Karan_

I bought a guitar in a online auction, which is supposedly an Epiphone Les Paul Royale.
Upon checking the guitar personally I noticed the biggest difference: the pickguard was black instead of gold. I asked the owner about it and he told me that there were two versions of this guitar, in case someone finds gold to be too flashy.
Upon coming home, I did some research and found absolutely nothing about this version. Did I buy a super rare guitar or some cheap fake?
Also, what are the glue traces around the inlays? The owner claimed them to be the sloppiness of the manufacturer, but I doubt Epiphone would make such a bad work for a limited edition guitar. The guitar was shipped from the USA by marksguitarstuff.com (which has, by now changed it's name). I bought this guitar for $300 and I still have the option to return it. What should I do?

Here are some photos

SlenderMan`

how does it play?

Karan_

The tone is okay for the price but I still find it fishy that I can't find any information about a guitar which was produced a few years ago.

Malchius

Apart from the tone.volume knobs it looks the same as my mates Epi Les Paul Custom but i'm no expert.

Wisthekiller

The knobs are also wrong, real ones would have the silver tops.

The alignment of the knobs are wrong, the inner ones should be directly below the pickguard screw.

And the thing that gives away it's DEFINITELY not a Royale line, is that it uses the normal headstock logo, the Royale line uses a different where the "n" in Epiphone doesn't swoop down.

Compare (it's small but you can see it) to
.


Return the hell out of it and tell him he's full of shit. There were also no black pickguard versions.

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leony03

Also, the serial number on the back of the headstock should have 2 letters in front of it such as EE04091253. I tried putting the number in your picture into this but because it doesn't follow the same format as mine or the example, this doesn't look real.

Imo, it looks like a standard LP that has been painted over and had that bogus number stuck on the back.

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KG6_Steven

I also had a look at the Gibson website. It looks like a fake to me. The specs on the Royale are quite clear and the one you bought has too many red flags.

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Ele...yale/Specs.aspx

Robbgnarly

You didnt think it was strange that the serial # is a diff color and the area isn't even remotely symetrical?

Send it back, it is not real.

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Mephaphil

It could be that the guy you bought it from was duped too.

Luckily you have the Internet who hate it when people get screwed over but he may not have noticed.

Still, it's not your fault and he's the one who has sold a fake item as genuine and is potentially in breach of copyright legislation.

When I bought an Epi les paul standard in white a few years ago it arrived with a snapped neck. It was also obviously fake. They said it was an error and they got screwed over, they sent me a replacement, also fake.

Needless to say, I reported them to trading standards and soon their ebay store was shut down.

Ebay will give you a refund. If the guy tries to tell you it's genuine just send him all the evidence.

Let us know what happens!

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57Goldtop

The pickguard isn't the issue. Anybody can swap those out for really cheap if they want to give it a different look. This guitar has much bigger clues that it's not real. The pickup covers are wrong, the knobs are wrong, the Epi logo is wrong, and I've never seen glue residue that bad on a fretboard inlay (even on a budget brand). But all those aside, that serial number on the back is totally bogus. Epiphone would NEVER have left that one square unfinished when the rest of the neck is white. Return that guitar asap!

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Axe Murderer

Geeze. That thing you got is all kinds of wrong! Sorry.

paruwi

It is a 'factory second' or refurbished.....

all of them have gold stickers with the serial# starting 311......

BTW
Epi changed their serialnumber system in mid 2008....

there are no prefix-letters anymore (except some models)
and guitardater fails for more than 4 years to decipher it....

KG6_Steven

Even if it was a factory second, the headstock logo would be correct. This is more likely a "made in China" fake.

paruwi

The headstock logo is correct !

Wisthekiller

Not for this model.

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paruwi

the headstock logo is different on Chinese and Indonesian made Epis !

Do you really think they now fake factory seconds....

Wisthekiller

It's a Standard headstock, he was asking if it was a Royale model.

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DartS17

I thought the whole point of the Royale line was to be flashy. They're basically an Epi Standard with gold hardware, seems like you may have just bought an Epi Standard with switched out hardware. The Royales don't have that black piece around the input jack either. I'd return it on the basis that even if it's not a fake it's not what you ordered.

paruwi

this ^^ IS a headstock from a LP Standard Royale !