I'm an old bass player. Seen a lot of guitar work done. Sean cuts through the mystery, "magic" and BS . All guitars are just instruments (= tools) used to make music. NO need for reverance. Sean gets this. If I had a real problem with a guitar, he is the one I would reach out to. Great work as ALWAYS!
I knowingly bought a fake LP custom. All I wanted was the body and neck. I literally changed everything from the nut to the tailpiece. New pots, output jack, toggle switch, a set of pearly gates and it’s a monster now. I’ll never try to pass it off as a real Gibson but now I’ve got the look I love at a fraction of what a real one would cost. Love your channel
Thats actually a pretty nice looking guitar, i would have done the same but i would have swapped the pickups and all the electronics for something better than the stock ones. Seems like you got yourself a pretty decent guitar now... :D
That tone is all that matters brother. I just got my p90 beast together, although I went with a3 magnets. Those a5's in those cheap pickups are screamers. Made all the difference in the world. I dig the channel and subbed my friend.
First sign it's not a real Gibson is the $259 price tag. A real Gibson with those P90 pickups and aged binding would be called a 50's reissue or Custom Shop. The price would between 3K to 5K easily. I bought a fake Gibson Les Paul Standard on ebay as well. They clearly stated it was an "LP" replica as I knew it was. It's a beautiful Heritage Cherry Sunburst with a gorgeous real flamed maple top on a real mahogany body. Ebony fretboard, trapezoid inlays, nice cream binding and pickguard and pickup mounting frames all match nicely. Pickups are Alnico 5 and waxed. The only parts I changed were the tuning keys to Grover DeLuxe vintage style with the aged keystone keys. It looks exactly like The 60's Les Paul Standard Reissue. A very nice replica for $225 delivered to my door in a very good thick foam box no dings, dents or scratches anywhere on the guitar. I'm very happy with the purchase, and it only too one week to get it home!
Hi Shawn, big thumbs up for the video. Yepp that reminded of when i bought a fake Yngvie Malmsteen strat 1 year ago with the crappiest neck i have ever seen. But i happened to find a more suitable neck, fixed the frets nicely, changed tuners and pickups. Came out so good that a guy came by and tried it out. And eventually he bought it and said to me: - I don't know what you did to the guitar more than changin the neck and straightened it out, but it plays really well, stays in tune and is really well intonated. So i really appreciate your effort on this one he said with a big smile on his face. That's really a receit of a job well done and really made My day. Keep on with what you're doing brother, because you do it so darn well. 😊 Thanks Shawn. Have a great day. ~Rob
Them scratches are wild. It always blows my mind how big a difference someone who knows his instruments can be if they were hired at one of their factories in China.
I have a Chibson that a friend bought and sent home with me to look it over and I had to do all kinds of bending and twisting to it to get to even fret then to find out that the bridge was located approx 1/4" too far from the neck making it impossible to tonate. Eventually I replaced the original bridge with a slotted , roller bridge and was able to get it close enough to tune it in and it actually plays pretty damn good. I have a couple of vids on my channel demonstrating it if anyone is interested. There are so many obvious giveaways that conclude that it is not a real Gibson. The heel of the neck was the first giveaway I spotted, neck and headstock are two pieces slatted together, fret binding and much more.
You can wax pot the pickups and put nickel base plates on them and they will be better and also remove those terrible green mylar .047 caps and put in some Mallory, ic Chicago electric or Vashay .022 caps and wire it 50s or 60s Gibson style and it will blow you away
Actually the yellow is supposed to simulate the yellowing of nitro clear coat over several decades, it's not yellow binding. Second, the yellow on the side of the neck and white on the front is Also a legit aging pattern since the front of the fretboard wouldn't have nitro applied to it. BTW guys, Gibson makes and sells them like that too, tho I doubt that this guitar is actual nitro but probably poly finish. Other than that, these guitars are on par with epiphones QC, aside from slightly crappier pickups.
Yes, I called it right from you short!!!!! Getting back to your original idea, you should strip the finish, and Scar it with a new finish too. Needs some oomph to the look! Cheers, brother!
The only thing I would have done differently would be to replace those pots. I know you're only making them playable, but I would have gone the whole hog and replaced the pickups as well. Heck, I'd take a Dremel to that logo, make it really scarred!
Man, E Bay should care. It’s a crime to sell one of those. Love the way the serial number and made in USA are colored white on the Chibsons. None of my Gibsons look like that. Nice job fixing her up though.
