Another Fake Custom

[Brians Evil Twin]

A buddy of mine bought this guitar from an auction house and had it dropped shipped to me for a setup this morning. As soon as I got it out of the box, I knew something was wrong. For starters it seemed much lighter than other PRS guitars I've held. Then I noticed the pickup pole pieces didn't line up with the strings. Then I opened the control cavity and knew it was a 100% Chinese counterfeit. They did a nice job on the hand-lettering on the headstock, but everything else is sloppy and cheap when you look at it closely. As they say, if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't.

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

A reminder to our community, resist the urge to point out all the things that are wrong with a forgery. Doing so helps the MF'ers who make them know what to change.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

No pictures for me, probably a good of thing.

 

[SinSir]

No photos for me either.

Not doubting OP one bit, but I find PRS guiitars on the lighter side compared to others, some are featherweights. Also, strings not centered in pole pieces is more common than I ever knew before the internet told me it was a thing.

 

[Going Modal]

 

[Gnarmageddon]

A reminder to our community, resist the urge to point out all the things that are wrong with a forgery. Doing so helps the MF'ers who make them know what to change.

Oh my LAWD, THANK YOU for saying that. These YouTube impresarios who produce 20-minute videos that literally point out side-by-side where the counterfeiters messed up is not helping.

I have only caught one fake in the wild, it was at a pawn shop. I'm not really deep on PRS yet, very very new to the brand. But there were some immediate things that jumped right out to me. The owner of the shop told me I didn't know what I was talking about, and that I was trying to scam him into a lower price. I replied I was merely cautioning him that it's illegal to knowingly sell counterfeit merchandise. He literally "shooed" me out of the store, yelling at me to go have sexual intercourse with my brother in only-somewhat-discernible Indian-English (In-Glish?).

There is absolutely no way anybody should purchase a PRS without verifying its authenticity. Unfortunately, the mind so badly wants something to be real that we squint until we see it. Would I like a Custom 24 for $300? I sure would! I'd buy one in every color and have one in every tuning.

For five years I ran a niche firearm company, we had some pretty progressive takes on the Armalite platform. Stupid me, I sent our SolidWorks files to a company that was surreptitiously outsourcing to China (undisclosed) for dealer samples and lo! behold! our own r&d and designs (handrail and grip) were available on Alibaba / Express in six months. Bastiges. Makes me think of the Native American saying about "only then will you realize money can not be eaten."

 

[Gnarmageddon]

Sorry for the double post, but wanted to add:

Anyone who knowingly buys a fake deserves all the lost skin and blood from that hatchet job fretwork. Looking at the neck reminded me of Lucille - and by that I mean Negan's weapon of choice from The Walking Dead, not BB King's beloved Gibson. I could swear I could hear the wood begging me to put it in the fireplace and let it move on to its next life.