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Fake Synyster Gates guitar EXAMPLE

Awex Came

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May 23, 2021
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I recently came across this fake Synyster Gates guitar that initially had PG and I fooled until Syn confirmed it was fake. I figured it would be a good idea to share this here so people can reference it in case they come into this situation.

As soon as you see it, you're probably thinking "Of course it's fake, they don't make Syn guitars in that color." That's true, but there were a couple prototypes of that guitar way back in the day. PG owns one, Syn likely owns another, who knows if there was a third floating around or other variations of this prototype. As soon as you see Syn's actual prototype at the end, it's obvious that this guitar isn't it (different inlays, pickups, black hardware, white Schecter logo, etc.) but you never know.

Someone was selling this guitar in my area for $500. As soon as I saw it, I was ready to buy it right away. Since I was slightly skeptical, I asked PG if it was real and he said it looked legit as far as he could tell. Eventually we noticed a few inconsistencies. But since this guitar would be a prototype, the inconsistencies weren't exactly a dead give away. Syn put the nail in the coffin, but here's what tells me this was fake.

1. Pickups - The pickups aren't Invaders. Not a dead giveaway, as the owner could've swapped pickups or since it could've been a prototype, it just could've had other pickups.

2. Pickup Selector/Knob placement - On a traditional Synyster Gates guitar, the knobs sit below the pickup selector. On this guitar, the pickup selector is between the knobs.

3. Top Strap Button placement - On this guitar, the upper strap button is on top of the "horn" of the guitar, pointing up toward the headstock. On a regular Syn Custom, the strap button is on the back of the "horn" on the back of the guitar, pointing behind the guitar.

4. Deathbat Inlay - The pictures weren't the greatest, but I could kind of tell that the jaw of the Deathbat was slightly off.

5. Inlays - Again, the pictures aren't great but to me it looks like the inlays on the fretboard aren't pearloid. To me, the inlays on this guitar looks flat white whereas it looks pearlescent on a legit Syn guitar.

6. Large Headstock - This one was difficult to tell as well, but if you look at the "points" on the headstock at the 6th string tuning peg and 1st string tuning peg, it's very wide. The distance from point to point is pretty long in comparison to a real Syn Custom. Also, Schecter put out a statement back in the day warning against counterfeit guitars and they warned against large headstocks. (More info here)

7. Backplate - Small difference, but the backplate on this fake guitar has a space where you can see the bridge/springs. My Syn Custom (~2010) doesn't have a space on the backplate. The newer models do, but the space doesn't look like the one in this picture. Again, the owner could've swapped that out.

8. Pinstripes - The large thick pinstripes on the headstock don't touch the 1st and 6th string tuning post on this guitar. On a real Syn guitar, they do. Also, the pinstripes on the body of this guitar end before the edge of the guitar (look at the pinstripes on the left side of the body). On a real Syn, they go all the way to the edge.

9. Serial/Country - On the back of the headstock, where the headstock and neck join, a real Syn guitar would have a serial number and tell you where it was made. This guitar doesn't have that. However if this were in fact some sort of prototype, it wouldn't be unlikely that it wouldn't have that information on the guitar.


To reiterate, you could chalk up some of these things to it possibly being a prototype. Some of these things are definitely due to bad craftsmanship that Schecter would never let leave the factory. There may be other things I missed as well. I used my 2010 Syn Custom as a reference. This guitar fooled me and PG. Luckily, I didn't buy this guitar. I made the seller of this guitar aware of everything, and they changed the listing to a lower price and made it clear that it was fake. They said they bought it from a Flea Market. I know, crazy to think a Flea Market guitar is fake.

Be careful out there when buying a guitar this is too good to be true. On the other hand, if you didn't pay too much and it looks/plays/sounds good, who cares?


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Donovan Etue

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  • Nov 11, 2019
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    Wow! That's at the least an interesting find. A moderately well done fake too until you give it another look over. A few things I noticed that you hadn't commented on, The backplate appears to be that off of a strat/strat copy, scrolling through image after image of floyd equipped guitar they either have a fully covered floyd cavity cover or it's got the two stripes? Whatever shape they are, missing. Second. It appears that the floyd is missing two of the string locking bits in the back. Is it possible to attach strings with those parts missing though? I'm not sure, it doesn't look right at first glance though. Another thing being the truss rod cover being really pointy compared to schecter's normal truss rod covers. The non a7x related inlay seems fatter than normal as well at least above the 12 fret, or is it just me seeing that? Other than that I think you've covered the rest of the weirdness about the guitar haha. Glad you didn't pick it up at the initial listing price dude! Thank you for pointing out/reminding folks that fakes of actual guitars are a thing and that if something is probably too good to be true, it's probably not. Hopefully whoever the seller sells it too doesn't get ripped off like the seller did.
     
