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Chibson USA: The Fake Guitar Company That’s More Real Than Gibson

If you like “fake news,” you’ll love these counterfeit guitars!

What’s a Chibson?

If you’ve ever gone to a guitar store and seen an incredible deal on a Gibson guitar, you’ve either never gone to a guitar store (cause Gibsons cost $$$), or you got taken in by a clever forgery. This phenomenon has been nicknamed “Chibson” guitars by the internet, based on their supposed bootleg manufacture in China. Countless web forums and YouTube videos offer tips and tricks on how you can differentiate a “real” Gibson guitar from a cheap Chibson knock-off, but the truth is a bit trickier!

This lengthy but insightful 2012 reply to a thread in ultimate-guitar.com explains in more detail the issues around Chibson guitars:

“A Chibson is an asian- or chinese-sourced counterfeit guitar made to look like a Gibson model, complete with a Gibson logo. Because they’re counterfeit and designed to be cheap copies at that, they usually don’t have great/decent hardware nor are they sourced from really…