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On my way to work this morning on Manila’s most congested road, my eyes were drawn to a familiar shape - a Gibson J200! On the back of a bus! So I whipped out my phone and snapped a photo. When I showed the photo to our bass guitarist Anna, she said the model is Zia, her niece! Small world.

I am told by the eagle-eyed enthusiasts here in Manila that that is actually not a Gibson J200, but Epiphone EJ200CE. I quote one of the posts-

“It's clearly an Epiphone because of the headstock; the truss rod cover extends to the nut unlike a 2 screw TRC and the headstock itself is curved inward and the topmost part is not the traditional open book shape. Also Gibsons usually have no inlays in the outer part of their "mustache" bridges. It’s a CE because it has pickups/electronics (you can see at the left side there are knobs protruding).”

I am better educated now, and still happy to see a 200 plying the streets of Manila.

Hi Andres
I spent four months working in Batangas, south of Mannila, a few years ago. Went in a shop selling only, what looked like Gibson guitars, turned out to be GIVSON guitars. Very acurate copies of all Gibson guitar model's. from a distance. Have you seen these Andres or have the GIVSON company been closed down.
Regards Geoff.

I actually had a play on a "Gibsun" J200 copy a while back Geoff, which I think are made in China. It was actually a very nice guitar and great to play.

Hi Lee
Unfortunatly I never got to play a GIVSUN. There were a couple of hundred guitars in the shop but not one lefty' They were a bit rough once you started to look closley but they were not cheap. I did make an atempt to ask if lefties were available but got nowhere.
Regards Geoff

That's quite funny, Lee, Geoff.

No, I haven't seen those guitars, but I must look them up. I wish we had met during your visit here, Geoff, and played Shadows.

Andy