PRS fakes?

Div

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Mar 13, 2013
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So I now have a prs tremonti se as well as my se 245. I love both but the Tremonti is a lot thinner (in the body) than the 245. And doesn't give as wide a range of tone.. I know it's more rock/metal aimed.

Now I am not particularly worried about mine, I assume / hope these are all normal differences between the models??

So got me thinkin are there many problems with fake PRS guitars and if so how do we spot em? Any tell tale signs to look for? I know some of the other manufacturers like fender Gibson and the like have fakes out there so I am sure PRS do??
 
I have found that fake PRS guitars are extremely obvious for a myriad of reasons. Seriously though, the fakes stick out from miles away. Any pics?
 
Well if they do stick out for miles that's good and I don't think mine is. Just wondering if there are any "common mistakes" the fakers make. Just done a little more reading and the tremonti se is thinner than the 245.
 
Is your Tremonti SE older? I may be wrong, but I believe only the most recent SE runs have a thicker SC design? Usually "wonky" looking birds, slightly "off" looking headstocks are the obvious signs that stick out most. You're probably all good.

I'm not overly familiar with the SE lines so someone else w/more experience can answer better. Most times the fakes are of the USA models.
 
I wouldn't think anyone would bother faking an SE.

Well I would have thought the same but they do Epiphones, even heard they do squire fakes etc and they come in at a lower price than SE's
 
Well I would have thought the same but they do Epiphones, even heard they do squire fakes etc and they come in at a lower price than SE's
And SO much easier to make a fake. That seems to be the issue with PRS, they must be very difficult to copy and look legitamate - IMHO. If you are still wondering please post pics of your guitar and I'm sure we can tell either way.
 
I wouldn't think anyone would bother faking an SE.

Yeah I don't think they would either. Some of those tradetang and DHGate etc les pauls are made in the (one of the) Chinese epi factories so one of their counterfeit epiphones..well have you ever bought or played an epiphone? Especially a SECOND? The counterfeits might be better.?
But...when they're priced the same as a real epi (used or street or almost), well unless it was bought on this side of the pond used from someone who bought it from China and is trying to hoodwink the buyer into believeing that it's a REAL Chinese Epi...well...not much harm and not much foul.
I just can't see the Chinese les paul knockoffs..I mean epi knockoffs being a whole lot worse than a legit Chinese epi. I had a "real" Chinese Epi.

And so, I can't see anyone tooling-up to build fakes/counterfeits of guitars that sell (used) for about the same as the real deal. They would not be an easy sell. At least if it was ME, I'd be setting my sights on guitars that are such a bargain that they'll sell fast. Those are the counterfeit Gibsons and USA PRSs...not really the epis and SEs.
BUT...then again, they DO tool-up to build and sell counterfeit Shure mics like the 57s and 58s, which, sell for around 90 bucks, which is about the same as the real Shure's street price. BUT...they don't make knockoffs of crappy cheap AT condensers or anything...I dont think?
They're much more likely to build counterfeit Neumanns than knock-off RadioShack Realistic mics...and USA PRSs over SEs.