I don't play gigs any more but did play a Gibson SG back around 1980. I had to replace it and ended up with a Westbury SG type guitar which was amazing. Thinking back, I don't supposeeven 1% of the audience knew or cared about the name on the headstock... We are a fickle bunch!
Aweful that eBay wouldn’t do anything about the fake guitar. That is one reason I don’t buy anything like that from eBay . You’ve do a marvellous job the Shaun,keep up the good work.
Sean, I think I would rewire and re-pot that guitar before i did anything else; might make a difference. I noticed when you first started playing it amped it sounded a little weak on the low end.
That's the thing with Chibsons. You can get a great one or you can get a dog that is unrepairable, or anything in between. Unless you are looking for an upgrade platform, you're better off with an Epiphone, Squier classic vibe or G&L tribute.
I’ve seen a couple of channels with a similar Chibson . The one you got is either older, or someone beat the crap out of it and possibly swapped the pick ups. Either way, this is the worst knock off I’ve seen. Hope you got it cheap!
What! ebay sells chibsons??? No way! Thats where i got mine! All i did was round the frets, polish the frets, drop in a true abr1 but it did come with a fake abr1. Locking tuners new wiring and pots and dimarzio fortitudes and she sounds/plays sick! Course i planned on doing all that! Plus its never getting sold! Id break it before id sell it and take my parts back
Anytime I read someone say "Man if I could take that gibson logo off the headstock this would be perfect!" makes me think.. Yeah right.. You knew and you could care less but you don't want other guitar snobs attacking you. I love Chibsons. I don't want to fool anyone I just don't want to pay Gibson 6K for a custom or 1.5K for an epiphone!! Everyone defending Gibson should buy stock in the company so at least you could say you're making money protecting multi millionaires assets. Reading the one dudes comment here about "ripping off legal makers and retailers" makes me laugh. Are you really concerned about someone else's paycheque? All these laws are created by the same people trying to make money off you and if you don't follow those laws then you sure aren't a true patriot of the good ol USA(or wherever your from) I say these are great guitars once you put work into them. Not a single enthusiast NEEDS a guitar thats 6K,10K,20K,30K or even 50K and this is sure as hell of a good way to have one
Definitely knew, someone posted a screenshot of his review on ebay saying “They sold me a fake guitar! this listing says unbranded but after receiving it says gibson in some poor font. it’s total trash to boot!” then he refuses to return it and demands a refund in the same review. guy is just tryna get a free guitar
@megamanx2773 he's definitely a disingenuous person. I'm not surprised by his obvious attempt to scam the seller. Dude is really bad at lying especially when acting surprised Chibsons were on eBay. Uh huh sure. And him acting like he wants to remove the gibson logo what's stopping him? Dude has repaired a les paul that was broke and beat with a hammer swapping a headstock overlay is too hard? I'd about guarantee this Dude has done work to a few Chibsons and passed them off as real to unsuspecting people for profit. I'd be extremely surprised if not.
Everything you said was true, and I agree. But these days, you can get better than Chibson quality - for the same or less money, by buying a Firefly, AIO, Harley Benton, and the list goes on. And the bonus is you're not buying a counterfeit.
It came out really good for a junk Chibson. I don't ever think I could buy another guitar on Ebay. Last one I bought was a returned Firefly Tele that I completely redid to make it playable.
A before and after of the P90 magnet swap would have been perfect but how they were with the ceramic bar magnets I bet was nothing compared to how snappy the A5s make em now!
First off, Ebay wow...... the end! Ummm great job marking the Chib sound better, also on the finish (scratch removal). I like the tuners changed out. I don't know Sean it's always uphill with these fakes. In the end you spend more to get less! Doug 😎
Those alnico 5 magnet plates are such an easy fix for those pickups. I bet once you have them potted in wax they'll really rock! Thanks for showing us your know-how.
I about had a heart attack when I saw you whip out the screwdriver and hammer. Gotta say. I've Never witnessed surgery to that depth. 😳 You earned a subscription for this video!!!
The scraches make it look like its been sent back after someones used it before. What a pity its so messed up as its a pretty good looking guitar besides everything being non symetrical. Hope it sounds good after youve done your magic on it Sean. Roger Wombat.!!!!!
