That ends the tale of the "Fakepit" - Should I get it reworked to look better now that we know what it truly is? 🟢My Website: www.troglysguitarshow.com 🔴Reverb: reverb.com/shop/troglys?_aid=growsumo&gs_partner=Trogly ❓Private Help Sessions: troglysguitarshow.com/help-appraisals/ 👕 Merch: teespring.com/basic-logo-4245?pid=211 🎸New Guitar Day Program: troglysguitarshow.com/ngd/
I own a few 90's era Gibsons and the Kluson style Gibson Deluxe tuners on the ones I own say "Made in Japan". In my opinion, the serial number is evidence that it may a Classic.....If you were going to create a convincing fake "snakepit" or "fakepit", you would use a real Gibson, but it would be too much work to veneer over the serial, re-neck the whole thing or fill in the holes from a Nashville bridge....so the best starting point would be a pre 2005 Classic with an ABR-1. Makes sense
I'd do the frets to make it play right and then just play it... I wouldn't put lipstick on a pig beyond that. The metallic junk is part of the story. Oh, and swap the neck and bridge pup to put them in the right spot. the bridge is in the neck dude. even says so on the sticker... usually Duncan's only have a 'b' or 'n' after the model, but this one even spells out 'bridge' at 9:35
I'd ask Gibson if they would look at it. If it is a real Gibson that someone made into a snakepit, you could probably get them to do the recrown and get a factory letter stating it's a fakepit at the same time...
You've literally helped me avoid several horrible purchases, as I'm just recently(last year or so) getting into the Gibson research lane, I see fakes on a weekly basis, some of them incredibly convincing, others not so much, and there's always the sketchy, but impossible to prove situations that I just have to regrettably say goodbye to. One of these days, I'll find my diamond in the rough. I love that you've been honest about this, and I think it's proven to be one of the things that make your channel a respectable, and interesting place to visit...and you were able to have a correspondence with Kunkel about a Snakepit drama, not too many people can say that!
What I find strange is they (the forgers) seem to have taken good care to duplicate, or at least, replicate some aspects of the original with some care, but then, other areas, they seemingly had their 5 year old child do some of the work. Mind boggling.
It does seem weird, the body seems to be of a real Gibson(expensive) , the case is expensive.. seems to me like someone modded a guitar and sold it as a mod. Probably the next owner tried to pass it as a genuine snakepit. If you’re just trying to make a quick Buck you would use a epiphone body or just never send a guitar in the first place
Likely this was made in Mexico, where there are plenty of people who know how to do the pearl, but work mostly on acoustics. I also suspect that the artwork was done for someone who just wanted their own snakepit, and t was only later that someone got the idea of passing it off as a fake by adding the trussrod cover and seral number on the back.
Considering the lack of photo evidence for comparison to a real one when the fake was purchased it’s obvious whoever did the fake had intimate first hand knowledge of what a real one looked like to get it as close as they did at the time. Regardless of the shortcomings.
That guitar is nuts. It's a LP Classic- short bridge pickup ring, ABR, inked serial number, 60's neck profile. The reason it's not a Standard is it has the cutaway shim. I used to have a brace of Classics that I sold years ago and I believe they have the cutaway shim. I can't check to be sure because I sold all my USA stuff. My guess that guitar was modified in Mexico and the inlay work was done by a skilled craftsman that was paid practically nothing for his work. Top is a refin done in dusty conditions. Good videos! I watched Pt. 1 complete.
Am I crazy or did I see a sticker on that "neck" pickup that said it's actually a bridge pickup? That would certainly explain why it's so much hotter than the current "bridge" pickup. I think somebody put them in there backwards! 😬
If the reading is right, that's more in line with a Gibson 490T than the Slash Seymour Duncan Alnico 2 that should be in there. In that case, all you really need is an ink stamp fake of the Slash design. Heck, the existing bridge could easily be a Gibson 490R, which would actually be a close match to the SD bridge (as both are A2 and ~8K).
Austin, the Nut should be in direct contact with the neck as part of its job is to transmit vibration to the neck (painters tape is not a good choice). Use some kind of hard shim material (or install a new Nut).
I’ll tell ya… I give you a lot of credit hanging in there to keep doing this kind of stuff. Most people would’ve had such a bad taste in their mouths after this they probably would quit right then and there. Thanks for sharing this with everyone man 🤙
I don't feel bad at all ,he got a guitar just like last year on Thanksgiving day when he bought 10 prototype guitar at 2400 each and marked them up to 5400 at least you get a guitar ,just might not be worth what you paid 3000 mark up punk
I'm flabbergasted at the amount of work that obviously went into what amounts to a miss. But if that fretboard were to be made completely playable, and you could get past the weirdness in the machine-head route, you'd have yourself a damned nifty one-off Les Paul. Some rocker should buy that thing as an art project.
Your story makes me feel just fine about how UPS lost my Les Paul and I didn’t buy insurance on it so I was out $1500. I was crushed. Hate when stuff like this happens to good people.
Thank you Trogly for bringing this two part video series on this guitar! What a remarkable story! The experience made you money in the future so it may seem like you're still out the money which you are! But it's the experience you had that made a lemon into lemonade
Looks like my Les Paul! Same model, same time period, but no special inlays. I normally don't watch guitar videos, but this story is fascinating. Thanks for posting.
I think your wife is right. My favorite Slash les paul was his appetite for destruction model, which wasn't even an actual les paul (not a gibson). That was a great sounding and good looking guitar!
It could be that the headstock was sanded down on the back to get rid of the original serial number. Best way to check that out is to measure a real LP headstock, with veneer and without veneer. Could be really thick veneer they put on to give it the correct thickness and feel.
Thanks for the story. There was an awful lot of work put into this fake - the inlays alone is a huge amount of work - regardless that it wasn't perfect. In fact - since the factory ones were CNC - this arguably took more work to pull off. Same with the snake carving - made then glued on - huge amount of work likely done by hand. Even replacing a fretboard with an ebony one, then reslotting it, fretting it etc is fairly technical work. Yes - they completely messed up spraying in a dirty environment - and many other details that made it look sloppy - but that is verging on the very highest end of the forgery racket.
I've wondered what the value would for such a well-made fake. The most I've sold a guitar for is a bargain $400 for an Electra Rick Derringer X-910 "flying Z" that I inherited from a dead hoarder friend, so I'm hardly an "axe-pert" -- the reason I have been curious is that I bought what turned out to be a counterfeit Cerebus the Aardvark #1 comic book years ago. It turned out that the fakers did a real pro job and made about as many copies as there were of the genuine one (approx. 2000) and believe it or not, the bogus comics were soon assigned a fairly high collector value! In fact, when I returned mine to the shop where I bought it, they cheerfully refunded my price and put it back out for sale labelled as counterfeit for more than I had paid them for it as a supposed genuine item! As such, I wouldn't be surprised to see guitar counterfeiters rewarded for good craftsmanship in the collectors' market as well!
It can't be understated. When we are hit by negativity, we can flip it in our favor as Trog's story reminds me. It put him on the fast track of becoming the expert and engaging communicator that he is today !
I would have been leery of poor photos and the fact it was outside of US- for a pricy guitar those are two clues its a fake. I wouldnt pay that much without looking at it or getting a certificate o from a reputable source
That’s a Les Paul Classic (Green inlay Model) that’s been refinished and had an eBay fretboard from China put on it. The clue is the binding in the cutaway is too thick to be a Standard and doesn’t show the edge of the maple top. Those fretboards were extremely popular on eBay in the early Aughts and not so much now. Replicas of the PRS Dragon, Ibanez JEM and the Slash Snakepit were a dime a dozen on eBay back then. They would have sanded off the original non-embossed serial and re-stamped it.
12:10 How did you not notice that the neck pickup had a sticker that clearly said "BRIDGE" on it?? You usually have a good eye for those things, and it explains why the pickup was much hotter than normal...they were put back in backwards!!