PS. Check out just how many counterfeit 57s and 58s there are. I can't remember the numbers but Shure says it's incredible. More fakes than legits on eBay I think they said. They will not tell the general public even how to spot the fakes because they don't want to give the counterfeiters any help. They are quite the go-getters them Chinese so who knows. Maybe they DO make counterfeit SEs. The whole thing is so blurry though. Most Chinese goods are substandard copies of higher quality goods. But...most of them are built by American companies who take American jobs to China and then complain about the American economy. It's accepted and almost applauded when American companies go to Asia to produce cheap goods (like gibby's epis, Fender's Squiers, Gretschs offerings...etc etc etc etc etc etc etc...........). A Chinese Epiphone (Gibson copy) is ok...because it's an actual American company screwing it's countrymen...but when it's a Chinese outfit (completely?) it's bad. I mean of COURSE it is bad...but to a lot of people, I guess mostly non-Americans, it's even WORSE when it's one of your own companies screwing you. To a lot of us the unpatriotic trend of shipping jobs overseas and products back home is ...well, it's CRIMINAL! Hey Canadian companies do it too. Take Godin for example. The low-end Godins' (check them out) headstocks read something like this: "Assembled in the USA from quality Canadian components" ..-ish. I've said it before and I'm saying the PI and political forum no-no again...HOW can a Canadian company like Godin build parts, ship them to the USA (shipping, import fees, brokerage fees, taxes...) to have them assembled and then shipped back up to Canada (again shipping, import exprot fees, brokerage fees, fule surcharges, taxes....) where they can be sold (CHEAP) at a profit? Is it because of all the cheap Mexican labour in the USA? Howcome American companies can't be profitable if they keep their operations domestic while Canadian companies (like Godin and Larrivee) can ship Canadian jobs to the USA and still remain profitable? I'll tell ya how...because the American companies CAN be profitable without shipping jobs to Mexico and Asia. The problem is that those CEOs and shareholders want MORE profit. Even if it means bringing a nation to it'e economic knees and creating a class of unemployed and underemployed poverty stricken majority and forcing them onto welfare and to accept foodstamps..which equals, the American people subsidizing those greedy and swolen profits and executive bonuses that CEOs get FOR shipping American jobs overseas. Those bloated CEOs then turn around and complain about the lazy people who "refuse" to get JOBS and WANT to stay on welfare and in receipt of foodstamps.
It just looks so strange and weird and even criminal when you look at the situation from an outside perspective. The whole nation would be much better off if the fatcats and shareholders would just keep the jobs here and pay those welfare recipients to do their work for them instead of paying the Chinese and Mexicans to do it and forcing the American people to "pay the wages" to those workers in the form of social benefits, welfare, foodstamps etc... It's the American PEOPLE who are subsidizing the exportation of their own jobs. Meanwhile the CEOs and bigwigs continue to make record profits and pay no taxes.
No the sky would not fall down. PRS, Gibson, Fender, Martin, Taylor, Guild, Cretsch, Shure, and all the other "job shippers-away" would continue to survive and make profit if they stopped shipping American jobs overseas today. If anything, they would by now be so streamlined that maybe ALL Canadian gear makers would be assembling and manufacturing their goods in the USA! Oh wait...they already do lol. There arent a lot of Canadian gear making companies. Besides Godin and Larrivee I guess it's only Traynor and Garnet?
Hey..sorry for the PS rant. If it's too politically charged and inflammatory, PLEASE mods...just delete it and give me a harsh scolding and don't ban me for life. I'll be good I promise ;-)

OH..the GOOD news is that...soon oil will be $200 and our world will shrink. It wont be profitable to ship those jobs across the globe and the goods back home anymore. We won't be eating fresh bananas in February..we'll be going back to our grandparents jarred strawberries and raspberries etc...and goods will have to be made close to home and just watch...all those companies who before wouldnt make money without shipping the jobs overseas, will continue to make record profits and dole-out huge bonuses to their exectuives...but they will be hiring Americans and taking them off the welfare bus. Hey...if Canadian companies can farm-out work to the USA, American companies can do it too.
Again...sorry for the rant but this whole "made in China" and "shiping American jobs overseas" really gets me riled-up. Those companies CAN be profitable withOUT shipping Americans' jobs to China. THEY are who I get frustrated with, even moreso than the actual Chinese counterfeiters. At least they aren't trying to rip-off their OWN people. Well...maybe they are but ...that's China. It's ok for them to be "Un-American" but the actual American companies who do it...well...to me, that's CRIMINAL!
There. I'm done. Delete away. Sorry for the rant. I get this way in the mornings with a cup of coffee :-(
 
HI as i said the more i have looked around the less i have worried about mine so i am happy .. i will of course get some pics up in the my new PRS bit though as soon as i can.

Good point made i was thinking of common things that fakers get wrong would be an aid to buying the real deal so you dont get ripped off... but i guess that could also help the scammers building them.

Also i guess very true about the Epiphones being made in the same factory as the rip off ones would make it very easy to make fakes i guess
 
Do you guys think my PRS might be fake?

temporary-11.jpg
 
No, that's a copy of a fake - so it makes it real. Now all you need to do is cover it in white fur and grow a long beard.

Now that was funny!
Seriously though, I have seen this on a website that sells them as "reproductions" for $300-$800ish. They have just about any famous guitar you can think of. I can't imagine the play very well, might be good for wall art.
 
the SE Singlecuts, SE Ones, and SE Mark Tremonti (not the Custom version) all comes with thinner bodies. The other SE singlecut-shape models comes with thicker bodies. i've found some counterfeits on the net, it's pretty easy to see that it's a fake. You'll see what I mean..

Here's some pics:

An obvious Tremonti counterfeit.


For comparison.



The Santana II, i seriously doubt that there will be anyone here who thinks this is real.


Maybe they DO make counterfeit SEs.
yup they do! here's one. They even missed out 2 frets on this one.


Good lord. If we call that an SE Tim Mahoney (or a PRS at all), we'd be sinned for the rest of our lives, and the lightnings shall strike us down! just kidding :laugh: but hey, you get the idea of it ;)


Another (better but still...ridiculously bad) attempt at faking the PRS Custom 22.


notice that the bookmatch line was way off, use the G string slot of the funky looking bridge as a reference point.


Lastly, i'd probably award this as the biggest fail i've ever seen.


This goes on to show that fake PRS guitars are really easy to identify.