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    Awex Came

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    May 23, 2021
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    Wow! That's at the least an interesting find. A moderately well done fake too until you give it another look over. A few things I noticed that you hadn't commented on, The backplate appears to be that off of a strat/strat copy, scrolling through image after image of floyd equipped guitar they either have a fully covered floyd cavity cover or it's got the two stripes? Whatever shape they are, missing. Second. It appears that the floyd is missing two of the string locking bits in the back. Is it possible to attach strings with those parts missing though? I'm not sure, it doesn't look right at first glance though. Another thing being the truss rod cover being really pointy compared to schecter's normal truss rod covers. The non a7x related inlay seems fatter than normal as well at least above the 12 fret, or is it just me seeing that? Other than that I think you've covered the rest of the weirdness about the guitar haha. Glad you didn't pick it up at the initial listing price dude! Thank you for pointing out/reminding folks that fakes of actual guitars are a thing and that if something is probably too good to be true, it's probably not. Hopefully whoever the seller sells it too doesn't get ripped off like the seller did.
    Agreed. I had mentioned the backplate thing briefly, but something like that coulda also been switched out, assuming it was real. I noticed the truss rod cover as well, but I figured if this were a prototype, it wouldn't be *too* weird to have a different one. I do see what you mean about the inlays being fatter haha. I didn’t even notice the missing screws on the Floyd. There’s no way a string could stay in place without those. Maybe he has them screwed in really far? Hard to tell with his potato quality photos lol.

    I’m glad he changed to listing to say it was fake and he lowered the price. Some people wouldn't have done that .
     

    Awex Came

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    Something additional that I didn't notice until looking at this comparo - the pinstripes on the fake are not parallel to the neck/strings, like they are on the real deal.
    That’s a good indicator too, I didn’t even look at that. All these small details are adding up. Schecter wouldn’t have let something like that out of the factory. Maybe if they did, it woulda been sold as B-Stock

    And, just for the record since he thought this was real, #NOTwhatPGsaid...
    He can’t be trusted any longer
     
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    Dominik Gräber

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  • Nov 11, 2019
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    Thanks for sharing, very interesting!
    I mean, you gotta give it to the guy that build the guitar, very faithfull to the Original Models.
    I Just wonder how somebody that is looking to make an exact Copy of a guitar can miss most of these Details that you can easy Double Check in Pictures.
    Also good Work maybe, but I could have supported it If the builder used his own Logo, instead of trying to make it a straight up copy
     
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    Donovan Etue

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  • Nov 11, 2019
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    Agreed. I had mentioned the backplate thing briefly, but something like that coulda also been switched out, assuming it was real. I noticed the truss rod cover as well, but I figured if this were a prototype, it wouldn't be *too* weird to have a different one. I do see what you mean about the inlays being fatter haha. I didn’t even notice the missing screws on the Floyd. There’s no way a string could stay in place without those. Maybe he has them screwed in really far? Hard to tell with his potato quality photos lol.

    I’m glad he changed to listing to say it was fake and he lowered the price. Some people wouldn't have done that .
    I'm not even sure it's possible to force the screw that far forward. You'd have to strong arm it to get it that far, plus some. That or maybe the little graphite block fell out and he's got the actual screw locking in the string instead of the block. Which might make the strings sound a ways off if it sounds anything like the strings on my guitar have when they aren't lined up properly in the saddle. It gives it a weird sitar sound to it which acoustically does sound neat. Under distortion not so much haha. I'm really curious about how he has the strings in now haha. One thing I just noticed too is that they've got the Diamond Series marking under the Schecter logo, I feel like they wouldn't put that on a one off prototype though right? Also it's missing the string angle bar as well with no visible holes that I can tell. Those have been pretty standard for a while right? The one syn is holding in the promo photo seems to have one as well if the 23.5 pixels I'm looking at are what I'm looking at haha. The more I look at it, the more "off" it looks haha. I'm curious if there are more guitars out there just like this one, in the hands of unsuspecting Syn fans. Hopefully not.
     
