U.S. Border Agents Seize 3,000 Fake Gibson Guitars

They would have been worth nearly $18 million if they were genuine, making it the largest counterfeit instrument seizure in history, officials said.

At a glance, the Gibson guitars look like some of the most coveted six-stringed instruments in the world, including signature models played by Dave Grohl that sell for up to $10,000 and some that looked as if they had been autographed by Slash.

A closer look by any guitar connoisseur, though, would reveal something was slightly off.

Federal officials aren’t saying how they knew the difference, but the 3,000 electric guitars that arrived in ocean containers from Asia at the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport were counterfeit.

Their total retail price, had they been genuine, would have been $18 million, they said. The haul is the largest seizure of counterfeit musical instruments on record, officials said in announcing the bust on Tuesday.

“These fraudulent guitars may look and feel legitimate for unsuspecting consumers buying them from third-party online sources, street markets, unauthorized retailers, and person-to-person transactions,” said Cheryl M. Davies, the director of field operations for Customs and Border Protection in Los Angeles.

The biggest tip-off, though, might have been that authentic Gibson guitars are made only in Nashville and Bozeman, Mont.

“This is really emotional and personal for us,” Beth Heidt, chief marketing officer at Gibson, said at a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday. She said that generations of American families “have dedicated their entire lives to hand-crafting Gibson instruments.”

The company was founded in 1894 and its headquarters are in Nashville. Gibson’s best-selling guitars cost about $2,000, but that can quickly rise to five figures for signature models created with popular guitarists. Vintage guitars have been sold for the low six figures.

That makes Gibson guitars an especially attractive target for counterfeiters, who can easily undersell the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, and still make a hefty profit off unsuspecting consumers.

While authorized sellers like Guitar Center would never carry those, the fake guitars were destined for third-party online resellers, officials said.

There is a much better chance of a consumer getting hoodwinked if they can’t see the instrument directly, or hold and play it.

“We can pick it up immediately and tell,” Ms. Heidt said of a phony Gibson, adding that they were more flimsy and lightweight.

She said that a fake guitar would carry a Gibson logo that might look askew, bleed, or be in the wrong place.

“They don’t have correct inlays,” she said. “There are finish issues. The way the neck is fit into the guitar is inaccurate. So there’s quite a few ways that you can actually look at the guitar and tell that it’s not accurate. It’s from the parts, the specs, the look, the feel, top to bottom.”

Customs officers worked with special agents from Homeland Security Investigations and investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to make the bust, but they did not say how long they had been working on the case, when the counterfeit guitars were seized, who made them or where they came from. They said it remained an active investigation.

It is a violation of intellectual property law to import, distribute or sell unauthorized products in the United States. It is a felony punishable by a $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.