“It’s extremely wrong to put, ‘Gibson, Made in the U.S.A.,’ on the headstock of a guitar that is not either of those things”: Joe Bonamassa, Gibson’s Tom Murphy and all-star gear specialists reveal how to spot a fake Les Paul

Joe Bonamassa playing a counterfeit Les Paul.

After US Border Protection officers reported the biggest counterfeit instrument bust on record when it seized $18 million of fake Gibson guitars late last year, it’s fair to say that the issue of fraudulent electric guitars is becoming ever more problematic.

With seemingly more and more fake instruments making their way into the market, it’s become more important than ever to be able to tell what’s genuine from what isn’t – and while most of us would like to think we’d be able to do just that, that might not always be the case.