That fake yellowing looks awful, but at least the logo is in the right place on the headstock, which is more than can be said for the Chibson Melody Maker I bought (I knew it was a Chibson I was buying, but the one on the pictures I saw was not the one I got lol). My fake Melody Maker had the control knobs in the wrong place, one of which had a chip in it too, the headstock shape was incorrect for an MM (a three-piece style LP headstock rather than the thinner straight-edged single-piece MM type, which is silly for an MM as that's one of the things which makes the MM cheaper), no Melody Maker text on the scratchplate, strap button in the wrong place, wrong truss rod cover, incorrect tuners and the double cutaway horns are not quite the right shape either. I sorted all that out - reshaped the headstock, filled and re-drilled the tuner holes and put the correct tuners on it, redid the logo in the correct place, moved the strap button and put the Melody Maker text on the scratchplate. I did not bother repositioning the control knobs as they weren't desperately bad where they were and I didn't bother reshaping the cutaway horns either as they aren't 100 percent accurately shaped, buit I kind of like the way they look. All of that work I did on it was a fair bit of effort, but it wasn't with a view to trying to fool anyone, I just wanted to see if I could do it all convincingly to my own satisfaction. As it looks now, it probably would fool someone less in the know if I tried to pass it off as a genuine Gibson on ebay or some such, but I'm not getting rid of it because despite all of the things which were incorrect on it, underneath that all it is actually a very nice-playing guitar, even the pickups, (which I had planned to replace, knowing it was a Chibson on the way) sound okay so I left those as is.
The yellow lacquer 'should' be white on the fretboard Edge because Gibson scrapes that lacquer away from the white binding to create fret nibs. If you look at the Joe Bonamassa Epiphone guitar The binding is yellow on the side of the neck and on the top Edge which is wrong and actually proves that it's not aged lacquer at all it's just yellow colored Celluloid binding.
Nice work getting that guitar to rock. Thank you for going over your fret and nut set up process. Cheap guitars just need a little love. Nice playing too. You got a new Sub. Thanks
"I would never play a commie Gibson! My guitar snob palate is far too refined!" - Guy who can't tell the difference between a major chord and a minor chord
Good Stuff - great job with that. I got a Firefly Elite Black LP "Custom" look. Changed the pickups to Gibson 57 Classics, filed the nut. But I can't get the action low enough to play. Got a Gotoh bridge, but it is like it needs to be shaved to lower the action. Could use Grovers. Unfortunately, the guitar is a wall hang right now. Not sure what the next step(s) are.
Only thing I would have done differently is leave the ceramic magnets in. They sound like A2s on steroids. It would have ended up much sweeter sounding and less fizzy. JMO. BTW, I use those same replacement knobs. Cool as heck.
OMG that "yellowing" wasn't even ambered clear, just yellow paint. Congrats on taking yet another "guitar shaped object" and making a guitar out of it. 👍 I'd put some hot (9k) P90's with alnico v magnets in it with the middle wired in series
Hey I have the same guitar, I had p90s, pots, caps everything. I plugged it in though and honestly it sounded fuggin great, I don't get it the wiring and components were absolute trash but it had that p90 growl. Trust me just buy the epiphone reissue, my faux aged Epi is so much better than the chibson. But I had to know.
I’ve no even watched the whole vid yet n I had a very similar experience with an epiphone . And eBay couldn’t give a shit as for the seller he was just plain rude abusive and a total arse about it . I’m okay now about it as I’ve grown to like the guitar n it’s a lovey flame top in trans amber decent inlay on the neck not the acrylic and it’s a one piece back so in all fairness it’s been a win on my part but at the time I was well pissed over it I payed £350 for the thing so it wasn’t fake Money Just be careful guys innt
Don’t be snorting that damn fret dust…and for the love of God man “don’t let that fret dust get on the pickups….it’ll ruin um” lol Good job, that bridge pickup sounded mean!👍
Looks and sounds pretty good after the work you put into it. There was some muddy sounds on some of the settings. Don't know if wax potting the pickups would improve that or not. 🤷
That's dream Gibson for me. I've almost pulled the trigger on it. You can get nitro paint on them for $100. I've seen videos of them with perfects frets alot lately. That's the only thing I couldn't do my self. If you wanna sell it I'd buy it.
They won't care mate..........they're just a buying/selling platform, it's up to the customer to decide whether or not to buy. And 1st thing to ask to see ( you're right) 'truss rod nut/adjustment', same with Fender.
It’s fine to use the straight board for frets but it’s got an uneven radius, with a straight block go from e to e no the long way, at least the first cut.
It's illegal to sell counterfeits in the USA. EBay should have done something. At $259, most people know it's a fake. I hope yall left a bad grade and remarks for the seller. I might have sanded the headstock down. Take the fake name off and it's a pretty good chinese guitar for someone that really needs something to play. I don't mind budget guitars, I've owned a bunch of them, but I hate to see fakes. Well done making it play better and doing a set up on it. Someone will be happy to play it.
since E-Bay is a global company they're able to shirk liability because it's because sold directly out of China instead of the states, which E-Bay has no control over. Technically, the people at customs are supposed to catch this stuff before they get into the U.S.