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    Awex Came

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    Thanks for sharing, very interesting!
    I mean, you gotta give it to the guy that build the guitar, very faithfull to the Original Models.
    I Just wonder how somebody that is looking to make an exact Copy of a guitar can miss most of these Details that you can easy Double Check in Pictures.
    Also good Work maybe, but I could have supported it If the builder used his own Logo, instead of trying to make it a straight up copy
    This had to have been done in a Chinese factory, I doubt it was a sole person that made it. I’ve seen worse fakes than this though lol
     
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    Matt Wildcat

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    Damn, that would've totally fooled me! Looked convincing at a first glance, although, seeing those pinstripes on the body going off at an angle is quite frustrating LOL. Great stuff to know in terms of what to look for.
    I remember seeing people selling those tiny replica models on Ebay in this colour and wondering if there was ever a real one, very cool to know that it actually was a thing, albeit a prototype! Cheers for sharing this! 🤘 💀 🤘
     
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    Gabby Heafy

    Local Dive Bar Favorite
  • Apr 5, 2020
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    I recently came across this fake Synyster Gates guitar that initially had PG and I fooled until Syn confirmed it was fake. I figured it would be a good idea to share this here so people can reference it in case they come into this situation.

    As soon as you see it, you're probably thinking "Of course it's fake, they don't make Syn guitars in that color." That's true, but there were a couple prototypes of that guitar way back in the day. PG owns one, Syn likely owns another, who knows if there was a third floating around or other variations of this prototype. As soon as you see Syn's actual prototype at the end, it's obvious that this guitar isn't it (different inlays, pickups, black hardware, white Schecter logo, etc.) but you never know.

    Someone was selling this guitar in my area for $500. As soon as I saw it, I was ready to buy it right away. Since I was slightly skeptical, I asked PG if it was real and he said it looked legit as far as he could tell. Eventually we noticed a few inconsistencies. But since this guitar would be a prototype, the inconsistencies weren't exactly a dead give away. Syn put the nail in the coffin, but here's what tells me this was fake.

    1. Pickups - The pickups aren't Invaders. Not a dead giveaway, as the owner could've swapped pickups or since it could've been a prototype, it just could've had other pickups.

    2. Pickup Selector/Knob placement - On a traditional Synyster Gates guitar, the knobs sit below the pickup selector. On this guitar, the pickup selector is between the knobs.

    3. Top Strap Button placement - On this guitar, the upper strap button is on top of the "horn" of the guitar, pointing up toward the headstock. On a regular Syn Custom, the strap button is on the back of the "horn" on the back of the guitar, pointing behind the guitar.

    4. Deathbat Inlay - The pictures weren't the greatest, but I could kind of tell that the jaw of the Deathbat was slightly off.

    5. Inlays - Again, the pictures aren't great but to me it looks like the inlays on the fretboard aren't pearloid. To me, the inlays on this guitar looks flat white whereas it looks pearlescent on a legit Syn guitar.

    6. Large Headstock - This one was difficult to tell as well, but if you look at the "points" on the headstock at the 6th string tuning peg and 1st string tuning peg, it's very wide. The distance from point to point is pretty long in comparison to a real Syn Custom. Also, Schecter put out a statement back in the day warning against counterfeit guitars and they warned against large headstocks. (More info here)

    7. Backplate - Small difference, but the backplate on this fake guitar has a space where you can see the bridge/springs. My Syn Custom (~2010) doesn't have a space on the backplate. The newer models do, but the space doesn't look like the one in this picture. Again, the owner could've swapped that out.

    8. Pinstripes - The large thick pinstripes on the headstock don't touch the 1st and 6th string tuning post on this guitar. On a real Syn guitar, they do. Also, the pinstripes on the body of this guitar end before the edge of the guitar (look at the pinstripes on the left side of the body). On a real Syn, they go all the way to the edge.

    9. Serial/Country - On the back of the headstock, where the headstock and neck join, a real Syn guitar would have a serial number and tell you where it was made. This guitar doesn't have that. However if this were in fact some sort of prototype, it wouldn't be unlikely that it wouldn't have that information on the guitar.