After hearing the fakepit I'm even happier with my Epiphone '59 Les Paul. BurstBuckers into a Marshall just can't be beat in my opinion. I'm not saying that the fakepit sounds bad. I'm just saying it doesn't sound $14,201 better!!!
This whole story was an absolute trip and I loved it, super cool to hear about what happened and it is a shame that you got screwed over but thankfully it got resolved, though I will say that "Trogly's Fakepit" is an awesome nickname for it
Thanx Austin for this story. It's always great to find some tutorials what to look for when buying a second-hand Gibson. The downside (except the money you lost) to this explanation is that also counterfeiters now also know what details to take care of :). Still a great story, and great videos you make. Greetings from Belgium.
your playing is sounding awesome these days! this two parter was a real fun watch and a nice reminder that everyone makes big mistakes and we’ll learn from them and be better because of em.
Bummer it all came out of a scam, but I think this sort of thing may be more interesting than the real when it comes to figuring out the story behind it. The "metallic junk" in the paint looks really regular, I don't think it's shop contamination but rather someone was spraying a flake type finish before and didn't clean all of the stripper glitter residue out of the gun before spraying this one with transparent.
I feel bad for the person(s) who did the counterfit,The amount of work put in to that just to make it a fake would be better spent on original desings. I understand a unknown luthier making his own desing doesn't make that much money but the amount of time to counterfit could be spent better.It's a bit like counterfitting an old painting to the point where they even try to match the pigment.Even that is an art on it's own but misused to get more money
It might have originally been done as a 'project' ... for example someone with cabinet-making skills and inlay skills ... It was not necessarily created to scam someone else. Many Luthiers make impressive copies (sometimes better than the originals !) , but not necessarily to commit fraud. Didn't Slash play a Les Paul that wasn't made by Gibson, just as a number of other well known guitarists ... and Gibson was aware ... ?
@@Jester-Riddle If you look the first video, it looks like the seller is the one who made it, since his purchase history was shown in the video via the feedback on his ebay account, and you could see a lot of piece that could be used to make that copy And yes, Slash did have a counterfeit Les Paul and Gibson knew about it, it was made by a friend of Slash and was better quality than Gibson, but they let it slide because of the prestige behind Slash back then Gibson even know who and where are made the Ghibson, but they wont do anything because they know it can bring them money somehow
Thats a re neck, the top is not a vaneer, look at the cutaway you can see the flame below the 50´s style binding. regarding the fret ends I had norlin era just like that
Nice "guitar faces" from the guy doing the playing demo lol seriously, thanks for taking the time to do these videos! I've learned a lot about identifying guitars on your channel.
Stamped serial numbers can be steamed out using wet rag and iron. It won't get 100% raised back to flush but close enough so sanding will take care of that. Usually if you mic the thickness of the headstock this will show up as thinner at the serial number unless they took the time to sand the whole back surface evenly. If the grain was damaged to much from stamping the number may show a shadow of the number. By blending the stain with extra covering the number area that can be hidden. Anyhoo now ya know it can be done.
8:46 I like how you have your guitar face down. That's how I was taught to put my guitar down and lean them against the wall. Keeps the tension off the headstock.
A thought : Maybe it was a broken headstock Les Paul that got fixed up with a replacement neck ... and was 'upgraded' with the Snakes and pups, etc when being renovated ... ? Financially that would make a lot more sense .... or at least it might have been a player/Luthier's best attempt at an affordable copy project in similar circumstances and then their situation changed ... (I noted that an elderly guy sold it). Anyway, it's quite a story. I have to know ... Did Trogly cry on any occasion during this fiasco ... ? I'm betting on yes, possibly more than once !
I would have said it could a LP Classic '1960' model that's been revamped to replicate a Snakepit LP, before seeing the paint issues. They were kinda that colour & I've seen real cherry LP's where the paint has bled into the binding before several times. I have one of the Custom shop 'AFD's from around 2010, with those same pups in it & I can attest, they really do rip. I seem to remember the ones in the original Snakepit were SD APH-1's or something? I still think it's a cool guitar, just a shame you got stung for the $10K but it's something all of us who've been here since the early days know you for so it's kind of a mascot for the channel now imo.
This guitar, through this show, is sort of creating its own unique "appeal", and could become a collectible apart from all the others! In 20 years, someone might say "I own Trogly's Fakepit Les Paul!"
I thought the exact same, because there is only 1 fake that good it could end up being worth more than the actual snake pit guitars! Not that I personally can see why ANY guitar is worth more than 2 grand.. its all wood and electronics, the rest is ego and the emperors new clothes syndrome...
@@gearhead762 You never know. The person who did it might not have done it with the intention to profit from it by scamming someone. Supposedly a lot of people buy Chibson forgeries for their own enjoyment with no intention of selling it, but once that instrument is out of the original owner’s hands whether by a legitimate sale where it is disclosed to be a fake, or through theft or simply the death of the original owner there is absolutely no control over what the second (or an other subsequent) owner will do. In my opinion no one should ever make or knowingly buy a counterfeit item of any kind. Unfortunately, that’s been going on for so longer (and is so profitable for those who do it) that it will never end.
@@charlesbolton8471 Where is the enjoyment in owning a fake Gibson? There are dozens of different companies who make Les Pauls (Edwards/ESP/Tokai/Epiphone/Gibson/Greco/...) so if you want a LP, buy one of those. Buying fake is supporting the wrong people and is not done in my opinion. And naive people like Trogly can get duped and screwed over.
@@Tim8tei I have no idea where the joy is in buying a fake anything, and as I said in my comment I’m completely against. However, the fact that you and I are against it doesn’t change the fact that many people still do it deliberately without being scammed into it, and without the intention of trying to scam others (at least by deceptively selling someone a fake). That being, I would say that most people who buy fakes do so in an attempt to scam people in the sense of “Look at me. I have this expensive item.”whatever it may be guitar, watch, etc.
Ive waited a long time to see the complete story of this guitar of yours! thank you sir for such a thorough review and snake tale of this purchase. I think we have all been through a scam once or twice. Thanks for sharing I truly enjoyed watching these videos. Keep up the great channel!
Come to think about it, this guitar is as ‘Slash’ as they come. He’s known for playing ‘genuine’ fake les pauls too isn’t he? His best guitars aren’t officially Gibson made ones
I barely play guitar nowadays, in fact I've sold most of my instruments recently, but these videos are still very interesting to me. Not sure why. Great presentation, and nerding out over small technical details, I guess.
Pretty sure the mahogany grain is still visible under the serial number. I was thinking maybe they just sanded the whole headstock back until the original stamped number was removed. Measure the headstock thickness and see if it is thinner than it should be.
@@hkguitar1984 That’s another possibility since he mentioned the face of the headstock veneer could have also been replaced to make up the difference with sanding off the back where the stamped serial would be. Still feel bad for him getting scammed like that.
RE what you were saying about removing the stamped inlay for the serial number. If the lacquer was removed and you were able to get to the bare wood there is a woodworking technique whereby you can use steam to remove dents in wood. (Handy when you drop a piece or tool onto what you’re working on.) It’s an extremely effective way to remove any impression which hasn’t broken the wood fibres.
Thanks for sharing the story trogly! After watching this i realise that these experiences come with the territory unfortunately...i can't imagine doing someone wrong like that, but those people are out there. Im sure its safe to say this video will definitely save someone some grief in the future.
This was a fun(interesting is probably a better word), if not messed up little journey you shared with us with us Austin. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Also, I love listening to the playing demo's by Michael Weber, but I just can't bare to watch him, LMAO! Awesome content indeed.
Fake pit. I love it . Not of course the fact you got scammed. I wouldnt say it's a total impressive fake but the person(s) that put that together went through a lot of work to sell it at the price it was trying to be sold for. Is there supposed to be a stickers on the base of the headstock or no?