I don’t mind copies, like a Tele-style or whatever. I really hate counterfeit stuff. I was mad that a leather guitar strap I bought on Ali Express had “Fender” stamped on it.
Dude in my experience that horribly cut nut would be a clear sign that it is a real Gibson. I bought a brand new Gibson SG from Thomann a few years ago and it was even worse then this. WAY worse.
@@scarmyguitar oof! I wish someone out here in Australia made nice tools, I've gotten a couple stewmac things but importing them is super expensive, think I ended up paying 170 AUD for a centred z file
Like how you improved it, but this is a 100% return. If I were ever to buy a Gibson, it wouldhave to be from a Gibson dealer. Waaaaay yoo many fakes out there for me to trust an online buy for that kind of money.
In my humble opinion, you have to bend those strings away from the direction they're being pulled from on their tuning pegs or for sure they're gonna slip and slip soon.
Say Sean or anyone else can chime in on my question. Want to buy my soon to be 11 yo granddaughter a new budget Strat style guitar for her birthday. Anything you would suggest in around the $200 mark that will be decent out of the box? I don’t mind and think I can follow your videos on addressing the frets, action, nut and strings if need be.
Sean, I did run it up the line. Haven’t heard anything yet, but my supervisor said they are looking into this sort of seller. Like I told you, not sure what they can do. It may be legal, but it’s certainly not ethical.
If he filed "Item not as described" he should be able to return it for a refund. This doesn't make sense. I want to see the item number to see what the ad said. People who buy stuff without reading the ads set themselves up for a hard time on ebay.
Did you file an "Item Not As Described" return claim? That triggers a return for a refund that the buyer can not refuse. They should even have to pay the return shipping cost. I sell on Ebay for a living. Did you buy it from overseas or something? Was is sold as a replica? What's the Ebay Item Number??
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I'm an old bass player. Seen a lot of guitar work done. Sean cuts through the mystery, "magic" and BS . All guitars are just instruments (= tools) used to make music. NO need for reverance. Sean gets this. If I had a real problem with a guitar, he is the one I would reach out to. Great work as ALWAYS!
I knowingly bought a fake LP custom. All I wanted was the body and neck. I literally changed everything from the nut to the tailpiece. New pots, output jack, toggle switch, a set of pearly gates and it’s a monster now. I’ll never try to pass it off as a real Gibson but now I’ve got the look I love at a fraction of what a real one would cost. Love your channel
I'm sure the asking price was too good to be true. And that's your sign...
ive had my eye on this very guitar for a few months...cheap enough to grab and hot rod. ive gotten several Chibson off the 'Bay and have been happy
Thats actually a pretty nice looking guitar, i would have done the same but i would have swapped the pickups and all the electronics for something better than the stock ones. Seems like you got yourself a pretty decent guitar now... :D
I bought a Chibson that says "Gibsun" on the headstock. It's so ridiculous that I kind of like it and it doesn't sound bad at all.
The Gibson logo looks like "Gibsun" anyway... to my old eyes...
That tone is all that matters brother. I just got my p90 beast together, although I went with a3 magnets. Those a5's in those cheap pickups are screamers. Made all the difference in the world. I dig the channel and subbed my friend.
First sign it's not a real Gibson is the $259 price tag. A real Gibson with those P90 pickups and aged binding would be called a 50's reissue or Custom Shop. The price would between 3K to 5K easily. I bought a fake Gibson Les Paul Standard on ebay as well. They clearly stated it was an "LP" replica as I knew it was. It's a beautiful Heritage Cherry Sunburst with a gorgeous real flamed maple top on a real mahogany body. Ebony fretboard, trapezoid inlays, nice cream binding and pickguard and pickup mounting frames all match nicely. Pickups are Alnico 5 and waxed. The only parts I changed were the tuning keys to Grover DeLuxe vintage style with the aged keystone keys. It looks exactly like The 60's Les Paul Standard Reissue. A very nice replica for $225 delivered to my door in a very good thick foam box no dings, dents or scratches anywhere on the guitar. I'm very happy with the purchase, and it only too one week to get it home!
Wow, turned out to be salvage-able despite its flaws !! Nice job Sean !! And looking forward to the hand building guitars.