Finally, I apologise for even posting so much "impurities" here, please forgive me :adore: i know it's causing a lot of mind pollution for everyone but the ones who can't identify them has to see them to know :cheers:
 
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HI as i said the more i have looked around the less i have worried about mine so i am happy .. i will of course get some pics up in the my new PRS bit though as soon as i can.

Good point made i was thinking of common things that fakers get wrong would be an aid to buying the real deal so you dont get ripped off... but i guess that could also help the scammers building them.

Also i guess very true about the Epiphones being made in the same factory as the rip off ones would make it very easy to make fakes i guess

You can't really categorise them all as scammers, some of them might be great luthiers later on if they make very nice copies. They learn things from there, that is if they handcrafted those guitars. Kris Derrig was the person who made Slash's iconic Les Paul (a LP clone, if you will...). Those LPs went on to become one of the most sought after LP clones. PRS also grew up handcrafting guitars inspired by Gibson's LP Specials, Juniors and Doublecuts, and also various Fenders. He went on to create his own identity/guitar shape in the market, which is how the PRS Custom/Standard was born. Warmoth is also a very big company selling copies of various guitar bodies. Though ever since Gibson sued them for copyright infringement, they halted production of all Gibson body shapes and headstock.
 
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WARNING

Lately i've seen several fakes, not chinese, more accurate but still fakes, i'll tell you my findings so you take care on that points, it's easy.

THERE ARE 3 EVIDENCES THAT YOU CAN SPOT ON PICS:

-Serial number font (regularly bigger and rare) LOOKS SUSPICIOUS IN PICS
-Birds (all white, bad shaped, not accurate) LOOKS FAKE SINCE PICS
-Headstock eagle (very simple, not complex) EVIDENT IN PICS

THERE ARE MORE THAT CAN DECEIVE BECAUSE SOMETIMES ARE CHANGED FOR ORIGINALS, BUT YOU MUST CHECK' EM PERSONALLY OR ASK FOR HELP TO PRS EXPERTS:
-Tuners
-Pickups and cavities
-Pots, switches and installation
-Bridge
-Backplate

THERE ARE SOME THAT YOU MUST CHECK PERSONALLY
-Weight (fakes are lighter)
-Finish

In general, i think that if you're a PRS user the guitar looks fishy at first sight, you know what i mean, there's something wrong with finish and hardware when it's in your hands. I know that tuners, pups, knobs, switches and bridge can be changed but the wood and construction is never the same. Appearances are defective in pictures. Please check everything personally before buying and if you suspect stay away! I've asked several times on forums about fakes and almost everyone says it's legit and impel to buy, unbelievable!
A PRS is very fakeable because of the price but you don't need to lose several thousands to learn!
-
 
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Does anyone know about Korean PRS'S ? Is there fakes amongst those as well? I have a new Korean SE custom 24, 25th Anniversary in whale blue. Serial number CE K12868 Purchased off a Musicshop dealer.
Regards Laurie (Australia)
 
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Hi Laurie, yes there are SE fakes (see above) but they seem to be rarer than USA fakes. If you bought your SE off a dealer, it's got some decent looking writing on the back of the headstock (something about made under licence by World Guitars, Korea) and the guitar feels great then it's most likely not a fake.

There's a few of us Australians on here, good to see another!
 
Hi Laurie, yes there are SE fakes (see above) but they seem to be rarer than USA fakes. If you bought your SE off a dealer, it's got some decent looking writing on the back of the headstock (something about made under licence by World Guitars, Korea) and the guitar feels great then it's most likely not a fake.

There's a few of us Australians on here, good to see another!

Yes, look at the serial number sticker and see if it has the right writing. But I don't remember there being a 25th anni SE in whale blue. I believe there were only 3 colors for the Cu24's. Royal blue, yellow, and red. I hope I'm wrong.

I just found this.
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt286/sgtsteiner/PRS Web Site/IMG_3134.jpg

Maybe yours is Royal blue. Here compare it to mine...
006-2.jpg
 
-Weight (fakes are lighter)

personally i don't think lightweight guitars can be deemed as a fake :/ it's because of the differing density of wood. i've tried an SE Singlecut and it weighs in at maybe less than 8 pounds, even lighter than the squier standard strat they have there. but the tone sure is big and chunky.

that said, if a "fake" guitar is made of solid maple (which is one of the most dense wood used in guitar-making), that'd make it heavier than the standard mahogany-bodied maple-topped or solid mahogany PRS, but that wouldn't make it any more authentic even with the extra weight.

In general, i think that if you're a PRS user the guitar looks fishy at first sight, you know what i mean, there's something wrong with finish and hardware when it's in your hands.

i second that. not a single authentic PRS ever looks fishy, not even the SE models :laugh: so smell the guitar before you buy it. If it stinks, it ain't what you thought it is!
 
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