"Some guys won't ever open a guitar because they think it hurts it". Meanwhile, me who just received a new bass through the post today has already had it into it's constituent components, short of pulling off the neck and pulling the electronics fully out (although I had one of the pick ups out to get it sitting straight properly, and had the back off to make sure everything was all good in there and to get rid of some minor hiss when the treble pot was fully cranked). That's the difference between someone who plays and who is just collecting, if you want it to continue to sound good (or to sound good to begin with for some new instruments), you almost have to take it apart to some degree!
God’s word: “for the love of money is the root of all evil”; (emphasize the LOVE of money, not money itself). So a fantasy “signature” Gibson is created played by a “guitar God” that we just have to have…we “lust” after (I wonder how it plays, what it would be like to own that…what a beauty…maybe for once I can be that guy, show my friends…or maybe I’ll just honor “Slash” at least for a while…then flip it)…what a lifelong dream! (the opportunity has presented itself to own one)…so easy is the internet to buy sell trade and do commerce. This video is fantastic; it helps generate awareness of the good and the “evil” people do. My first guitar was a 1980 USA Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Fender Twin Reverb equipped with James B. Lansing speakers…I was 11. What?? Well, the Parents wanted us to play “the best” (if we were going to become “good”) or so Dad thought; but point is, fast forward (By age 19) I never became Slash or EVH on the guitar and neither did my brother (after 6 years of weekly guitar lessons) no matter I had a genuine Made in USA setup. The quality of the instrument doesn’t matter (an average player will sound average no matter what he plays. A really good player will make even a Chibson sound amazing). I suppose if you have read this far…stop buying guitars you can’t afford and won’t ever play (unless your good and you earn a living doing it) and invest your money elsewhere! Life is too short and you’re not going to take your guitars to your grave. So, you’re a collector…OK, do something with the instruments you own. Whether you play as a weekend warrior or play in church just be involved versus your house has 30 guitars that collect “dust”. I read an earlier post that “my wife hates all my guitars” and hates some more than others”…No doubt they do! These things cost a ton of money!!! It’s sad that we have this material attitude. Then there are people take advantage (via crafty fakery). It’s happening with “everything” because we ultimately fuel it. Do I desire to buy another $5000 Les Paul Custom? Nope.
This is a little off-topic (it's about the extra "niceties" of the case): it's funny how tiny differences of extra goodies can help seal the deal, even when they have nothing to with how a guitar plays or sounds. Two little things that helped seal the deal for me when I bought my US-made Jackson 30 years ago were the aluminium coverplates on the back, and the aluminium "Jackson" nameplate on the case. 😃
Plot twist: Years from now, Gibson will confirm this is the sloppy rough draft prototype to the Slash prototype, that was banged out a day before a holiday weekend, with scrap parts.
thanks for sharin this Austin. You have come a long long way since then. I really slowed down the footage under the blacklight on the headstock. I think you should really look close at the back of the headstock under the light. I think you might find an outline to a number. worth checking anyway. Thanks again I look forward to this every night. Take Care
@@johnhotz1400 all of mine are bastards lol. Two highly modded out Squiers...a Tele and Strat. A custom Steve Vai flame replica...custom 5150 replica and an Ibanez S series LTD with a Dimebag bridge pickup.
@@Uninterested69420 Exactly. He was inexperienced AND he thought he could flip it quickly for as much as twice what he was paying. The combination of those two things is what sucked him into it.
Remember coming into some money in the early 2000's & had this crazy idea of getting a 59LP, saw one on reverb for $95k (that's cheap) but after checking the photo's which were taken on a park bench then seeing the picture of serial taken at a guitar exposition! i really came my to my senses, after more checking it turns out they range from $200/400k so even though the money's gone i'm soo glad i didn't buy the fake.
That guitar sounds pretty good and has some cool personal history. This is like one of those stories you would hear 30 years from now in Peter Frampton Rig Rundown lol. If I had that kind of history with a "fake" guitar that sounded that good and was in a band, I would definitely gig with it regularly.
@@matthewschiavi7353 It wasn't necessarily made for the purpose of scamming originally. It could very well have been a very motivated hobbyist doing his best to recreate his dream guitar, but obviously ended up in dishonest hands somewhere down the line.
I enjoyed this video on your Gibson 'Fake Snake' and the original unboxing one. For all they put you through and what it cost it's amazing you can maintain your sense of humor. You deserve a mountain of respect in handling this debacle with decency and aplomb, accepting the loss as a lesson in life. I enjoy watching your videos because I always learn a great deal and it seems like you're having a ball. It's always good to see a man's true nature when faced with this kind of adversity and the frustration it can cause. I am a bit jaded by the gall of some people, but also renewed in faith by others who display a healthy sense of fair play. I commend your good nature and depth. keep up the good work, a fellow trogly.
Slash would be proud. Maybe if you forwarded these clips he would sign yours and you'd have a personal connection. I'm sure he's a gentleman and these stories along with his major shredder status would add a nice fan appreciation interlude to his legacy as a rock legend. Rock on!
I think he is 100% incorrect when he said this isn't a $350 Alibaba/DHGate replica. I believe this is absolutely one of the best early Alibaba fakes of this guitar. It was also a known fake that someone attempted to make changes to in order to make it a hair more passing.
Currency counterfeiters upgrade bills by bleaching $1 notes and printing higher denominations on them because the tactile feel of the paper was so essential to the experience of a genuine note. Seems like a similar situation but with guitars.
Thank's for sharing this unfortunate but fortunate story! The guitar that made you who you are today! Still a cool guitar! I believe you should keep it! Kinda like some people keep and frame the first dollar they made! This guitar turned you into the Gibson guru that you are today! May have been the best $15,000.00 you ever spent! I'm kinda thinking this guitar may have started life as a Les Paul classic plus top.
15:35 "I like it because of what it represents" -- This is the problem with guitars. If some famous guy in a top hat did lines of coke off of it in the 1980s, doesn't matter if it looks like trash and plays like garbage. Someone will pay thousands of dollars for it.
I actually have heard tons of mid range epiphones that sound far better to my ears like for an example my old epiphone Les Paul. I guess I expected more from the pickups. Might be that I prefer a PAF style pickup in a Les Paul Especially for the clarity. Other than that I'd refinish it and throw some Probuckers or something similar. It's interesting how that guitar has such a rough story yet you had the grace to hold onto it. I might have sold it, smashed it in my anger, or trashed it lol. but totally needs work. Gotta say I do agree with the wife as far as the snake and just the lackluster appearance. Especially compared to the amazing technology that can be used today to totally redesign the very fretboard into a piece of art.
What i find interesting about your story is how right out of college working at a grocery store you were able to buy a house and have 3 credit card with more than 5k on them. Interesting 🤔
By the time I was 17 I'd been working at a Strawberry Farm, a Farmers Market and a Shell Service Station one Summer so I could purchase a brand new Les Paul Deluxe and Fender Twin Reverb, that was back in 1977. If you set your priorities and save all your money it's possible, not easy but very much possible.
I saw both videos and I was captivated all the way to the end - great job Austin! So how much do you recon this Fakepit is worth now? Heck, I'm pretty sure the views from both videos made you some money already, so your $10.000 loss should have gone down a bit :)
I am truly enjoying your channel! This brings me back to my early days of playing. In 1985 or 1986, I bought a Fender Stratocaster from a music store in Brooklyn. It was Baby Blue. Spent a few bucks on it. I took it to the studio to play with a drummer and a new bass player....the volume was horribly low. It played ok - someone did do a half decent setup. Some suspicion was aroused when I was told that Fender never made a Strat in that color. I called Fender directly. Yes, back then we had humans on the other end of phone calls... Fender verifies that the guitar is a fake, and thank heaven for American Express. I went back got a refund but never, ever went back to that store. Over the years I have learned to spot many fakes...
That's very interesting! As far as I know, Baby Blue was never an official Fender color. Did that music store sell it as "new?" Because when selling used instruments, the employees will sometimes label them with incorrect names for the colors. I didn't even know they made fakes back then!
