FAKE SHURE SM57'S (including pics)

[dwarves88]

I bought some sm57's from an ebay shop in my home town and while i waited a suspiciously long time to get hold of them (2 weeks), all my suspicions were confirmed this morning as i now have 2 fake shure sm57's to go with my real one. Things are getting sorted for a full refund etc.. but i'm here to show you some pics i took of them side by side with my real sm57. Most of these pics are obvious when looking at them side by side but its not always easy to tell if you take away the real one


I couldnt do the ultimate test of trying the mics on instruments as i didn't have all my equipment here at home with me

I also didnt want to look inside the mic as i don't want to ruin my chance of getting a full refund. Also its handy to know that if your at a 2nd hand music store you can tell the difference easily and stay clear of them (Don't even get me started with the fake leather mic bags). I'm sure there are other variations of the fakes but these ones were from china. I also know this thread has been covered before but its my way of introducing myself to the forum which i have browsed passively for years

Nice to meet you all

*Update - the seller has now gotten rid of all the sm57 microphones they had listed on ebay. I added some pics to show several differences between the different mics including the weights and contents of the boxes. In my original sm57 box (the real one) there was a little note inside the plastic bag containing the mic saying that the mic had been properly checked by a shure associate. I did not receive this in the 2 mics i received this morning. The weight issue is a main factor of the differences as my original sm57 weighs nearly as much as the 2 fake ones i received today.

I can also confirm that the lead i received with the sm57 is fake, as on the shure website they do not sell sm57's included with a xlr-jack lead inside the box and any company that adds a bundled lead with the mic is purely the company's decision and not Shure's. (note. Shure do sell other mics with their own leads though). It looks like they replaced the shure stickers with a cheap flimsy cable... and oh yes, I'm still annoyed with the mic bags!!

Shure - Wired Microphones - SM57 Instrument Microphone

There's still no way of me checking the aural differences of the mics though. The search continues...

*2nd Update

Finally made some A/B comparisons for you all to hear along with a pic. I've done 2 tests (clean and distorted) where you can hear the differences and make up your own mind. I don't have the best setup for recording but i've tried to keep it as fair and balanced as i could. Here's the signal chain going into a fairly untreated room:-

Epiphone SG --> Boss GT-8 --> Marshall G215R --> M-Audio Projectmix

Clean sounds - breath by pink floyd/iceberg of mirrors by The Sound Of Superstring

Distorted sounds - first thing that popped into my head :p

Here's the website where i've hosted the files. (I must give a big shoutout to thoward for letting me use his webspace)

File Thingie 2.0.6

pic of the mics next to each other

[Jules]

What a great first post thanks, I am sure.... (drum roll / cymbal) that this is very interesting to a lot of people..

Great photos too!

[Pastyzk2]

Heh, guess I was a sucker too. 5 SM57's for $200. It sounded too good to be true. Apparently I got the same kind of fakes you did too, except the xlr connection looks like the real one.

[stickers]

how many people just looked at their 57s, i know i did.

[chris carter]

We should really have a forum dedicated to listing and posting pics of fakes. It really happens all too often that someone passes off a fake - it's worse when it's an expensive piece of gear. But a separate forum would be a valuable resource as this thread (and similar ones) will get lost after a few days.

[psycho_monkey]

With the rest of the attention to detail, you'd have thought they'd manage to get the font right....

[jordanh]

woh. I cant believe it. that is just craziness... what is the leather mic bag fake deal? Should i steer clear of getting a used mic that only comes in a bag? I did this when I got my first mic a few years back, a rode NT1A or something...don't have it anymore, but it seemed alright...

[Glenn Kuras]

could you list the link to the ebay? I think that would help people know who not to buy from.
Off to check my 57s!

Glenn

[digitalM]

how many people just looked at their 57s, i know i did.

I did too

I wonder when if the outside of the mic and even the box look so close to the original will they also sound close...?

[jbuehler]

How can you guys be so sure that these aren't different versions of the same Mic? The pics looked pretty damn close but different to be sure.