Hi Shawn, big thumbs up for the video. Yepp that reminded of when i bought a fake Yngvie Malmsteen strat 1 year ago with the crappiest neck i have ever seen. But i happened to find a more suitable neck, fixed the frets nicely, changed tuners and pickups. Came out so good that a guy came by and tried it out. And eventually he bought it and said to me: - I don't know what you did to the guitar more than changin the neck and straightened it out, but it plays really well, stays in tune and is really well intonated. So i really appreciate your effort on this one he said with a big smile on his face. That's really a receit of a job well done and really made My day. Keep on with what you're doing brother, because you do it so darn well. 😊 Thanks Shawn. Have a great day. ~Rob
Would have loved a before and after with the pickup magnet change. Id be super curious to see how that changes the tone.
Next time promise
Them scratches are wild. It always blows my mind how big a difference someone who knows his instruments can be if they were hired at one of their factories in China.
I have a Chibson that a friend bought and sent home with me to look it over and I had to do all kinds of bending and twisting to it to get to even fret then to find out that the bridge was located approx 1/4" too far from the neck making it impossible to tonate. Eventually I replaced the original bridge with a slotted , roller bridge and was able to get it close enough to tune it in and it actually plays pretty damn good. I have a couple of vids on my channel demonstrating it if anyone is interested. There are so many obvious giveaways that conclude that it is not a real Gibson. The heel of the neck was the first giveaway I spotted, neck and headstock are two pieces slatted together, fret binding and much more.
You can wax pot the pickups and put nickel base plates on them and they will be better and also remove those terrible green mylar .047 caps and put in some Mallory, ic Chicago electric or Vashay .022 caps and wire it 50s or 60s Gibson style and it will blow you away
Actually the yellow is supposed to simulate the yellowing of nitro clear coat over several decades, it's not yellow binding. Second, the yellow on the side of the neck and white on the front is Also a legit aging pattern since the front of the fretboard wouldn't have nitro applied to it. BTW guys, Gibson makes and sells them like that too, tho I doubt that this guitar is actual nitro but probably poly finish. Other than that, these guitars are on par with epiphones QC, aside from slightly crappier pickups.
And they're great stunt guitars, photoshoot, music video, rowdy house show guitars, etc.
The fake fenders are even cheaper.
@@JohnCaughell Definitely good player guitars with some upgrades
Yes, I called it right from you short!!!!! Getting back to your original idea, you should strip the finish, and Scar it with a new finish too. Needs some oomph to the look! Cheers, brother!
The only thing I would have done differently would be to replace those pots. I know you're only making them playable, but I would have gone the whole hog and replaced the pickups as well. Heck, I'd take a Dremel to that logo, make it really scarred!
Man, E Bay should care. It’s a crime to sell one of those. Love the way the serial number and made in USA are colored white on the Chibsons. None of my Gibsons look like that. Nice job fixing her up though.
After everything you had to do to it, not too shabby. Just sucks you got porked on eBay. But you did make it a playable guitar for sure 🤘🤘
I have learned. Not all Chibsons are made the same. They are coming with full size pots. Good tuners. And Maple necks
Thanks for these great instructional videos; you nearly redeemed this hideous knockoff.
This is the get'er done guitar channel
I don't play gigs any more but did play a Gibson SG back around 1980. I had to replace it and ended up with a Westbury SG type guitar which was amazing. Thinking back, I don't supposeeven 1% of the audience knew or cared about the name on the headstock... We are a fickle bunch!
Aweful that eBay wouldn’t do anything about the fake guitar. That is one reason I don’t buy anything like that from eBay . You’ve do a marvellous job the Shaun,keep up the good work.
Sean, I think I would rewire and re-pot that guitar before i did anything else; might make a difference. I noticed when you first started playing it amped it sounded a little weak on the low end.
That's the thing with Chibsons. You can get a great one or you can get a dog that is unrepairable, or anything in between. Unless you are looking for an upgrade platform, you're better off with an Epiphone, Squier classic vibe or G&L tribute.
Gibson does yellow binding just like that.
I’ve seen a couple of channels with a similar Chibson . The one you got is either older, or someone beat the crap out of it and possibly swapped the pick ups. Either way, this is the worst knock off I’ve seen. Hope you got it cheap!