It was baby blue, and matched my 68 Fury III that I had. When I found out that it was fake, I was pissed. I have since learned to verify EVERYTHING.@@markcheetah4960
This is my favorite video of yours. It's paced really well, and exceptionally thorough. Bummer that it's a fake, but still really good effort was put into pulling it off. Cool in its own right ✌
Yeah , but lying about it to fleece some poor sucker out of their hard earned money is just wrong ! No offense intended , I’ve been that poor sucker a time or two . You wouldn’t like it if it was you either .
Stories like this are interesting to me..I will get blasted for this, but could care less. I can not understand why anyone would pay $15K to way over $100K for a guitar, just because a famous musician owned it, or a clone of it. It is still a guitar. Reminds me of Barrett-Jackson and the like, people paying in the millions for a car...it's still a car, they never will drive them. Just me I guess
Well as far as who owned the guitar previously if it was a famous person it adds to the provenance of the guitar like say if the guitar belonged to Clapton at one time or Jimmy Page and it was used to to write certain songs are used in a recording studio for certain song or an album and there's documentation of it it adds a lot of wealth to the guitar all that kind of stuff matters when buying and selling a guitar that belong to a known famous guitarist but with this that's not the case
my personal limit is probably gonna be about $2000, but i would expect a very top of the line guitar.... mostly i look for guitars $800 or less. Ive had great luck with cheap ibanez models. I have to laugh at people who think the wood changes the tone on electrics when there are countless videos debunking this. acoustic is obviously different but electrics are all about the hardware and the amp. and even then i fully agree with you, why pay for a name, you get no difference. i have a $1200 LTD james hetfield iron cross, one of my favorites to play. had i dished out the $2999 for the 'authentic' model just to have some japanese guy make it as opposed to a korean factory im sure i would play it even less. It easier to get your money out of the moderately priced ones anyway if you choose to sell later on.
I would assume that, they installed the pickups backwards and the bridge pickup is actually in the neck position. Considering how off those readings are.
Hey Austin, while I don't wish any further such issues on you (Snakepit scam, luthier scam,etc) .... I KINDA DO because the videos you make of these situations are my absolute favorite! 😆 Also, PLEASE feature a CS356 at some point. Thanks!
When I visited Guitar Center from Sunset Blvd. They had a Snakepit on display, I even took a shot of it. But looking at it, along the things you said, it might be a prototype, because of the snake position
Somethings up with those pickups. From the SD website: Signature Slash Pickups Alnico II Humbucker set (APH-2) voiced specifically by Slash to give all of his Les Pauls that Appetite for Destruction tone. DCR: Neck: 8.30k, Bridge: 8.9k
It's amazing how close they got to making a credible replica though. They actually somehow managed to make an embossed logo that looks realistically like it's carved in but they got the details slightly wrong. If they had put just a little more work into it you wouldn't have even known the difference. The mystery is how they faked that emboss so it looks really carved in. I first thought maybe they got a real Snakepit and made a mold of the logo, and then cast a plastic one and glued it on, but it's not even an exact duplicate of the emboss, like the snake's lip joins right onto the snake body instead of there being a space between them, and the cigarette is too short. They must have copied it by hand and by eye. If somebody really wanted to, they could do the extra work to make a convincing fake, in fact maybe some of the ones out there are and they haven't been identified as fake yet because they're so good.
@@The68lespaul They're not even a particularly good guitar, it's just a '59 Les Paul Custom reissue with the snake logo and the neck cobra inlay, so what? You can buy those reissues made in the same year as the Snakepits for about $3-4K. The Snakepits don't even have the same pickups and capacitors as the one Slash had made for him, just the stock "59 reissue ones. You could make a Slash version yourself and it would be better than the commercial Snakepits.
Triogly! You’re adorable and I swear I know you from a wow podcast. regardless I wish that this hadn’t happened to you and I am so awed you are into guitars too. Thank you for all the posts. I’ve been watching old vids (like this one) and new ones. I just got the fender 70th anniversary with the sparkly finish (I know you didn’t love) but you did the best best review of that guitar and the more I seen it the more I loved it. BTW, I rewatched that vid like 10+ times. Thank you Trogly!
That ends the tale of the "Fakepit" - Should I get it reworked to look better now that we know what it truly is?
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I tried to message you on facebook messenger.
Sure, rework it! 😎
I own a few 90's era Gibsons and the Kluson style Gibson Deluxe tuners on the ones I own say "Made in Japan". In my opinion, the serial number is evidence that it may a Classic.....If you were going to create a convincing fake "snakepit" or "fakepit", you would use a real Gibson, but it would be too much work to veneer over the serial, re-neck the whole thing or fill in the holes from a Nashville bridge....so the best starting point would be a pre 2005 Classic with an ABR-1. Makes sense
I'd do the frets to make it play right and then just play it... I wouldn't put lipstick on a pig beyond that. The metallic junk is part of the story. Oh, and swap the neck and bridge pup to put them in the right spot. the bridge is in the neck dude. even says so on the sticker... usually Duncan's only have a 'b' or 'n' after the model, but this one even spells out 'bridge' at 9:35
I'd ask Gibson if they would look at it. If it is a real Gibson that someone made into a snakepit, you could probably get them to do the recrown and get a factory letter stating it's a fakepit at the same time...
I agree with his wife. Even the real ones look like something from a cheap overseas flea market. Like Ed Hardy threw up on it.
I agree with his wife, too! To me, it looks just as bad as a sticker, and I've always hated stickers on guitars and basses!
That's it, Ed Hardy! I _knew_ the neck inlay reminded me of something, and yes, it reminds me of Ed Hardy artwork.
Imagine if affliction made a guitar too 😂
Completely agree, so ugly
Seriously, this thing is hideous.
"The Fakepit" is an incredible name. I loved the documentary yesterday
agreed!
the Less Paul
SnakeShïţ
You've literally helped me avoid several horrible purchases, as I'm just recently(last year or so) getting into the Gibson research lane, I see fakes on a weekly basis, some of them incredibly convincing, others not so much, and there's always the sketchy, but impossible to prove situations that I just have to regrettably say goodbye to. One of these days, I'll find my diamond in the rough. I love that you've been honest about this, and I think it's proven to be one of the things that make your channel a respectable, and interesting place to visit...and you were able to have a correspondence with Kunkel about a Snakepit drama, not too many people can say that!
There used to be so many fakes. The main guitar that Slash records with is actually a fake built for him by Chris Derrig.
What I find strange is they (the forgers) seem to have taken good care to duplicate, or at least, replicate some aspects of the original with some care, but then, other areas, they seemingly had their 5 year old child do some of the work. Mind boggling.
Might be just enough to make photos of it look real. 🤔
Sounds like typical Gibson production. The forgers were content with it being “Good Enough”.
It does seem weird, the body seems to be of a real Gibson(expensive) , the case is expensive.. seems to me like someone modded a guitar and sold it as a mod. Probably the next owner tried to pass it as a genuine snakepit. If you’re just trying to make a quick Buck you would use a epiphone body or just never send a guitar in the first place
Likely this was made in Mexico, where there are plenty of people who know how to do the pearl, but work mostly on acoustics. I also suspect that the artwork was done for someone who just wanted their own snakepit, and t was only later that someone got the idea of passing it off as a fake by adding the trussrod cover and seral number on the back.
like the snake with lips
I thought that at least it will take us another year to see pt 2.
But what a surprise!
Thanks Austin for sharing!
Considering the lack of photo evidence for comparison to a real one when the fake was purchased it’s obvious whoever did the fake had intimate first hand knowledge of what a real one looked like to get it as close as they did at the time. Regardless of the shortcomings.
