The folks over at Andertons (great shop give them a visit) have very kindly provided me with a letter confirming the guitar is counterfeit.
As an authorsied Gibson and Epiphone dealer they should know. They have also pointed out another anomaly with this particular model – the gloss finish on the back of the neck. On the original, the finish is matte.
I have now faxed this confirmation over to PayPal and Ebay and eagerly await their response.
Gibson themselves have been helpful up to a point.
They have finally replied by email:
Hello Ian,
Thank you for contacting Gibson. The instrument in the pictures is not consistent with a real Epiphone Zakk Wylde model. The instrument in the pictures you emailed appears to be consistent with one of the many counterfeit instruments showing up these days. Thanks.
Gibson Customer Service
1-800-4GIBSON
service@gibson.com
When asked if they could fax this confirmation through to me they responded:
Hello Ian,
Thank you for contacting Gibson Customer Service. We do not have FAX available. If you could email a link to the site where this person is selling these guitars, Gibson Customer Service would turn it over to our legal dept to have them work to shut this seller down. Thanks.
Gibson Customer Service
1-800-4GIBSON
service@gibson.com
Blimey, Gibson seems rather technologically backward. Its not just the lack of fax, they have rather small email size limits and an inability to access the internet from their computers !
Hi,
Thanks for the email. Unfortunately, we are unable to view websites outside of the Gibson network. In order to properly identify and authenticate the guitar, please send in detailed pictures of the front and back of headstock as well as the front and back of the guitar’s body and we will be happy to evaluate. Also, make sure to keep the file size under 2MB total. If it is larger, we will not recieve it. Thanks again.
Gibson Customer Service
1-800-4GIBSON
service@gibson.com
