Real GIBSON Or Knock off CHIBSON? NO IT'S A CHIBSON LOL  

I'm sure the asking price was too good to be true. And that's your sign...

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

Would have loved a before and after with the pickup magnet change. Id be super curious to see how that changes the tone.

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.

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!

This is the get'er done guitar channel

Wow, turned out to be salvage-able despite its flaws !! Nice job Sean !! And looking forward to the hand building guitars.

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

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.

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 🤘🤘

Nice work Sean . Sounds great and looks better.

Thanks for these great instructional videos; you nearly redeemed this hideous knockoff.

I've never seen anyone change the magnets before. Man I love your channel

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.

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

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

With those scratches they were making a Murphy lab model!

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

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!

Pretty Chibson Sean and good work with that guitar 👌💪🤘👍

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!

Phew! That was a lot of work to bring it around. Great work! Sorry it had to be done though.

Thanks brother for awesome content

Hell yeah brother that's what's up chibson or not it sounds good to me

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 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.

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.

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!

I managed a 200 dollar slash replica on ebay and honestly besides replacing the bridge with gibson style it's a solid guitar honestly

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!!!

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.

Sounds decent well in man 👌🏼

Looking forward to your next video.

I have learned. Not all Chibsons are made the same. They are coming with full size pots. Good tuners. And Maple necks

I was thinking you were going to put some stain on that neck binding, another video I guess, great job man.

Sounds good,cause you made it do it...

Damn good tone! 🔥

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!

@4:27 You're messing up the tonewood!! 🤣

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.

Gibson does yellow binding just like that.

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.

Nice work but I notice you never color the frets when leveling for reference.....I never buy anything from ebay or Reberb

The back scratches should have been reason to return it?

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

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. 🤷

10:34... You working on this makes it a better guitar... The new tuners are a bonus. Thank you sir!!eace!

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!

Great video, what nut files do you use? Ive been meaning to get a set but theyre so bloody expensive

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.

Great job, how long in real time did it take you?

So if ebay could care less, why didn't they?

What size drill bit

$259 It's definitely Gibson

Man that blows, if you used PayPal they can help you

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.

What are you using to scrape the fretboard with? A feeler gauge?

With those colors it really needs a big black and yellow Batman sticker behind the bridge.

Looks good.

I dont like it, ,I love it :) Great job and great work on making it A player and it looks great,Your Wife can buy me a Guitar any day,,lol She does a good job

Nice job

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 😎

I love the aged body binding...lol

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.!!!!!

Great job on that one. 👍

Bought one just like it, 12 years ago, I have yet to go into, fix the damn thing mode yet.

Way to go Shawn you da man 👋👋. Scarred for life 😎👍💯🎸🎸✌️✌️

Personally, I love the look of that guitar. Always been a fan of black and yellow. And it sounds good now, too.

AWESOME VIDEO!!!!!!!!....... I HAVE A CHIBSON THAT I UPGRADED,AND I LOVE IT!

They must have used the full set of Butter Knives to carve the original nut

How much was it? For 200-300 bucks this looks like a fun project.

You did a decent job on that. It's never really about the Logo on the headstock although I really dislike the yellow binding.

I think ya didn't give us a listen to the stock pups at the beginning.

blind man could tell it was a fake at 20 yards

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

I think you could make a 2X4 with fishing line strings sound good.!

I’d have tried to find a P90 “staple” pickup for the neck position. Maybe some GHS David Gilmour strings (as that’s what I currently have on my Slammer By Hamer).

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.

i would swap the capp on the neck tone pot, just a thought.

You made that a nice guitar great job

It's the Gibson Mustard line!

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.

So he did care? I would think he couldn't care less.

"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

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

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.

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!👍

That yellow binding is horrible but at least you managed to make a pig's ear into a silk purse. :)

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!

Couldn’t find the sold listing on eBay

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

Cool video.

U can tell just from the picture 😂

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.

You the man!

Everybody's talking crap about it...but i like it, lol. Better than what I'm playing right now....which is "air guitar".

Hey, you unscarred that guitar.😂❤

Huh so eBay does nothing about people seeking counterfeit guitars.

Great lesson on fake Gibsons!