What! ebay sells chibsons??? No way! Thats where i got mine! All i did was round the frets, polish the frets, drop in a true abr1 but it did come with a fake abr1. Locking tuners new wiring and pots and dimarzio fortitudes and she sounds/plays sick! Course i planned on doing all that! Plus its never getting sold! Id break it before id sell it and take my parts back
Anytime I read someone say "Man if I could take that gibson logo off the headstock this would be perfect!" makes me think.. Yeah right.. You knew and you could care less but you don't want other guitar snobs attacking you. I love Chibsons. I don't want to fool anyone I just don't want to pay Gibson 6K for a custom or 1.5K for an epiphone!! Everyone defending Gibson should buy stock in the company so at least you could say you're making money protecting multi millionaires assets. Reading the one dudes comment here about "ripping off legal makers and retailers" makes me laugh. Are you really concerned about someone else's paycheque? All these laws are created by the same people trying to make money off you and if you don't follow those laws then you sure aren't a true patriot of the good ol USA(or wherever your from) I say these are great guitars once you put work into them. Not a single enthusiast NEEDS a guitar thats 6K,10K,20K,30K or even 50K and this is sure as hell of a good way to have one
Definitely knew, someone posted a screenshot of his review on ebay saying “They sold me a fake guitar! this listing says unbranded but after receiving it says gibson in some poor font. it’s total trash to boot!” then he refuses to return it and demands a refund in the same review. guy is just tryna get a free guitar
There are crummy people like these and being a youtuber doesn't excuse them from doing things this way unfortunately. @@connordrysdale5333
Well if Gibson keeps making the junk they have for the past ten years, stock won't be worth much.
@megamanx2773 he's definitely a disingenuous person. I'm not surprised by his obvious attempt to scam the seller. Dude is really bad at lying especially when acting surprised Chibsons were on eBay. Uh huh sure. And him acting like he wants to remove the gibson logo what's stopping him? Dude has repaired a les paul that was broke and beat with a hammer swapping a headstock overlay is too hard? I'd about guarantee this Dude has done work to a few Chibsons and passed them off as real to unsuspecting people for profit. I'd be extremely surprised if not.
Everything you said was true, and I agree.
But these days, you can get better than Chibson quality - for the same or less money, by buying a Firefly, AIO, Harley Benton, and the list goes on.
And the bonus is you're not buying a counterfeit.
It came out really good for a junk Chibson. I don't ever think I could buy another guitar on Ebay. Last one I bought was a returned Firefly Tele that I completely redid to make it playable.
I've never seen anyone change the magnets before. Man I love your channel
A before and after of the P90 magnet swap would have been perfect but how they were with the ceramic bar magnets I bet was nothing compared to how snappy the A5s make em now!
First off, Ebay wow...... the end!
Ummm great job marking the Chib sound better, also on the finish (scratch removal).
I like the tuners changed out.
I don't know Sean it's always uphill with these fakes.
In the end you spend more to get less!
Doug 😎
With those colors it really needs a big black and yellow Batman sticker behind the bridge.
Those alnico 5 magnet plates are such an easy fix for those pickups. I bet once you have them potted in wax they'll really rock! Thanks for showing us your know-how.
Hell yeah brother that's what's up chibson or not it sounds good to me
Everybody's talking crap about it...but i like it, lol. Better than what I'm playing right now....which is "air guitar".
I about had a heart attack when I saw you whip out the screwdriver and hammer.
Gotta say. I've Never witnessed surgery to that depth. 😳
You earned a subscription for this video!!!
The scraches make it look like its been sent back after someones used it before. What a pity its so messed up as its a pretty good looking guitar besides everything being non symetrical. Hope it sounds good after youve done your magic on it Sean. Roger Wombat.!!!!!
That fake yellowing looks awful, but at least the logo is in the right place on the headstock, which is more than can be said for the Chibson Melody Maker I bought (I knew it was a Chibson I was buying, but the one on the pictures I saw was not the one I got lol).
My fake Melody Maker had the control knobs in the wrong place, one of which had a chip in it too, the headstock shape was incorrect for an MM (a three-piece style LP headstock rather than the thinner straight-edged single-piece MM type, which is silly for an MM as that's one of the things which makes the MM cheaper), no Melody Maker text on the scratchplate, strap button in the wrong place, wrong truss rod cover, incorrect tuners and the double cutaway horns are not quite the right shape either. I sorted all that out - reshaped the headstock, filled and re-drilled the tuner holes and put the correct tuners on it, redid the logo in the correct place, moved the strap button and put the Melody Maker text on the scratchplate. I did not bother repositioning the control knobs as they weren't desperately bad where they were and I didn't bother reshaping the cutaway horns either as they aren't 100 percent accurately shaped, buit I kind of like the way they look.
All of that work I did on it was a fair bit of effort, but it wasn't with a view to trying to fool anyone, I just wanted to see if I could do it all convincingly to my own satisfaction. As it looks now, it probably would fool someone less in the know if I tried to pass it off as a genuine Gibson on ebay or some such, but I'm not getting rid of it because despite all of the things which were incorrect on it, underneath that all it is actually a very nice-playing guitar, even the pickups, (which I had planned to replace, knowing it was a Chibson on the way) sound okay so I left those as is.
