New Les Paul. Possible fake pickups? Tampered? Debating returning.

[shupe13]

...or doing a "reverse Greeny/Moore" on it...
Curious if the magnet's flipped...

That's possible. I think I read that the ring was backwards as well, besides I just wanted to go old school and use "dingleberry."

 

[Injector]

Every returned guitar should be listed as such and resold with a small discount. Then the buyer is getting what they paid for and what they are expecting. To sell me a guitar listed as “brand new” that could have been sitting in somebody’s house for a month or more getting played every day is a fraudulent business practice. That’s not a new guitar. Not saying I still wouldn’t buy it, but not for the same price as one that is actually new.

If I buy a new 60s Standard, play it for a two hours a day for 30 days, could I come to the classifieds here and with any integrity at all list it as brand new and expect to get a brand new price? Nah. It’s a lightly used guitar, most likely in excellent plus condition, and I‘m gonna lose 300-400 bucks. I don’t think we the consumer should end up paying for the vendor’s return policy. It’s a cost of doing business for them, not me.

What's the difference whether the same guitar was hanging on the GC wall and being tried out by potential punters and tyre kickers all day long for a month?

Yeah sure I would like to receive a perfect condition sealed box guitar whenenever I buy new but with online distance selling regulations these guitar stores can't be expected to sell every guitar that's returned within 14 days as a used product. They'd go out of business in no time.

 

[madhermit]

These are my 61’s I just popped out of my Classic yesterday

View attachment 522334
Slightly different but I don’t know what that actually means.

I have a set that look just like these with the Gibson logo stamped/engraved in them too. Came out of a 2019 60s Original Les Paul Standard.

 

[guitaroholic]

No I appreciate you bringing it up. I’m not bothered by the flip but I want to make sure everything is original and as it should be.

Yeah, I got is new. I got a small discount for their Preidents Day sale but it was sold as brand new.

Like I said, if those are the original pickups I won’t return it. But in my other thread someone said it might have been replaced with fakes and I just want to be sure that’s not the case here.

That’s why I’m asking here. If the pickups seem fine, I’m most likely keeping it. I really don’t care if someone flipped it but since the whole story behind it is odd, I want to make sure I’m getting the original pickups and nothing else major is wrong.

Anyone putting in fakes wouldn’t bother with the white and PAF stickers. You’d know they’re fake.
did you look at the solder connections? I bet they look untouched.

 

[guitaroholic]

Take it back to GC, they know the situation, and demand a sizable chuck of cash back for selling you a "new" guitar that was previously bought and not disclosed that it was. If they bitch, hand them the guitar back and demand your money back.

Yea, and then buy it as open box since now it’s definitely a return lol.

 

[InTheEvening]

Anyone putting in fakes wouldn’t bother with the white and PAF stickers. You’d know they’re fake.
did you look at the solder connections? I bet they look untouched.

That’s good to know. I’m hoping it was just someone trying to alter the sound.
Yeah, they seem to be okay from what others have said. You can see it here.

 

[Mario St DeHaven]

Hi guys! So a few of you might know I recently got a new Les Paul standard 60’s from Guitar Center. It’s an awesome guitar, but after bringing it home I found out the bridge pickup was put in backwards, as seen here.

At first I assumed this was a Gibson QC issue or factory mistake but I got the suggestion the check baby picture and turns out the pickup was in the correct position from the factory.

I just got back from the Gutiar center and they confirmed the guitar was bought and returned once before to a store in a different state, they don’t know how it got to my store and is a bit fishy. We still don’t know who flipped it or why.

My biggest concern is if someone took out the original pickups to sell and put in some fakes.
They were nice enough to open up the guitar for me at the store to confirm the pickups are still original and we took photos of the undersides.
They seem legit. But what do you think? Do these look like the original 61R/T pickups? The stickers seem to match up but it’s still odd. Should I just return it and take the refund? I can order another standard 60’s but this one looks and plays great, so if pickups look to be original and everything seems okay, I would just keep this one. But the whole story is odd, even the staff were perplexed. They said it’s up to me if I want to exchange or return.

WOW! That would be the last time Guitar Center ever heard from me again.

 

[Scott Lee]

Short version, they sold you a used guitar as new. Isn't that fraud? I guess it depends on how pissed off you are, but I bet a cell to the manager with a reasoned (not all pissed off and yelling, just a quiet controlled WTF conversation) approach would get you a partial refund (like, used vs. new price) or at least a store credit in that amount.

 

[musicmaniac]

Wow. The internet, what a wonderful thing!

 

[InTheEvening]

Spoke to the manager over the phone, been working with him on my Les Paul hunt for a few weeks, really nice guy.
He said I can exchange the guitar and he’ll order a brand new Standard 60’s in any finish I want and honor the discounted price if I’d like. Really appreciated that. I might take up the offer. All the triburst models I’ve seen on here look as good as mine. I’ll also see what they have in the store and compare it to the one I have now.