    To reiterate, you could chalk up some of these things to it possibly being a prototype. Some of these things are definitely due to bad craftsmanship that Schecter would never let leave the factory. There may be other things I missed as well. I used my 2010 Syn Custom as a reference. This guitar fooled me and PG. Luckily, I didn't buy this guitar. I made the seller of this guitar aware of everything, and they changed the listing to a lower price and made it clear that it was fake. They said they bought it from a Flea Market. I know, crazy to think a Flea Market guitar is fake.

    Be careful out there when buying a guitar this is too good to be true. On the other hand, if you didn't pay too much and it looks/plays/sounds good, who cares?


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    wow interesting! thanks for sharing :)
     
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    Awex Came

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    I'm not even sure it's possible to force the screw that far forward. You'd have to strong arm it to get it that far, plus some. That or maybe the little graphite block fell out and he's got the actual screw locking in the string instead of the block. Which might make the strings sound a ways off if it sounds anything like the strings on my guitar have when they aren't lined up properly in the saddle. It gives it a weird sitar sound to it which acoustically does sound neat. Under distortion not so much haha. I'm really curious about how he has the strings in now haha. One thing I just noticed too is that they've got the Diamond Series marking under the Schecter logo, I feel like they wouldn't put that on a one off prototype though right? Also it's missing the string angle bar as well with no visible holes that I can tell. Those have been pretty standard for a while right? The one syn is holding in the promo photo seems to have one as well if the 23.5 pixels I'm looking at are what I'm looking at haha. The more I look at it, the more "off" it looks haha. I'm curious if there are more guitars out there just like this one, in the hands of unsuspecting Syn fans. Hopefully not.
    Yeah idk how he has that string in lol. I think he sold it by now. Idk about the Diamond series thing, they might’ve put that on a prototype depending on where it was made and how serious they were about putting it out, but who knows. I noticed the tree angle thing too, but I figured that could’ve been a possibility of a legit version not having one. The more these things add up, the more you see it right away. But the first glance is pretty convincing. I haven’t seen any fakes this legit until now. Most of the ones I’ve seen are very obvious.
     

    Awex Came

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    May 23, 2021
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    Damn, that would've totally fooled me! Looked convincing at a first glance, although, seeing those pinstripes on the body going off at an angle is quite frustrating LOL. Great stuff to know in terms of what to look for.
    I remember seeing people selling those tiny replica models on Ebay in this colour and wondering if there was ever a real one, very cool to know that it actually was a thing, albeit a prototype! Cheers for sharing this! 🤘 💀 🤘
    Definitely very convincing at first haha

    I remember those mini ones too lol. You’d search “Synyster Gates Guitar” and there’d be a listing for like $60 and you’d get all excited, only to realize it’s a mini replica.
     
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    Brian Haner Sr.

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    Nov 11, 2019
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    My first thought when I saw it was: The early prototypes of Syn's guitar were not consistent. They were trying out different things to see what stuck. Giving it a cursory look - I thought it's certainly possible it's some kind of proto.
    My second thought was: Who would go to the trouble of making a copy of a Syn prototype? It probably would cost more to make than it would just to buy a Syn guitar and repaint it.
    So those two things led me to believe it COULD be real.
    I didn't have the time (nor inclination) to do any real research, so I sent a link to Syn. At first he thought it might be real as well - until I pointed out all the discrepancies that A.C. had noticed. He quickly agreed and said it was fake.
    After all was said and done, I pulled out my prototype (same color) and checked it against the fake.
    It wasn't even close.
    I guess it comes back to my second thought. Who would spend $250 on parts and 100 hours of labor, to build a copy to sell for $500?
    Or maybe it's a Chinese knockoff that only cost 80 bucks?
    Anyway, for 500 bucks, it makes me want to buy it just to see how well it plays.

    As usual, nothing gets past A.C.
    Next to Syn, A.C. knows more about A7X's equipment than anyone I know.
     

    Awex Came

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    After all was said and done, I pulled out my prototype (same color) and checked it against the fake.
    It wasn't even close.
    While we’re on this topic, you have some really interesting one-offs and prototypes. I’ve been lucky enough to see a few. I’m sure the students would like to see some *hint hint*

    As usual, nothing gets past A.C.
    I’ve bought enough secondhand gear online to know to thoroughly check the pictures lol


    Next to Syn, A.C. knows more about A7X's equipment than anyone I know.
    I really appreciate the kind words. I’m lucky to have guidance from you and Fred!