My comment for Chinese Gibsons. I have bought three while visiting Beijing a few time. Two Standards and a Custom. They had all the right trimmings so to speak. Only the pickups were a little weak.

Epiphone has a plant in China. So does Ibanez (I bought a Steve Vai JEM) Gibson is trying to crack down. But cracking down is done on a local level with the music stores. Bribery, for lack of better word. Forget about copyright laws in China. Non-existent.

That being said, like many guitars, you have to play and inspect them if you can. Some were absolute garbage. However, some guitars (Gibson especially) are great copies. The paint and finish alone is worth the $250 they seem to charge for any guitar regardless of make.

The Gibson copies are generally made at the Epiphone plant in Qingdao. The plant is allowed to run off copies. Again, price of doing business in China. Ibanez does the same so you get the "Made in Japan" stamp. Everything is computers now. Plays great.