That guitar is nuts. It's a LP Classic- short bridge pickup ring, ABR, inked serial number, 60's neck profile. The reason it's not a Standard is it has the cutaway shim. I used to have a brace of Classics that I sold years ago and I believe they have the cutaway shim. I can't check to be sure because I sold all my USA stuff. My guess that guitar was modified in Mexico and the inlay work was done by a skilled craftsman that was paid practically nothing for his work. Top is a refin done in dusty conditions.
Good videos! I watched Pt. 1 complete.
As a life long guitar addict (mainly gibsons) I find your videos utterly riveting. Please keep them coming!
Am I crazy or did I see a sticker on that "neck" pickup that said it's actually a bridge pickup? That would certainly explain why it's so much hotter than the current "bridge" pickup. I think somebody put them in there backwards! 😬
Bingo, You Sir have the eyes of an hawk.
At the 9:35 mark you can clearly see the neck pickup is marked "Bridge".
I saw it as well!
Hard to believe he didn't mention that in the video. Surely he noticed that, I would hope! 😬
If the reading is right, that's more in line with a Gibson 490T than the Slash Seymour Duncan Alnico 2 that should be in there. In that case, all you really need is an ink stamp fake of the Slash design. Heck, the existing bridge could easily be a Gibson 490R, which would actually be a close match to the SD bridge (as both are A2 and ~8K).
@@rindred yeah when I saw that 13k reading I knew it wasn't a Slash pickup.
Austin, the Nut should be in direct contact with the neck as part of its job is to transmit vibration to the neck (painters tape is not a good choice).
Use some kind of hard shim material (or install a new Nut).
Slash’s original Appetite “les Paul” was a ‘replica’ Gibson as well!
I’ll tell ya… I give you a lot of credit hanging in there to keep doing this kind of stuff. Most people would’ve had such a bad taste in their mouths after this they probably would quit right then and there.
Thanks for sharing this with everyone man 🤙
I don't feel bad at all ,he got a guitar just like last year on Thanksgiving day when he bought 10 prototype guitar at 2400 each and marked them up to 5400 at least you get a guitar ,just might not be worth what you paid 3000 mark up punk
@@slagmaggot Can you take a moment to clearly express what you're trying to say
"I stole Slash's guitars, his cigarettes, and his girlfriend."
Axl Rose
The real versions are, at best, tasteless reflections of an adolescent ego. The fake is simply hideous, looking like a souvenir from a Tijuana bazaar.
a souvenir from a tijuana bazaar is so accurate hahahaha
I'm flabbergasted at the amount of work that obviously went into what amounts to a miss. But if that fretboard were to be made completely playable, and you could get past the weirdness in the machine-head route, you'd have yourself a damned nifty one-off Les Paul. Some rocker should buy that thing as an art project.
Your story makes me feel just fine about how UPS lost my Les Paul and I didn’t buy insurance on it so I was out $1500. I was crushed. Hate when stuff like this happens to good people.
Thank you Trogly for bringing this two part video series on this guitar! What a remarkable story! The experience made you money in the future so it may seem like you're still out the money which you are! But it's the experience you had that made a lemon into lemonade
Looks like my Les Paul! Same model, same time period, but no special inlays. I normally don't watch guitar videos, but this story is fascinating. Thanks for posting.
I think your wife is right. My favorite Slash les paul was his appetite for destruction model, which wasn't even an actual les paul (not a gibson). That was a great sounding and good looking guitar!
I completely agree.
Tell me more of that non Gibson model
It could be that the headstock was sanded down on the back to get rid of the original serial number. Best way to check that out is to measure a real LP headstock, with veneer and without veneer. Could be really thick veneer they put on to give it the correct thickness and feel.
Good point
I don’t even play guitar but I love watching Troglys reviews
That’s awesome
TOO FUNNY!
Same here 😂
Thanks for the story.
There was an awful lot of work put into this fake - the inlays alone is a huge amount of work - regardless that it wasn't perfect.
In fact - since the factory ones were CNC - this arguably took more work to pull off.
Same with the snake carving - made then glued on - huge amount of work likely done by hand.
Even replacing a fretboard with an ebony one, then reslotting it, fretting it etc is fairly technical work.
Yes - they completely messed up spraying in a dirty environment - and many other details that made it look sloppy - but that is verging on the very highest end of the forgery racket.
I've wondered what the value would for such a well-made fake. The most I've sold a guitar for is a bargain $400 for an Electra Rick Derringer X-910 "flying Z" that I inherited from a dead hoarder friend, so I'm hardly an "axe-pert" -- the reason I have been curious is that I bought what turned out to be a counterfeit Cerebus the Aardvark #1 comic book years ago. It turned out that the fakers did a real pro job and made about as many copies as there were of the genuine one (approx. 2000) and believe it or not, the bogus comics were soon assigned a fairly high collector value! In fact, when I returned mine to the shop where I bought it, they cheerfully refunded my price and put it back out for sale labelled as counterfeit for more than I had paid them for it as a supposed genuine item! As such, I wouldn't be surprised to see guitar counterfeiters rewarded for good craftsmanship in the collectors' market as well!
Truly sucks trogly got scammed..he's he's yru man tho..he pushed on and shared the story...much respect...I love this channel
It can't be understated. When we are hit by negativity, we can flip it in our favor as Trog's story reminds me. It put him on the fast track of becoming the expert and engaging communicator that he is today !
@@frederickcee2901 well said..
I would have been leery of poor photos and the fact it was outside of US- for a pricy guitar those are two clues its a fake. I wouldnt pay that much without looking at it or getting a certificate o from a reputable source
Your wife is right. I don't get it either. Not a particularly attractive guitar in my eyes. The snake is kinda gawdy.
I still can’t believe you bought this on eBay for $15,000 based on a few blurry pictures.
Price of an education 😢
One detail you missed is that the bridge pickup ring is the shorter gibson USA style rather than the taller historic ones the snakepits have
That’s a Les Paul Classic (Green inlay Model) that’s been refinished and had an eBay fretboard from China put on it. The clue is the binding in the cutaway is too thick to be a Standard and doesn’t show the edge of the maple top. Those fretboards were extremely popular on eBay in the early Aughts and not so much now. Replicas of the PRS Dragon, Ibanez JEM and the Slash Snakepit were a dime a dozen on eBay back then. They would have sanded off the original non-embossed serial and re-stamped it.
12:10 How did you not notice that the neck pickup had a sticker that clearly said "BRIDGE" on it?? You usually have a good eye for those things, and it explains why the pickup was much hotter than normal...they were put back in backwards!!
have u actually watched the original video all the way through ?
@@dennylater9316 The Part 1 of this? Yes but I don't remember anything being said about the pickups being in there that way.
After hearing the fakepit I'm even happier with my Epiphone '59 Les Paul. BurstBuckers into a Marshall just can't be beat in my opinion.
I'm not saying that the fakepit sounds bad. I'm just saying it doesn't sound $14,201 better!!!
This whole story was an absolute trip and I loved it, super cool to hear about what happened and it is a shame that you got screwed over but thankfully it got resolved, though I will say that "Trogly's Fakepit" is an awesome nickname for it
The pickups look odd. I've never seen tape go on the base plate of a Seymour Duncan pickup. Plus the bridge pup seems a bit hot for an alinco 2 pup.
All the new ones i have have tape with the build date of the pickup, name, product code and some have the resistance reading.
Tuners are era correct btw. My 1997 Sg special with ABR1 bridge also has the Gibson tuners that were made in Japan…
Thanx Austin for this story. It's always great to find some tutorials what to look for when buying a second-hand Gibson. The downside (except the money you lost) to this explanation is that also counterfeiters now also know what details to take care of :). Still a great story, and great videos you make. Greetings from Belgium.
your playing is sounding awesome these days! this two parter was a real fun watch and a nice reminder that everyone makes big mistakes and we’ll learn from them and be better because of em.
Bummer it all came out of a scam, but I think this sort of thing may be more interesting than the real when it comes to figuring out the story behind it. The "metallic junk" in the paint looks really regular, I don't think it's shop contamination but rather someone was spraying a flake type finish before and didn't clean all of the stripper glitter residue out of the gun before spraying this one with transparent.
