There are lots of so called lawsuit guitars on ebay. You might have heard the term before, but not sure what stands behind it. If you just follow the hype and buy a lawsuit guitar on ebay without knowing what lawsuit is all about, you might be really disappointed by your purchase.

So what are lawsuit guitars

Simply speaking lawsuit guitars are copies or imitations of brand name guitars produced in 1970’s. At that time Japanese companies, like Ibanez was making its way to American market by producing copies of Gibson and Fender guitars. Gibson sued Ibanez for this practice, hence the name lawsuit guitar came into being. Seems like it is proper to use the term lawsuit guitar only when refering to Ibanez made guitars, other imitations are commonly refered to as lawsuit era guitars. What made lawsuit guitars so popular is their close resemblance to the originals. They were by no means cheap copies. Most of the lawsuit guitars were as good as originals , and often even better, and they were cheaper of course. Some companies went another mile by stylizing their logos to resemble Gibson logos. Same thing is practiced today by Asian manufacturers, producing Adidos shoes and the like…

Gibson was against other manufacturers copying their guitars, especially so called open book headstock design. Ibanez and other quickly responded by changing the headstocks of their “lawsuits” and the case was over.

Ibanez lawsuit guitar headstock (left) and post lawsuit headstock (right)

Some people believe that success of Japanese companies was due to the low quality of original Gibson’s at that time. Thus it was easy to beat them in quality and price.

Bottom line is lawsuit guitars are worth the hunt because they look just like originals, play better and cost less!

How to distinguish genuine lawsuit guitars from fake

So how can you tell if lawsuit guitar sold on ebay is a genuine one or its a fake?

1. First of all look at the headstock. Does it resemble Gibson Les Paul?
2. Is there a Made in Japan mark with serial number? BTW, the higher the number the better is the make!
3. Is it a copy of a guitar from 50s os 60s? If not most likely it is not lawsuit, just a mere imitation, not necessarily good one.
4. Will logo fool you into believing that its Gibson’s logo?

Alvarez Lawsuit guitar

Some simple facts: most LOTUS guitars sold on ebay are NOT lawsuit guitars! A lot of LYLE guitars are. All Made in Korea guitars are not lawsuits either!

Check out this article by Guitar Attack for more info and this review from ebay website.