This FAKE Fender Gets Everything WRONG

[@eddiejr540]

Kennis...I freakin love these vids... I think we get better at spotting fakes with each vid you do...rock on my brother!!!

[@kennisrussell]

Thanks Larry

[@TheRobman]

Also, those "Fender" tuners have a screw keeping them straight, whereas the real ones are screwless, with two little spikes doing that job, like the ones in the real listing that you showed.

[@donttalktome4696]

That was the first thing that gave it away for me

[@ELRYTNAMROGO]

Unfortunately, as informative as these videos are to the common person, they also help counterfeiters iron out the details to create more legitimate looking fakes.

[@jameshill2015]

I have seen "fakes" better than guitars they mimic, sad, but if a guitar is dialed in, it inspires you to play, made by a conterfiter in Cambodia for a lot less money and you like it..who cares? Its a win win for the company being copied because likely upgrades will be sold from that company for the guitar, the person was not going to buy the real deal or they WOULD have, so everyones happy, but l do see the problem of someone selling it under the pretenses that its genuine and charging full price, but for personal use and telling a buyer its NOT authentic when selling it, its all good.

[@tallthinkev]

I know what you mean, however if they haven't got it right by now they never will, another few pictures will make no difference. The only things that makes a fake is the name on the headstock. It could be a very nice guitar in it's own right. If one were to buy a guitar at any price a setup will be nice to make it play to the specs you like.

[@jameshill2015]

@@tallthinkev my Eastman SB59V Is a single cut (Les Paul copy) it has Eastman on the headstock, if l knew how nice they were before l bought my Standard...l would have never bought my Standard.. Eastman is a better guitar to me and l would have paid more for the Eastman gladly, if it was made in America and not a high-end shop in China it would have been a good bit more than my Standard, to each his own...

[@robertvalentino7906]

Pro trick : watch movies at Flixzone. I've been using them for watching lots of of movies recently.

[@noeljude19]

@Robert Valentino definitely, have been using Flixzone for years myself :D

[@BloodBoughtMinistries]

People should also give you the body thickness of the guitar.

[@tomfoolery2082]

Iv been playin and hav been around guitars for a long time . People started talkin about fakes , counterfeits , chibsons ect . Looked at a few n didnt kno what to look for at all . Found a KZbin channel and this guy talks about tht n shows what to look for . Hav learned a ton on this subject . So thanks for the free education Kennis . Love the channel .

[@kennisrussell]

I really appreciate the feedback. Thanks.

[@farrellguitarrepair853]

Kennis Bro!! The string trees on a US or Made in Japan have a distinct shape. Or what you call vintage Fender shape. The string trees on this example should set off alarm bells right away!!! Anyway you hit o a lot of good points but string trees are a good quick alarm bell.

[@kennisrussell]

Cool. I’ll take note of that.

[@jameshill2015]

You gotta be happy for the guy hes only into it for $130... He liked it enough to buy it.. l kinda felt my stomach drop when l thought for a second he spent $6k plus...but ANYONE spending THAT much money KNOWS exactly what they want and what they are looking at. It is nice when the neighbor down the street has his Dads old guitar he wants $100 for and it ends up being a 62 Les Paul Custom, but that dont happen too often..

[@harounel-poussah6936]

Did just like Ron Laster (James Brown) and Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), I bought a *Vigier Excalibur,* then sold my Stratoaster, then bought a second Excalibur... Even 24 years later, I still don't regret the Stratoaster! A Fender Diamond Dealer made me try CSMH made by several of their master-luthiers John Cruz, Todd Krause, Chris Fleming, Yuri Shishkov. I agreed these guitars were REALLY great and I was offered unbelievable conditions to have Strats built to my specs by whoever I wanted at the CS with prices competing what I owned but... Excaliburs still had the edge, moreover, Fender cannot reproduce their specificities which are tightly patented. Sometimes I'd really love that they let some licenses go to some artisans, e.g. Leduc, which is one of the finest luthiers on the planet, making his masterpiece, a neckthru with 65 years old Honduras mahogany and 126y old Brazilian rosewood,

[@williamthrasher8540]

great video learning a lot from you, keep it up.

[@kennisrussell]

Thanks man. I will

[@davidkastin4240]

The tremelo cover is Squier or other budget kind.

[@kennisrussell]

Yes

[@mustyfuzz3551]

Dude.....any reason a brand new Gibson number would not register? I think it says 214100098 ... Does not show up when I type it in.

[@joelanderson_t]

The shape of the headstock looks like one of those older Squier Bullet SE Strats from the late 1990s and earlier 2000s. FIY: I own a rare Indian-made Squier Stratocaster, although I’m mainly a bass player. I also own an Indonesian Affinity Strat. For the money, they’re pretty good. At least they’re worth buying as opposed to these Chinese-made fake guitars posing to be “Made in USA”.

