure - possibly Chinese.

This is a real one - notice how much sharper the pickup rout is, and the gap at the end of the tenon. (It's a reissue, but originals are the same.)




This is a Chinese Epiphone with similar 'soft' shaping.

Philly_Q

^ The routing on the Chinese Epi looks almost like it was done freehand - on more likely with a template, but as quickly as possible without taking care at the corners.  Which is surprising in a way, I imagine Chinese production as being highly automated.

Going back to the eBay guitar, whatever it is, it's interesting that it's got an ABR-1 style bridge and pretty convincing-looking shrunken tuners.  Somebody's put quite a lot of work into it, whatever their perverse reasons.

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

Going back to the eBay guitar, whatever it is, it's interesting that it's got an ABR-1 style bridge

That's the first thing you'd change on any Chibson since the slotted bridge posts are the most well-known 'tell' other than the binding nibs - which not all Chibsons have either.

Philly_Q said:

and pretty convincing-looking shrunken tuners.

Not if you look closely - they aren't shrunken, just covered in brown goo. The screws are wrong too - heads too large.

Philly_Q said:

Somebody's put quite a lot of work into it, whatever their perverse reasons.

The reason isn't hard to guess...

clarkefan

Philly_Q said:

It's fascinating how fucked-up it is.  How on earth did it get into that state?

Yeah what's been done to it?

Philly_Q

@ICBM all points taken!     I wasn't sure about the tuners, I first thought they were shrunk, then that they were just aged, then I went back to shrunk again. 

I suppose I was looking at it as merely a curiosity that someone's done for fun, but I guess if they are trying to "genuinely fake" a knackered vintage guitar, then it does all make sense.

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

I suppose I was looking at it as merely a curiosity that someone's done for fun, but I guess if they are trying to "genuinely fake" a knackered vintage guitar, then it does all make sense.

They're trying to get it close enough that some fool will think there's a chance it could be a genuine 50s one and pay far too much for it. No-one would go to that amount of trouble to disguise its origins just to have a curiosity to hang on the wall.

If the current seller's story is true (who knows...) then it's worked at least once.

Strangefan

Now at £370  

lustycourtier

The truss rod cover has some writing in it?

Philly_Q

lustycourtier said:

The truss rod cover has some writing in it?

"Do not immerse in water."

Alex2678

£820 now. Bargain 

Alex2678

Surely even if it was an old LP the best restoration could only enable you to say some wood from an original LP is now encased in this new guitar. Suppose logic isn’t the name of the game

Seziertisch

Monstronaut said:

Serial suggests a 59 or a 59 reissue but zero feedback also suggests that the guitar doesn't exist.

Currently at £820, there are at least two guys out there banking on it being an original, because at that price and in that condition a reissue wouldn’t be worth it

Revolting1

I guess it's evidence that someones time machine at least goes up to eleven .

 Sadly some of the bids look rather suspect .

WezV

ICBM said:

Seziertisch said:

Any idea what it actually might be?

Not sure - possibly Chinese.

This is a real one - notice how much sharper the pickup rout is, and the gap at the end of the tenon. (It's a reissue, but originals are the same.)




This is a Chinese Epiphone with similar 'soft' shaping.

The square ended tenon  and lack of wiring channel in the neck pickup cavity add to the wrong shaped cavities in the listing.  Also the rear control cavity is far from correct 

Cavity shapes can be changed by later mods (i.e. a p-90 to HB conversion) but its hard to imagine the tenon shape or wiring channel being affected in such a way.

timbuk02

Astounding.

Judging by the punctuation/grammar in the description, seller is still under the influence.