I feel bad for the person(s) who did the counterfit,The amount of work put in to that just to make it a fake would be better spent on original desings. I understand a unknown luthier making his own desing doesn't make that much money but the amount of time to counterfit could be spent better.It's a bit like counterfitting an old painting to the point where they even try to match the pigment.Even that is an art on it's own but misused to get more money
It might have originally been done as a 'project' ... for example someone with cabinet-making skills and inlay skills ... It was not necessarily created to scam someone else. Many Luthiers make impressive copies (sometimes better than the originals !) , but not necessarily to commit fraud. Didn't Slash play a Les Paul that wasn't made by Gibson, just as a number of other well known guitarists ... and Gibson was aware ... ?
@@Jester-Riddle If you look the first video, it looks like the seller is the one who made it, since his purchase history was shown in the video via the feedback on his ebay account, and you could see a lot of piece that could be used to make that copy
And yes, Slash did have a counterfeit Les Paul and Gibson knew about it, it was made by a friend of Slash and was better quality than Gibson, but they let it slide because of the prestige behind Slash back then
Gibson even know who and where are made the Ghibson, but they wont do anything because they know it can bring them money somehow
@@claire6650 It’s not just a cheap clone either. It was made by Kris Derrig, a well known luthier who made very high ranking ‘59 clones
I can't watch your friend play. Those guitar faces are too much for me hahahahahaha
He looks like he’s having a seizure that is confusing him lmao. Also very confused by the outfit
Thats a re neck, the top is not a vaneer, look at the cutaway you can see the flame below the 50´s style binding. regarding the fret ends I had norlin era just like that
Nice "guitar faces" from the guy doing the playing demo lol seriously, thanks for taking the time to do these videos! I've learned a lot about identifying guitars on your channel.
I thought he was having some sort of fit !
🤣🤣🤣 yep, a typical day at any Guitar Center in the USA!
Ya, I believe he graduated from the GE Smith School of Guitar Facial Spasms ...with honors
Stamped serial numbers can be steamed out using wet rag and iron. It won't get 100% raised back to flush but close enough so sanding will take care of that. Usually if you mic the thickness of the headstock this will show up as thinner at the serial number unless they took the time to sand the whole back surface evenly. If the grain was damaged to much from stamping the number may show a shadow of the number. By blending the stain with extra covering the number area that can be hidden. Anyhoo now ya know it can be done.
Great story. Send it off to a trusted luithier. Get all your specs installed.
The Trogginstein. For your museum.
8:46 I like how you have your guitar face down. That's how I was taught to put my guitar down and lean them against the wall. Keeps the tension off the headstock.
A thought : Maybe it was a broken headstock Les Paul that got fixed up with a replacement neck ... and was 'upgraded' with the Snakes and pups, etc when being renovated ... ?
Financially that would make a lot more sense .... or at least it might have been a player/Luthier's best attempt at an affordable copy project in similar circumstances and then their situation changed ... (I noted that an elderly guy sold it).
Anyway, it's quite a story.
I have to know ... Did Trogly cry on any occasion during this fiasco ... ? I'm betting on yes, possibly more than once !
I would have said it could a LP Classic '1960' model that's been revamped to replicate a Snakepit LP, before seeing the paint issues. They were kinda that colour & I've seen real cherry LP's where the paint has bled into the binding before several times. I have one of the Custom shop 'AFD's from around 2010, with those same pups in it & I can attest, they really do rip. I seem to remember the ones in the original Snakepit were SD APH-1's or something? I still think it's a cool guitar, just a shame you got stung for the $10K but it's something all of us who've been here since the early days know you for so it's kind of a mascot for the channel now imo.
This guitar, through this show, is sort of creating its own unique "appeal", and could become a collectible apart from all the others! In 20 years, someone might say "I own Trogly's Fakepit Les Paul!"
I thought the exact same, because there is only 1 fake that good it could end up being worth more than the actual snake pit guitars! Not that I personally can see why ANY guitar is worth more than 2 grand.. its all wood and electronics, the rest is ego and the emperors new clothes syndrome...
Somebody will fake trogly’s fake one day 😂
There's other fakes out there.
Pickups are fakes too. Wrong DCR readings. should be high 8s for the bridge, low 8s for the neck.
this would guitar would be even more incredible if every component was fake
It will be super awesome if the person who turn it into a Snakepit shows up after seing your videos and know the full story from day 0!
That would be interesting.
A lot of time and effort went into this counterfeit.
Somehow i doubt he would own up to doing it lol
@@gearhead762
You never know.
The person who did it might not have done it with the intention to profit from it by scamming someone.
Supposedly a lot of people buy Chibson forgeries for their own enjoyment with no intention of selling it, but once that instrument is out of the original owner’s hands whether by a legitimate sale where it is disclosed to be a fake, or through theft or simply the death of the original owner there is absolutely no control over what the second (or an other subsequent) owner will do.
In my opinion no one should ever make or knowingly buy a counterfeit item of any kind. Unfortunately, that’s been going on for so longer (and is so profitable for those who do it) that it will never end.
@@charlesbolton8471 Where is the enjoyment in owning a fake Gibson? There are dozens of different companies who make Les Pauls (Edwards/ESP/Tokai/Epiphone/Gibson/Greco/...) so if you want a LP, buy one of those. Buying fake is supporting the wrong people and is not done in my opinion. And naive people like Trogly can get duped and screwed over.
@@Tim8tei
I have no idea where the joy is in buying a fake anything, and as I said in my comment I’m completely against.
However, the fact that you and I are against it doesn’t change the fact that many people still do it deliberately without being scammed into it, and without the intention of trying to scam others (at least by deceptively selling someone a fake).
That being, I would say that most people who buy fakes do so in an attempt to scam people in the sense of “Look at me. I have this expensive item.”whatever it may be guitar, watch, etc.
Ive waited a long time to see the complete story of this guitar of yours! thank you sir for such a thorough review and snake tale of this purchase. I think we have all been through a scam once or twice. Thanks for sharing I truly enjoyed watching these videos. Keep up the great channel!
Come to think about it, this guitar is as ‘Slash’ as they come. He’s known for playing ‘genuine’ fake les pauls too isn’t he? His best guitars aren’t officially Gibson made ones
I barely play guitar nowadays, in fact I've sold most of my instruments recently, but these videos are still very interesting to me. Not sure why. Great presentation, and nerding out over small technical details, I guess.
It's because it's reignited your nostalgic enthusiasm for the guitar.
Austin, I think the stamped serial number could have been covered by some filler, re-sprayed and then the Slash serial inked on
Pretty sure the mahogany grain is still visible under the serial number. I was thinking maybe they just sanded the whole headstock back until the original stamped number was removed. Measure the headstock thickness and see if it is thinner than it should be.
@@hkguitar1984 That’s another possibility since he mentioned the face of the headstock veneer could have also been replaced to make up the difference with sanding off the back where the stamped serial would be. Still feel bad for him getting scammed like that.
RE what you were saying about removing the stamped inlay for the serial number. If the lacquer was removed and you were able to get to the bare wood there is a woodworking technique whereby you can use steam to remove dents in wood. (Handy when you drop a piece or tool onto what you’re working on.)
It’s an extremely effective way to remove any impression which hasn’t broken the wood fibres.
Thanks for sharing the story trogly! After watching this i realise that these experiences come with the territory unfortunately...i can't imagine doing someone wrong like that, but those people are out there. Im sure its safe to say this video will definitely save someone some grief in the future.
This was a fun(interesting is probably a better word), if not messed up little journey you shared with us with us Austin. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Also, I love listening to the playing demo's by Michael Weber, but I just can't bare to watch him, LMAO! Awesome content indeed.
