Guitar owners may be playing counterfeit blues

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. -- It’s a familiar tune, a sad lament actually, about a product falling victim to counterfeiters. Lately, they’ve been picking on guitars.

Last month, a Long Island music dealer was accused of selling $90,000 worth of knockoffs of classic Gibsons, a guitar known for its deep, melodic sound and used by virtually every country, rock and blues artist from Elvis Presley to Eric Clapton.

“Unfortunately, consumers are ending up on the short end of the stick,” said Henry Juszkiewicz, chief executive of Nashville-based Gibson Guitars Corp.

Gibson guitars can cost $2,000 to $10,000 new. Vintage instruments can fetch more.

Knocking them off is a lucrative and easy business, according to Hank Risan, a founder of the online Museum of Musical Instruments. “To put together a replica might cost me a thousand dollars, more or less, depending on the instruments and parts,” Risan said.

China -- as it has with other consumer goods -- has become the source of an influx of mass-produced counterfeit guitars, Juszkiewicz said.

“There are a lot of really bad instruments being passed off as Gibsons out there,” Juszkiewicz said. “They sound awful.”

The owner of the Long Island music store, Bernard Musemeci, has pleaded not guilty to trademark counterfeiting.

Musemeci, 44, insists he thought he was buying legitimate Gibson guitars from a dealer on the Internet.