[@therightisright8276]

Note: Fender Fat Strats have 2 screws at top of HB pickup and 1 at bottom.

[@隠れた]

That’s a squier I think I’ve seen that exact paint style on a squier plus the trem is 6screws and wrong saddles which is also signs of squier

[@BloodBoughtMinistries]

That whole guitar may be a fake, not a squier, as in those fake fender strats they sell on aliexpress.

[@Adrenalsky2]

What do I do if I suspect a local pawn shop is selling fake Les Pauls? I’m not an expert, but they have 2 that threw up some red flags for me.

[@kennisrussell]

Fell free to send me some pics on Facebook.com/kennisrussell. I would let them know that you think they are fakes. Sometimes they don’t know. That happened to me at a pawn shop. The owner at least said he didn’t know and ended up Reid icing the price to what an epiphany would sell for.

[@TheRobman]

@@kennisrussell Lol, time for a spell check??? How much do epiphanies got for these days?

[@wilhelmtheconquerer6214]

The best fake you can make is probably real Fender parts on a warmoth body and neck speced to mirror a real Fender. But at that point you would be paying a similar price to a real American Fender anyways

[@kennisrussell]

You are 100% right.

[@KaosII1968]

You would more than likely end up paying more... A Fender spec Warmoth neck is around 400-450 painted alder or ash body 400-450. Haven't even started buying parts yet.

[@wilhelmtheconquerer6214]

@@KaosII1968 not really. All the hardware, strings, case and strap gets me at about $1440 on Thomann, body and neck for $782 and decals for from Rothko and frost for about $9,30, adding up to $2 231,30. The closest guitar available from fender is the American original 60s Strat at $1 969, but that one doesn’t have an ash body 7.3/4” fretboard radius or a quartersawn maple neck and also doesn’t include a strap, features almost exclusively available trough the custom shop. I’d say that Warmoth Strat is the better deal, but that’s just me

[@KaosII1968]

@@wilhelmtheconquerer6214 You will probably end up with a better guitar . And it's exactly to your specs. I didn't know Thomann sold bodies and necks, i'll check that out. Good luck and have fun brother.

[@wilhelmtheconquerer6214]

@@KaosII1968 no no, the body and neck are still Warmoth (but thomann does stock some bodies and necks too) Regardless, good luck to you too!

[@pdp977]

I'm liking the hair-styling and the new background. Looks good. I do a lot of teaching via Zoom and WebEx and I'd like that background.

[@kennisrussell]

Thanks. The hair is my Covid (non) haircut. Lol. The background is actually the studio I built for the live stream at my church. I decided to film this video there. Thanks for liking it.

[@pdp977]

@@kennisrussell What did you cover the walls in - looks great!

[@Nonexistanthuman]

Doing alot of helpful work by sharing these tips and information with us all

[@kennisrussell]

Thanks

[@derekmetcalfe5018]

How do Fender date the necks , is there a date stamp on the heel and are there markings inside the neck pocket at the time of manufacture to give you some idea if its a fake ?

[@kennisrussell]

Sometimes. Usually it’s a serial number on the headstock. Vintage guitars can be harder.

[@andrewreynolds2647]

Great analysis, thanks for sharing.

[@kwakuemma8382]

someone wanted to sell to me a 2006-2007 fender strat (American). I google the serial number and a different guitar came up. I want to know if serial numbers on fender guitars are unique or not. Thanks

[@goodtimefolkrock]

Hey love all your videos Kennis esp the gr55 series ....might be time to revisit that now that you understand the machine more fully after all these years .

[@andrewreynolds2647]

The neck is completely out of line look at the e bass string w.t.f. you can see this a fake from space , i hope the guy didn't pay fender money for this junk.

[@DeadmeatDarkdaylight]

thanks on this one! nowa days fakes look really good sadly... and lovely tosee you got your channel back!

[@rutiger6901]

That buyer got a very nice guitar for very little money.

[@tigerstripe8049]

already love that vid just 5 seconds sneaked in2 it 👏😸

[@CheezyPegasus]

i also have a fender that is suspicious that if it's real or not, can you help me? thanks

[@kennisrussell]

Sure. Send me pics at facebook.com/kennisrussell

[@khakishark]

My guitar doesn't have a backplate?

[@shytweedabone2663]

Informative for sure.

[@kennisrussell]

Thanks.

