Lately a lot of Fake Gibson merchandise has been popping up on ebay,

The newest items is Guitar Cases and Pickups,

The cases are getting harder to spot, but the first tell tale sign is the inside, look at the current cases Gibson sells, and you will notice SKB or TKL on the inside on a small piece of leather on the compartment lid,

also look at the locks and latches, Gibson usually uses a combination lock on all of their better cases, where the copies do not,

There are some dishonest sellers on ebay trying to make a quick buck off of these cases, if you are in doubt ask for better pictures of the product and try to compare it with others being sold at music stores online,

Now for the fake Gibson and Epiphone Pickups, this is getting really bad on ebay,

You will see humbucking pickups in a pickup ring with a clear piece of plastic over the pickup,

it would say Gibson USA, Epiphone USA and more,

Gibson does not sell pickups with this sticker on them,

Gibson pickups have a clear one on them from time to time, or on the guitar when it is new, but there is no writing on them, except maybe a paper sticker sometimes.

Kramer and Epiphone guitars do have the Epiphone sticker on the front, but you have to look at the back of the pickup,

Most epiphone pickups are stamped in the metal Epiphone, there is usually a sticker for what kind of pickup it is, or it is stamped with a N for neck, B for Bridge or F for front and R for Rear, the newer ones most commonly have Epiphone stamped on them, this is usually for the better models.

Gibson Pickups are easy to identify,

the metal plate the pickup has on the bottom is usually a dull looking silver,

they usually have one of the following stamps on the bottom

a Patent number, a serial number, Gibson, or Gibson USA,

the ones with a black decal on the back that says Patent Applied For, usually has a 2 conductor braided wire coming from the pickup, this applies to Burstbuckers, Paf's, Paf reissues and 57 classics,

Use caution on some Patent Applied For "FAKES" in recent years some people have made forgeries of the PAF pickups, that is one of the reasons why Gibson started to reissue them.

all Gibson Pickups use the following wire, 2 conductor usually has the steel looking braided wire,

4 conductor usually had the black tubing with 4 different colored wired, and a ground wire, they also used grey tubing with the same type of wire,

also alot of the Gibson Les Paul Truss Rod covers are being forged,

Gibson usually makes them for one of the following guitars

Standard, Custom, Studio, Special, Supreme, Catalina, and a few others,

it would usually just say those words above, but gibson did make some exceptions and have other models of les pauls with the name of the model on the truss rod cover,

all les paul model truss rods have two holes for the screws on them, one at the top and one at the bottom,

you will have to research some models on what it is supposed to say,

Then there's the Gibson Tuning keys, a lot of fake grovers, klusons and others are coming in from China and Korea, you have to check the packaging for spelling errors, and check the overall looks for the tuning keys,

the grovers are easy to spot, one thing is the crappy diecast metal casting you can see pitting in the chrome and such, also another one is no grover logo on the keys,

The Gibson Deluxe is usually missing the e on deluxe, and the knobs aren't correct,

The Klusons are the same, a lot of times there is no name stamped on the back of the keys which are cheap knock offs of the Gotoh.

I only mention this because it is getting out of hand on ebay, and when you notify ebay about it, they usually don't do much about it,

take care and good luck.