With those scratches they were making a Murphy lab model!
The yellow lacquer 'should' be white on the fretboard Edge because Gibson scrapes that lacquer away from the white binding to create fret nibs.
If you look at the Joe Bonamassa Epiphone guitar The binding is yellow on the side of the neck and on the top Edge which is wrong and actually proves that it's not aged lacquer at all it's just yellow colored Celluloid binding.
10:34... You working on this makes it a better guitar... The new tuners are a bonus. Thank you sir!!eace!
Peace!! Can't spell..😁😉
Nice work getting that guitar to rock. Thank you for going over your fret and nut set up process. Cheap guitars just need a little love. Nice playing too. You got a new Sub. Thanks
Sounds good,cause you made it do it...
Nice work Sean . Sounds great and looks better.
"I would never play a commie Gibson! My guitar snob palate is far too refined!"
- Guy who can't tell the difference between a major chord and a minor chord
Good Stuff - great job with that. I got a Firefly Elite Black LP "Custom" look. Changed the pickups to Gibson 57 Classics, filed the nut. But I can't get the action low enough to play. Got a Gotoh bridge, but it is like it needs to be shaved to lower the action. Could use Grovers. Unfortunately, the guitar is a wall hang right now. Not sure what the next step(s) are.
You make a video and post it on youtube asking me to Scar Your Guitar.
Phew! That was a lot of work to bring it around. Great work! Sorry it had to be done though.
Personally, I love the look of that guitar. Always been a fan of black and yellow. And it sounds good now, too.
You did a decent job on that. It's never really about the Logo on the headstock although I really dislike the yellow binding.
yeah it's an ugly one for sure ain't it?
Only thing I would have done differently is leave the ceramic magnets in. They sound like A2s on steroids. It would have ended up much sweeter sounding and less fizzy. JMO. BTW, I use those same replacement knobs. Cool as heck.
OMG that "yellowing" wasn't even ambered clear, just yellow paint. Congrats on taking yet another "guitar shaped object" and making a guitar out of it. 👍 I'd put some hot (9k) P90's with alnico v magnets in it with the middle wired in series
AWESOME VIDEO!!!!!!!!....... I HAVE A CHIBSON THAT I UPGRADED,AND I LOVE IT!
Nice work but I notice you never color the frets when leveling for reference.....I never buy anything from ebay or Reberb
I love the aged body binding...lol
Sounds decent well in man 👌🏼
I was thinking you were going to put some stain on that neck binding, another video I guess, great job man.
Pretty Chibson Sean and good work with that guitar 👌💪🤘👍
Hey I have the same guitar, I had p90s, pots, caps everything. I plugged it in though and honestly it sounded fuggin great, I don't get it the wiring and components were absolute trash but it had that p90 growl. Trust me just buy the epiphone reissue, my faux aged Epi is so much better than the chibson. But I had to know.
So if ebay could care less, why didn't they?
@4:27 You're messing up the tonewood!! 🤣
LOL
I’ve no even watched the whole vid yet n I had a very similar experience with an epiphone .
And eBay couldn’t give a shit as for the seller he was just plain rude abusive and a total arse about it .
I’m okay now about it as I’ve grown to like the guitar n it’s a lovey flame top in trans amber decent inlay on the neck not the acrylic and it’s a one piece back so in all fairness it’s been a win on my part but at the time I was well pissed over it I payed £350 for the thing so it wasn’t fake Money
Just be careful guys innt
Don’t be snorting that damn fret dust…and for the love of God man “don’t let that fret dust get on the pickups….it’ll ruin um” lol
Good job, that bridge pickup sounded mean!👍
Looks and sounds pretty good after the work you put into it. There was some muddy sounds on some of the settings. Don't know if wax potting the pickups would improve that or not. 🤷
That's dream Gibson for me. I've almost pulled the trigger on it. You can get nitro paint on them for $100. I've seen videos of them with perfects frets alot lately. That's the only thing I couldn't do my self. If you wanna sell it I'd buy it.
Damn good tone! 🔥
The back scratches should have been reason to return it?
They won't care mate..........they're just a buying/selling platform, it's up to the customer to decide whether or not to buy. And 1st thing to ask to see ( you're right) 'truss rod nut/adjustment', same with Fender.
It’s fine to use the straight board for frets but it’s got an uneven radius, with a straight block go from e to e no the long way, at least the first cut.