 

[BDW60]

What's the difference whether the same guitar was hanging on the GC wall and being tried out by potential punters and tyre kickers all day long for a month?

Yeah sure I would like to receive a perfect condition sealed box guitar whenenever I buy new but with online distance selling regulations these guitar stores can't be expected to sell every guitar that's returned within 14 days as a used product. They'd go out of business in no time.

If labeling returns as “open box” and selling them for 3-5 percent less than a brand new guitar is gonna put all these places under, they’re probably going under anyway. They’re already making deals under advertised prices and that hasn’t put them under.

We would have to know what percentage of guitars actually get returned to make any meaningful guess on the economic impact, though.

 

[jskidder]

Spoke to the manager over the phone, been working with him on my Les Paul hunt for a few weeks, really nice guy.
He said I can exchange the guitar and he’ll order a brand new Standard 60’s in any finish I want and honor the discounted price if I’d like. Really appreciated that. I might take up the offer. All the triburst models I’ve seen on here look as good as mine. I’ll also see what they have in the store and compare it to the one I have now.

I think you'd be nuts to exchange for an unopened, sight-unseen guitar. Especially if you really like this one as you say you do - in both looks and playability. If you wanna play some guitars they have in the store and see if you bond with one of those, fine. Just know that any guitar sitting out in a GC has probably suffered more abuse than a flipped pickup.

 

[shawn7]

I am 100% convinced that the person assembling the guitar pickup or the mounting ring put it in the ring backwards. no one noticed, or cared to correct it. some people actually want it that way. could have been done by a first time owner who returned it. there are people who make try to take a magnet out of a pickup, but this looks so clean i highly doubt that happened. just check the dc resistance k ohms, should be 7.89 Ohms . just happen to have one here and it measured 7.80...

 

[PauloQS]

I remember back when I was in high school there was this girl who had just returned from living in Australia for five years. She was absolutely gorgeous and became a model very quickly after returning to our city. We would see her face on billboards all around our town. She was also very intelligent, had a great sense of humor, was actually very easy to talk to and was very talented. Needless to say everyone wanted to impress her. I was the shy nerdy kid who drew funny caricatures of everyone and somehow got to talk to her quite a bit. Anyways, she was very popular at school. Almost as popular as this thread. Just wow, no matter how often I refresh the MLP page, there is inevitably another comment in this thread. That's great, but man this thread is popular

 

[efstop]

It would be a shorter thread if responders read the thread instead of reading the first post and commenting immediately. But, this is how forums work, wot?

 

[jskidder]

At least it's better than the imaginary Anaconda Burst thread.

 

[InTheEvening]

I think you'd be nuts to exchange for an unopened, sight-unseen guitar. Especially if you really like this one as you say you do - in both looks and playability. If you wanna play some guitars they have in the store and see if you bond with one of those, fine. Just know that any guitar sitting out in a GC has probably suffered more abuse than a flipped pickup.

Tried every standard 60’s they had (3 total) only one of them was as good as the one I have. But of course, it had wrong 50’s knobs on it lol, no a big deal but comes to show none of these are perfect...I’d be rolling the dice by ordering a new one sight unseen things get missed with both Gibson and Guitar Center.

I’m prob gonna just keep the one I have. I’ve spent enough time and gas money on these trips to the store.

 

[PauloQS]

Tried every standard 60’s they had (3 total) only one of them was as good as the one I have. But of course, it had wrong 50’s knobs on it lol, no a big deal but comes to show none of these are perfect...I’d be rolling the dice by ordering a new one sight unseen things get missed with both Gibson and Guitar Center.

I’m prob gonna just keep the one I have. I’ve spent enough time and gas money on these trips to the store.

Just my personal opinion, but wise choice.

 

[Brooklyn Zeke]

Those pups look genuine, to me. You should be much more concerned that you bought a used guitar which was sold as new. If it had been previously purchased and the buyer tinkered with it, then returned it, it is actually then a used guitar, as it varied from factory specs. Ask for a price reduction.

 

[InTheEvening]

Those pups look genuine, to me. You should be much more concerned that you bought a used guitar which was sold as new. If it had been previously purchased and the buyer tinkered with it, then returned it, it is actually then a used guitar, as it varied from factory specs. Ask for a price reduction.

I bought it during the Presidents Day sale so I got a 15% discount. I asked if they’d be able to do any more discounts but understandably they couldn’t. But they said I could exchange for another new Les Paul and they’d honor the price. I won’t give this one up unless I find something I like as much.

There’s a standard 60’s triburst that’s brand new out of box at another Guitar Center location near me. I’ll check that one out this weekend and if it’s just as good or better, I’ll see if they’ll let me exchange for that one. But I want to see it in person first. If that one doesn’t work out, I’ll keep mine as it’s a good guitar in it’s own right.