How can you tella replica's builder

[gpselmer]

Hi all,
I was just wondering how can you tell a keebler, a Max, or other high end replicas ? Without certificate or documents, is there any distinctive features ?


Thanks for your help
G.P

[Big John]

They vary from guitar to guitar. Oh, and Keebler's aren't all they're cracked up to be. The differences between a MAX and a Keebler is night and day, especially when it comes to woodworking and hardware placement.

[Soldano16]

I've seen some Max's for sale on eBay with letters from Max.

I happen to have the original Guitar Clinic bill of sale from 1994 and build photos for my Guitar Clinic replica but that's hugely rare.

I have bought 2 Monty, 1 Keebler and 1 Guitar Clinic replicas based on who I was buying from.

I wasn't impressed, tone wise, with my Keebler either.

[gpselmer]

Thanks for the info.
That's quite hard to believe one can sell a guitar without proofs.... Well if you really love the guitar...

[John Catto]

This is a tricky area because they have to be a bit "off" to be recognisable. I can spot anything made by Nunis, his body shape was always slightly wrong (sort of square on the bottom) and some of the inlays are off centre (obviously cut with a template he never changed). A Monty that I see quite often has woodworking that is actually TOO good, the cavity routing and neck fit is so tight it could never have come from the Gibson shop.

Replicas and conversions made by Dick Knight in the UK in the 70's tend to have separating top centre seams, he was just never all that good at that (though his archtops are usually fine so who knows??). However they tend to be full of Mojo and have very pretty paint jobs so usually people just whack a Bigsby on there and forget about it.

Some people I know claim they can spot Max's neck profile though I'm kind of dubious about that.

[BOBBO]

I would think on some replicas you might be able to use a Blacklight to see if the nitro , inlays , pickup rings and other hardware are luminescent !!! It takes time and or UV light exposure to make these thing react to the blacklight







Here is a 1957 Goldtop under blacklight ..

[Fixxxer]

what does the blacklight do?

[Soldano16]

Originally Posted by gpselmer

Thanks for the info.
That's quite hard to believe one can sell a guitar without proofs.... Well if you really love the guitar...

I sold all 3 replicas sight unseen/unplayed.

[BOBBO]

Originally Posted by Fixxxer

what does the blacklight do?

I think I misunderstood the nature of this thread .. I thought it was about telling a replica from the real thing .. But it's about telling replica makers guitars apart ... As the kids say " My bad " !!!! Oh Fixxxer , The blacklight makes certain parts of a vintage LP glow ! Most replicas unless exposed to lots of UV light will not glow under the blacklight !!!

[John Catto]

Originally Posted by BOBBO

I think I misunderstood the nature of this thread .. I thought it was about telling a replica from the real thing .. But it's about telling replica makers guitars apart ... As the kids say " My bad " !!!! Oh Fixxxer , The blacklight makes certain parts of a vintage LP glow ! Most replicas unless exposed to lots of UV light will not glow under the blacklight !!!

Ha ha, it is a bit of a trick question isn't it given the whole point is to get as close as possible to passing as a vintage Les Paul. The main reason you can tell usually is that builders tend to be very slightly set in their ways and sometimes too proud of their work. They do truss rods a certain way, or route for pickups a certain way. Maybe their template was never that accurate and they couldn't tell or just didn't care, some people like Monty have woodwork skills that are just a tiny bit too clean, some people get lazy and use current production size backplates (incredibly common but more useful for telling a replica that's attempting to pass as a retop conversion ... seen that) and so on and so forth.

I believe there are ways of introducing just enough contaminant into a finish to make it glow so I'm not sure I'd trust that plus there are lots of replicas out there that are 30 years old now and probably have passed blacklight for at least 10 years.

[boogieongtr]

Some people I know claim they can spot Max's neck profile though I'm kind of dubious about that.

Having owned 3 Certified Max guitars I will tell you all 3 had slightly different neck profiles.

[singlecut]

Originally Posted by boogieongtr

Having owned 3 Certified Max guitars I will tell you all 3 had slightly different neck profiles.

just like the real 1's