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1977 Black Beauty FAKE ???

dr-no

New member
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
1
I just bought this 1977 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty on ebay tonight...

My friend thinks its fake... anybody on this forum good with authentication?

Serial Number on back of headstock looks weird compared to other 1977 lp custom images ive seen.
Also,serial # website says the number is from nov 11 1977, the date on the pickup is dec. 14 1977.

Do I need to send this thing back as "not as described"?

Any input is appreciated!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-19...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
 

Hamerfan

Active member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
791
Your friend is plainly wrong. No worries. Congrats for a great purchase.
 

BrandonH

New member
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
62
The headstock serial # looks right for a '77. You lucked out and got the year where they first started clearly coding production date in the serial #! I wouldn't ascribe any significance to slightly differing dates (in this case, of two months) between a serial and pups or pots. Stuff can get stamped and sit on shelves, etc. I'm not sure what you mean by the serial not looking "right" for a '77. If you mean the depth of the serial, angles, lights, flashes, and everything can play serious trickery on you with this. TBH, I'd never vest a decision on a guitar, based on serial # appearance, from a photo. I have this gut feeling that, if your only final decision on if a guitar is a real Gibson or not, is based on appearance of the serial number, you've exhausted what photographs can do for you. If everything else looks good, you're as good as you can get from online photos. Buy, or if you're that worried about it, skip ebay and hit reputable brick and mortars near you where you can examine it in person. Either way, in my (granted, newbie) opinion, you're good.

I'm NOWHERE near an expert, but there's nothing that I can see that's even a remotely tell-tale knockoff signature. Stop being a worry wart! Very sweet looking guitar! Post us up more pictures and videos of it so we can hear it rock out when you get it! And I'd throw down money that you're going to feel overwhelmingly relieved when you see it show up on your door! I remember my first collector type buy online (wasn't a guitar, granted). I was outright anxious for days. I finally saw it in person, and was so relieved. If the seller is reputable by their reviews and transactions, don't concern yourself too much.

Another always reassuring point, once you're past all the others on the checklist: This guitar has what looks like genuine wear. If was making a shitty Chinese copy and trying to pawn it off as a vintage piece, I'd actually minimize wear and try to make it look just barely used out of the box. I highly doubt a copier would take a belt-buckle chunk out of the back finish of a guitar.
 

Progrocker111

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 10, 2003
Messages
4,013
Pretty ok, even the serial number etc... Dont worry and dont listen to your friend too much. :)
 

AJCR

Member
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
124
Can't see why you'd expect the pickup manufacture date to exactly match the day the neck in its raw wood form was stamped (which is actually a somewhat 'random' day in the middle of the construction process). Its not like they start to make a guitar and set aside every part for it right from the time the wood was selected from the pile.

There is quite literally nothing about that guitar that is any way unusual for that period.
 

Strings Jr.

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 17, 2016
Messages
670
I just bought this 1977 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty on ebay tonight...

My friend thinks its fake... anybody on this forum good with authentication?

Serial Number on back of headstock looks weird compared to other 1977 lp custom images ive seen.
Also,serial # website says the number is from nov 11 1977, the date on the pickup is dec. 14 1977.

Do I need to send this thing back as "not as described"?

Any input is appreciated!

Don't worry, it happens. For example, my first day on the job as a skinny 19 year old kid during the first week of December '77, I was being trained to install machine heads (tuners). When I drilled a hole completely through the peghead on a LPC I thought "they are going to fire me on my very first day". Luckily the guitar was sent to repair to have the peghead veneer replaced and all was well. But I can guarantee you that Custom didn't make it back to Final Assembly until sometime well into '78.
 
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