Fake pit. I love it . Not of course the fact you got scammed. I wouldnt say it's a total impressive fake but the person(s) that put that together went through a lot of work to sell it at the price it was trying to be sold for. Is there supposed to be a stickers on the base of the headstock or no?
"Some guys won't ever open a guitar because they think it hurts it".
Meanwhile, me who just received a new bass through the post today has already had it into it's constituent components, short of pulling off the neck and pulling the electronics fully out (although I had one of the pick ups out to get it sitting straight properly, and had the back off to make sure everything was all good in there and to get rid of some minor hiss when the treble pot was fully cranked). That's the difference between someone who plays and who is just collecting, if you want it to continue to sound good (or to sound good to begin with for some new instruments), you almost have to take it apart to some degree!
God’s word: “for the love of money is the root of all evil”; (emphasize the LOVE of money, not money itself). So a fantasy “signature” Gibson is created played by a “guitar God” that we just have to have…we “lust” after (I wonder how it plays, what it would be like to own that…what a beauty…maybe for once I can be that guy, show my friends…or maybe I’ll just honor “Slash” at least for a while…then flip it)…what a lifelong dream! (the opportunity has presented itself to own one)…so easy is the internet to buy sell trade and do commerce. This video is fantastic; it helps generate awareness of the good and the “evil” people do. My first guitar was a 1980 USA Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Fender Twin Reverb equipped with James B. Lansing speakers…I was 11. What?? Well, the Parents wanted us to play “the best” (if we were going to become “good”) or so Dad thought; but point is, fast forward (By age 19) I never became Slash or EVH on the guitar and neither did my brother (after 6 years of weekly guitar lessons) no matter I had a genuine Made in USA setup. The quality of the instrument doesn’t matter (an average player will sound average no matter what he plays. A really good player will make even a Chibson sound amazing). I suppose if you have read this far…stop buying guitars you can’t afford and won’t ever play (unless your good and you earn a living doing it) and invest your money elsewhere! Life is too short and you’re not going to take your guitars to your grave. So, you’re a collector…OK, do something with the instruments you own. Whether you play as a weekend warrior or play in church just be involved versus your house has 30 guitars that collect “dust”. I read an earlier post that “my wife hates all my guitars” and hates some more than others”…No doubt they do! These things cost a ton of money!!! It’s sad that we have this material attitude. Then there are people take advantage (via crafty fakery). It’s happening with “everything” because we ultimately fuel it. Do I desire to buy another $5000 Les Paul Custom? Nope.
This is a little off-topic (it's about the extra "niceties" of the case): it's funny how tiny differences of extra goodies can help seal the deal, even when they have nothing to with how a guitar plays or sounds. Two little things that helped seal the deal for me when I bought my US-made Jackson 30 years ago were the aluminium coverplates on the back, and the aluminium "Jackson" nameplate on the case. 😃
Plot twist: Years from now, Gibson will confirm this is the sloppy rough draft prototype to the Slash prototype, that was banged out a day before a holiday weekend, with scrap parts.
.... or, actually, the very first original mockup prototype that was improved for the issued prototype ... !
Or it's the stolen Slash prototype! 😆
thanks for sharin this Austin. You have come a long long way since then. I really slowed down the footage under the blacklight on the headstock. I think you should really look close at the back of the headstock under the light. I think you might find an outline to a number. worth checking anyway. Thanks again I look forward to this every night. Take Care
Personally i would never pay 15 grand for a used guitar online just going on pictures.. id go see it in person at that price.
Just go to show you how much money he has to throw away.
Just have to throw this in I play stratocasters American
@@johnhotz1400 all of mine are bastards lol. Two highly modded out Squiers...a Tele and Strat. A custom Steve Vai flame replica...custom 5150 replica and an Ibanez S series LTD with a Dimebag bridge pickup.
If you were dumb enough not to watch the first video,he mentioned that it was in Mexico and he was inexperienced so shut up lmao
@@Uninterested69420
Exactly.
He was inexperienced AND he thought he could flip it quickly for as much as twice what he was paying. The combination of those two things is what sucked him into it.
Remember coming into some money in the early 2000's & had this crazy idea of getting a 59LP,
saw one on reverb for $95k (that's cheap) but after checking the photo's which were taken
on a park bench then seeing the picture of serial taken at a guitar exposition!
i really came my to my senses, after more checking it turns out they range from $200/400k
so even though the money's gone i'm soo glad i didn't buy the fake.
I’ve seen a couple of real ones in the $90-125,000 range, but they were either heavily modified and/or had major repairs.
Dude, your wife hates it because you spent 15 grand on it!! Lol!
LOL
I spent 15 grand on a guitar that look like that my wife would divorce me
I got a 1500$ studio for my bday almost a year ago and I'm still in the doghouse lol.
That guitar sounds pretty good and has some cool personal history. This is like one of those stories you would hear 30 years from now in Peter Frampton Rig Rundown lol. If I had that kind of history with a "fake" guitar that sounded that good and was in a band, I would definitely gig with it regularly.
Same.
Someone did an awful lot of work to pass this off. It's actually kinda impressive.
and a lot of AWFUL work haha
@@BadMotivator66 That's what's odd. To do all the work of relief carving, inlays, an engraved TR cover, etc... but to do it so utterly half assed.
@@matthewschiavi7353 It wasn't necessarily made for the purpose of scamming originally. It could very well have been a very motivated hobbyist doing his best to recreate his dream guitar, but obviously ended up in dishonest hands somewhere down the line.
@@SurfGreenTelecaster You could be very right about that.
@@matthewschiavi7353 regardless, whoever did it had a TON of time on his hands lol
I enjoyed this video on your Gibson 'Fake Snake' and the original unboxing one. For all they put you through and what it cost it's amazing you can maintain your sense of humor. You deserve a mountain of respect in handling this debacle with decency and aplomb, accepting the loss as a lesson in life. I enjoy watching your videos because I always learn a great deal and it seems like you're having a ball. It's always good to see a man's true nature when faced with this kind of adversity and the frustration it can cause. I am a bit jaded by the gall of some people, but also renewed in faith by others who display a healthy sense of fair play. I commend your good nature and depth. keep up the good work, a fellow trogly.
Slash would be proud. Maybe if you forwarded these clips he would sign yours and you'd have a personal connection. I'm sure he's a gentleman and these stories along with his major shredder status would add a nice fan appreciation interlude to his legacy as a rock legend. Rock on!
I think he is 100% incorrect when he said this isn't a $350 Alibaba/DHGate replica. I believe this is absolutely one of the best early Alibaba fakes of this guitar. It was also a known fake that someone attempted to make changes to in order to make it a hair more passing.
Definitely a chibson that someone threw some money into to make it more believable
Currency counterfeiters upgrade bills by bleaching $1 notes and printing higher denominations on them because the tactile feel of the paper was so essential to the experience of a genuine note. Seems like a similar situation but with guitars.
Wouldn't it be cool if Slash saw this and had Trogly a custom guitar made in trade for the Fakepit.
Thank's for sharing this unfortunate but fortunate story! The guitar that made you who you are today! Still a cool guitar! I believe you should keep it! Kinda like some people keep and frame the first dollar they made! This guitar turned you into the Gibson guru that you are today! May have been the best $15,000.00 you ever spent! I'm kinda thinking this guitar may have started life as a Les Paul classic plus top.
How about a review of Slashes double neck Guild acoustic?
I’m all for that. I remember those, and I always thought they were cooler than any of his Gibsons.
looks like the switch in middle position is connecting the pickups in series rather than parallel by your readings.
15:35 "I like it because of what it represents" -- This is the problem with guitars. If some famous guy in a top hat did lines of coke off of it in the 1980s, doesn't matter if it looks like trash and plays like garbage. Someone will pay thousands of dollars for it.
Trogly's Fakepit "It's 15k Somewhere" is a record I'd buy ANY day! "Scammers & Hangers-on" would be the first single!
Same. I'd get it either on cassette or a vinyl record.