[@Wildman9]

Hi Kennis , Like you I had the same conclusions, and for the same reasons.I guess having Fenders for over 46 years you learn a little about it.Great videos bud.🎸👍

[@kennisrussell]

I’m glad to have someone very familiar with genders confirm. 😁. Thanks

[@dp9550]

Forgot to mention microtilt

[@bartvschuylenburg]

Do you know anything about fake Charvel? I remember from ten years ago or so that some websites were warning for counterfeited Charvels. Are those still around these days?

[@kennisrussell]

I don’t know much about them.

[@khakishark]

I searched up the serial number from mine, doesn't even exist!

[@doknox]

Noisalas means ridiculously noisy in some language.

[@jameshill2015]

That was not even close to a Squier..he did got his moneys worth even at the price he paid. I have a 2017 Fender Elite Stratocaster... After over a year of owning it someone pointed out that the metal headstock logo was not written correctly and he thought my Elite was a copy. I thought he was nuts.. what are the chances that Fender would send out an Elite...highest quality available, only under "Custom Shop" that they would not notice that the headstock reads "Fender Stratocastr" ??? Is it possible? There are a couple thing l noticed AFTER buying it..1- all the pick gaurd screws and rear cover screws seem seem to be at a very slight cant in the same direction maybe 1° but this has the heads of the pickgaurd screws not quite flat on the gaurd which were then slightly over tightend to possibly hide this.. l dont tighten those screws to the point of distorting the pickgaurd, however l have seen many guitars from Fender new that come slightly over tightend. 2- Fender claims that the wood on the board is ebony, l always associated ebony with being BLACK, its not, its much more figured and lighter than rosewood, ebony is very hard and slick where my board is very grippy ( l have a bad gorrilla grip playing) could it be a type of ebony that looks more like a Pau Ferro type of color they used that l am not familiar with? 3- a month after buying l noticed when l an my fingers along the (right/ bottom knob side) pickgaurd the body had mysterious waves along the gaurd on the body..almost like paint runs, 3 drips l would say but they are not noticable and hard to see if its paint or a funky routing on the body. The screw angle, wood type on the board, the odd wave on the body do not effect the playing so much ( board wood does a lil) but seeing the headstock misspelled is now got me concerned, l bought it from a Fender authorized dealer so l find it hard to believe its a fake. The shop claims "its fine.. just play it"??? What do you think? Fenders finest production American made in with QC this bad??? Please let me know your opinion and what you think the best possible way to go is...Thanks! Jim

[@bipbipletucha]

Fender used streakier ebony on all the American Elites as an aesthetic feature, so that's not necessarily a red flag. I'd really need to see pictures to tell if it's legit or not

[@jameshill2015]

The ebony is lighter than rosewood and has a grippy surface unlike my other ebony necks, l was so unhappy with that board l ordered a maple board Elite neck ($525 bastards!) and put on it, that "ebony" neck is now on a 2019 Player Plus body with Zexcoils, l have a bit of a tight grip when fretting, lm trying to develope a lighter touch so its not much of a factor but l do like the maple board better!

[@dommadonia9207]

Hoping for the day when someone hits it big, wouldn't it be nice to get a real one at that price!

[@dp9550]

They spelt noisalass LMAO

[@danielsgrunge]

130 for a Squier Strat is not thaaat much of a loss tbh haha

[@kennisrussell]

True.

[@dp9550]

Not to mention the fugly color.

[@RONSPOTZ]

Glarry body?

[@johnk7147]

American Fenders dont have string trees???? you meant, they dont have two trees right?

[@kennisrussell]

Yes. They usually only have one string tree.

[@larsarcher8675]

Both the Performer and Special series has two stringtrees!

[@DayOneAdeleFans]

@@kennisrussell Haha yeah, took me back for a second in the video too because I have a brand-new Fender American Professional Stratocaster which does have one string tree. Sent straight from Sweetwater, my first “real” guitar and she is just a beaut, nothing fake about her! Thank you for your videos!

[@stevekelley1536]

The main thing is

[@stevekelley1536]

How wide the nut and bridge are. The over seas and made in Mexico are the same. The made in usa are wider. The fakers will not go through the expanse to change that.

[@cyb3r3vil30]

Keep up the good Work Stopping counterfeits would be awesome! Your making a difference TFS Enjoyed! $t@y $@f3 ... 😷 PS there copying Epiphone and other low in budget guitars now to Krazy

[@kennisrussell]

Thanks man.

[@joetspaulding]

Check your English in your title 😉

[@kennisrussell]

Thanks man.

[@joetspaulding]

I do it all the time 😄

[@HumbleHeartMinistry]

Maybe its made by CNN?

[@BloodBoughtMinistries]

👍😂

[@nizodizo9549]

If the Chinese got their act together they might get away with this.