U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it had seized 3,000 fake Gibson guitars, calling it one of the biggest fake instrument busts in history.
Right now, sitting in a nondescript warehouse in Carson, California, thousands of ornate Gibson guitars are piled up in dozens of stacks of cardboard boxes nearly seven feet high. Some of them look like the signature models for rock gods like Dave Grohl, Ace Frehly, or Zakk Wilde. Some even appear to be autographed by Slash. But all of them are fake.
The fakes likely wouldn’t have made it on the shelves at well-known retailers like Guitar Center as they work directly with Gibson, but counterfeits are often listed on less stringent digital marketplaces like Ebay or Facebook Marketplace. Bell said Tuesday that the seizure should serve as a reminder to consumers heading into the holiday season to be careful about where they make purchases from and to ensure customers buy from certified retailers.
Gibsons are some of the most sought-after instruments on the market, with even their cheapest guitars selling for around $1,500, while the costliest sometimes exceed $10,000.one is even more expensive, with a 1959 Les Paul — the same year and model classic rock stars like Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton played — considered the holy grail of six strings, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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