You should do a warmoth build episode
I actually have heard tons of mid range epiphones that sound far better to my ears like for an example my old epiphone Les Paul. I guess I expected more from the pickups. Might be that I prefer a PAF style pickup in a Les Paul Especially for the clarity. Other than that I'd refinish it and throw some Probuckers or something similar. It's interesting how that guitar has such a rough story yet you had the grace to hold onto it. I might have sold it, smashed it in my anger, or trashed it lol. but totally needs work. Gotta say I do agree with the wife as far as the snake and just the lackluster appearance. Especially compared to the amazing technology that can be used today to totally redesign the very fretboard into a piece of art.
What i find interesting about your story is how right out of college working at a grocery store you were able to buy a house and have 3 credit card with more than 5k on them. Interesting 🤔
Austin traded chunks of dollar store plastic up to custom shop axes. His side hustles have side hustles😎
By the time I was 17 I'd been working at a Strawberry Farm, a Farmers Market and a Shell Service Station one Summer so I could purchase a brand new Les Paul Deluxe and Fender Twin Reverb, that was back in 1977. If you set your priorities and save all your money it's possible, not easy but very much possible.
Yes, thank you! I was thinking the same thing.
Nefarious income
Mom n dad
good stuff really enjoyed watching your videos on this guitar
I saw both videos and I was captivated all the way to the end - great job Austin!
So how much do you recon this Fakepit is worth now? Heck, I'm pretty sure the views from both videos made you some money already, so your $10.000 loss should have gone down a bit :)
I think and hope so too
I am truly enjoying your channel! This brings me back to my early days of playing. In 1985 or 1986, I bought a Fender Stratocaster from a music store in Brooklyn. It was Baby Blue. Spent a few bucks on it.
I took it to the studio to play with a drummer and a new bass player....the volume was horribly low. It played ok - someone did do a half decent setup.
Some suspicion was aroused when I was told that Fender never made a Strat in that color.
I called Fender directly. Yes, back then we had humans on the other end of phone calls...
Fender verifies that the guitar is a fake, and thank heaven for American Express. I went back got a refund but never, ever went back to that store.
Over the years I have learned to spot many fakes...
That's very interesting! As far as I know, Baby Blue was never an official Fender color. Did that music store sell it as "new?" Because when selling used instruments, the employees will sometimes label them with incorrect names for the colors.
I didn't even know they made fakes back then!
It was baby blue, and matched my 68 Fury III that I had. When I found out that it was fake, I was pissed. I have since learned to verify EVERYTHING.@@markcheetah4960
You should try to get Slash to sign it. It would definitely up the cost enough to recoup the money back if you ever sell it.
yea thats a good idea
This is my favorite video of yours. It's paced really well, and exceptionally thorough. Bummer that it's a fake, but still really good effort was put into pulling it off. Cool in its own right ✌
Yeah , but lying about it to fleece some poor sucker out of their hard earned money is just wrong ! No offense intended , I’ve been that poor sucker a time or two . You wouldn’t like it if it was you either .
@@terryoquinn8199 oh for sure. I'd be beyond gutted and devastated!
You could use an iron and a wet towel to “undent” the serial number, then sand the rest out.
Possible, yet a lot of work. Plus you would still be able to feel the old number.
This is fascinating for some reason.
I'd watch you do this with cheap copies as well.
If you look into the wood of the tuner holes you can see it is too clear to be mahogany, probably a reneck
This was a fantastic video !! You did it so well !!!!!
Stories like this are interesting to me..I will get blasted for this, but could care less. I can not understand why anyone would pay $15K to way over $100K for a guitar, just because a famous musician owned it, or a clone of it. It is still a guitar. Reminds me of Barrett-Jackson and the like, people paying in the millions for a car...it's still a car, they never will drive them. Just me I guess
Well as far as who owned the guitar previously if it was a famous person it adds to the provenance of the guitar like say if the guitar belonged to Clapton at one time or Jimmy Page and it was used to to write certain songs are used in a recording studio for certain song or an album and there's documentation of it it adds a lot of wealth to the guitar all that kind of stuff matters when buying and selling a guitar that belong to a known famous guitarist but with this that's not the case
my personal limit is probably gonna be about $2000, but i would expect a very top of the line guitar.... mostly i look for guitars $800 or less. Ive had great luck with cheap ibanez models. I have to laugh at people who think the wood changes the tone on electrics when there are countless videos debunking this. acoustic is obviously different but electrics are all about the hardware and the amp. and even then i fully agree with you, why pay for a name, you get no difference.
i have a $1200 LTD james hetfield iron cross, one of my favorites to play. had i dished out the $2999 for the 'authentic' model just to have some japanese guy make it as opposed to a korean factory im sure i would play it even less. It easier to get your money out of the moderately priced ones anyway if you choose to sell later on.
Exactly! The signature guitar market is the same bullshit as the Fine Art market...
I would assume that, they installed the pickups backwards and the bridge pickup is actually in the neck position. Considering how off those readings are.
Hey Austin, while I don't wish any further such issues on you (Snakepit scam, luthier scam,etc) .... I KINDA DO because the videos you make of these situations are my absolute favorite! 😆 Also, PLEASE feature a CS356 at some point. Thanks!
When I visited Guitar Center from Sunset Blvd. They had a Snakepit on display, I even took a shot of it. But looking at it, along the things you said, it might be a prototype, because of the snake position
I’ve seen that one too… and yes that one is “the” prototype… the only one with the logo that way around 👍
Great saga!
Somethings up with those pickups. From the SD website: Signature Slash Pickups Alnico II Humbucker set (APH-2) voiced specifically by Slash to give all of his Les Pauls that Appetite for Destruction tone. DCR: Neck: 8.30k, Bridge: 8.9k
It's amazing how close they got to making a credible replica though. They actually somehow managed to make an embossed logo that looks realistically like it's carved in but they got the details slightly wrong. If they had put just a little more work into it you wouldn't have even known the difference. The mystery is how they faked that emboss so it looks really carved in. I first thought maybe they got a real Snakepit and made a mold of the logo, and then cast a plastic one and glued it on, but it's not even an exact duplicate of the emboss, like the snake's lip joins right onto the snake body instead of there being a space between them, and the cigarette is too short. They must have copied it by hand and by eye. If somebody really wanted to, they could do the extra work to make a convincing fake, in fact maybe some of the ones out there are and they haven't been identified as fake yet because they're so good.
interesting thought , hmmmm ,
@@The68lespaul They're not even a particularly good guitar, it's just a '59 Les Paul Custom reissue with the snake logo and the neck cobra inlay, so what? You can buy those reissues made in the same year as the Snakepits for about $3-4K. The Snakepits don't even have the same pickups and capacitors as the one Slash had made for him, just the stock "59 reissue ones. You could make a Slash version yourself and it would be better than the commercial Snakepits.
25:38 You absolutely can with wood filler.
Also the skull on the pups came from the rnfr album
Thanks for sharing your story Trogly! Hope Paypal does the right thing and refunds you for being scammed.
I love the tones you were getting in the (dirty) demo. What amp/pedals are you playing through?
I'd called it 'Snake Sh*t' after the previous video, but now that I read the "Fakepit", I'll change it to 'Fake Sh*t' 😄
It turned out to be a Money Pit more than anything.. over 10 g's in that thing! Ouch 😬
@@R3TR0R4V3 - Yes. Poor Trogly! At least it seems to be an actual Gibson!
Triogly! You’re adorable and I swear I know you from a wow podcast. regardless I wish that this hadn’t happened to you and I am so awed you are into guitars too. Thank you for all the posts. I’ve been watching old vids (like this one) and new ones. I just got the fender 70th anniversary with the sparkly finish (I know you didn’t love) but you did the best best review of that guitar and the more I seen it the more I loved it. BTW, I rewatched that vid like 10+ times. Thank you Trogly!
It's a pricey replica. Hang on to it.