It's illegal to sell counterfeits in the USA. EBay should have done something. At $259, most people know it's a fake. I hope yall left a bad grade and remarks for the seller. I might have sanded the headstock down. Take the fake name off and it's a pretty good chinese guitar for someone that really needs something to play. I don't mind budget guitars, I've owned a bunch of them, but I hate to see fakes. Well done making it play better and doing a set up on it. Someone will be happy to play it.
since E-Bay is a global company they're able to shirk liability because it's because sold directly out of China instead of the states, which E-Bay has no control over. Technically, the people at customs are supposed to catch this stuff before they get into the U.S.
You clearly are NOT an expert in copyright law........SIT DOWN !!!
$259 It's definitely Gibson
Looking forward to your next video.
blind man could tell it was a fake at 20 yards
I don’t mind copies, like a Tele-style or whatever. I really hate counterfeit stuff. I was mad that a leather guitar strap I bought on Ali Express had “Fender” stamped on it.
Thanks brother for awesome content
That yellow binding is horrible but at least you managed to make a pig's ear into a silk purse. :)
I think you could make a 2X4 with fishing line strings sound good.!
Dude in my experience that horribly cut nut would be a clear sign that it is a real Gibson.
I bought a brand new Gibson SG from Thomann a few years ago and it was even worse then this. WAY worse.
Great video, what nut files do you use? Ive been meaning to get a set but theyre so bloody expensive
The only guitar tool that I wouldn’t buy anywhere else are the nut files and I get mine from Stu Mac
@@scarmyguitar oof! I wish someone out here in Australia made nice tools, I've gotten a couple stewmac things but importing them is super expensive, think I ended up paying 170 AUD for a centred z file
I guess no one looked in EVH pickup cavity. Theres as much sos pads as there is wood.😮
How much was it? For 200-300 bucks this looks like a fun project.
Way to go Shawn you da man 👋👋. Scarred for life 😎👍💯🎸🎸✌️✌️
As you say, it is a guitar and you scarred that Chibby into respectability! Depending upon price, I would be happy with it regardless.
Like how you improved it, but this is a 100% return. If I were ever to buy a Gibson, it wouldhave to be from a Gibson dealer. Waaaaay yoo many fakes out there for me to trust an online buy for that kind of money.
In my humble opinion, you have to bend those strings away from the direction they're being pulled from on their tuning pegs or for sure they're gonna slip and slip soon.
Say Sean or anyone else can chime in on my question. Want to buy my soon to be 11 yo granddaughter a new budget Strat style guitar for her birthday. Anything you would suggest in around the $200 mark that will be decent out of the box? I don’t mind and think I can follow your videos on addressing the frets, action, nut and strings if need be.
Go to guitar center or Sam Ash and get a squire off the wall. The music store will set it up and make it right for you after you buy it.
@@scarmyguitar OK will do. Thanks Sean and love watching your videos and learning.
Sean, I did run it up the line. Haven’t heard anything yet, but my supervisor said they are looking into this sort of seller. Like I told you, not sure what they can do. It may be legal, but it’s certainly not ethical.
If he filed "Item not as described" he should be able to return it for a refund. This doesn't make sense. I want to see the item number to see what the ad said. People who buy stuff without reading the ads set themselves up for a hard time on ebay.
If you Put,or wrap some warm,Wax,around a Cheap pickup,It wiil help you out!or 1,good set that needs more.Think about it!Jcsx
What are you using to scrape the fretboard with? A feeler gauge?
Ha Ha no. A razor blade that fits inside a paint scraper.
@@scarmyguitar 😄okay thanks , it was so wide. I was not familiar with a razor blade so wide but stubby from top to bottom.
I always pay with Visa debit or credit card. If ebay or reverb or whoever doesn't want to work with you your credit provider has protection too.
U can tell just from the picture 😂
Could you tell us the username from whom you bought that guitar? I would like to have one.. thank you.. or you could also pass on the link!
They must have used the full set of Butter Knives to carve the original nut
I can't be so chosey now being said I would have changed pickups and tuners drove on.
I think ya didn't give us a listen to the stock pups at the beginning.
Did you file an "Item Not As Described" return claim?
That triggers a return for a refund that the buyer can not refuse. They should even have to pay the return shipping cost. I sell on Ebay for a living.
Did you buy it from overseas or something? Was is sold as a replica? What's the Ebay Item Number??
Huh so eBay does nothing about people seeking counterfeit guitars.
Lol. Yeah. And TH-cam does nothing about lying about it for content