I would usually expect a fake to look really fake to someone in the know and look fine to a nieve newbie. Those fakes look meant to take advantage of just about anyone.

What was the give away?

[bluestarbass]

MAN, those are darn close. That is scary.

[lowfreq33]

The sad part is that these guys obviously have the capability to make a quality mic, these look really good, but they instead choose to be counterfeiters. Seems like they could easily manufacture a decent mic that isn't a ripoff and sell it legitimately. I guess some people aren't happy unless they're ripping someone off.

[ToneBender67]

Originally Posted by myfipie

could you list the link to the ebay? I think that would help people know who not to buy from.
Off to check my 57s!

Glenn

Yes please, or at least disclose the seller. There are a few sellers on Ebay who are offering 'packages', like 4 SM57's for $300 and free shipping, and I was about ready to pull the trigger, but now I'm not so sure (or shure...)

[davet]

It's such a shame that American manufactures have to put up with this kind of fraud. Asian manufactures consider creating knockoffs business as usual. I've talked to Chinese and Indonesians that say America’s inability to protect their products from being copied is our problem, not theirs. If we stopped spending our national treasure on warfare then maybe we could stop this stuff at the border and put some importers in Leavenworth for a few years.

DaveT

[Tom Hakala]

Originally Posted by bluestarbass

MAN, those are darn close. That is scary.

yeah.

I bought SM58 when I was visiting Thailand last year and it was fake. Well I paid 10€ for it. Haven't tried it out yet.

[tINY]

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

The sad part is that these guys obviously have the capability to make a quality mic, these look really good, but they instead choose to be counterfeiters. Seems like they could easily manufacture a decent mic that isn't a ripoff and sell it legitimately. I guess some people aren't happy unless they're ripping someone off.

They could probably make as good a 57 as is made in mexico. If it didn't say SM57 on it, they'd have a harder time moving them.

I don't know about the quality of these asian ones - most of mine are old enough that they weren't even made in mexico.




-tINY

[84K]

Originally Posted by jbuehler

How can you guys be so sure that these aren't different versions of the same Mic?

My thoughts too. The version number/letters are different on the two boxes, maybe it is just a different version. Anyone contact Shure yet? Also, what is the sonic/sound difference? Any clips? That would be interesting.

[Fleaman]

Originally Posted by jbuehler

How can you guys be so sure that these aren't different versions of the same Mic? The pics looked pretty damn close but different to be sure.

I would usually expect a fake to look really fake to someone in the know and look fine to a nieve newbie. Those fakes look meant to take advantage of just about anyone.

What was the give away?

Yeah, how do you know for sure these are fakes? I'm sure if you took a real sm57 from 1980 and 2007, they might not look exactly the same, espeically the boxes (my 57's bought new in 1991 didn't have those boxes).

Then again, the very low price would seem to the big tip off.

I know the OP wants his $$ back, but there really should be a way to tip off Shure about this seller. Maybe if he helps Shure out, they will probably give him some free 57's for his trouble!

So now if I ebay any of my 57's I'm gonna have advertise them as not fake

[mrface2112]

Originally Posted by Fleaman

Yeah, how do you know for sure these are fakes? I'm sure if you took a real sm57 from 1980 and 2007, they might not look exactly the same, espeically the boxes

it's the font on the mic itself that's the dead giveaway. i've got shure 545's that have the exact same font as the "real" sm57. look at the differences between "sm57" on the two mics. i've not seen a "real" sm57 that has a font other than the one in the picture.

if the price is too good to be true, it probably is.

cheers,
wade

[centurymantra]

I will have to say that I'm impressed with the attention to detail on these. It seems kind of odd that people find it worthwhile to make such an effort for a $90 mic. I think the font would be a pretty good indicator that they are, in fact, fakes. Looking inside would be an ultimate determiner of course. I think it would be funny and totally ironic if someone did some tests and found them to sound better than an SM57...(not that this would be too hard to do )...

Someone should do this and post clips. Seriously.

[lowfreq33]

Originally Posted by centurymantra

I will have to say that I'm impressed with the attention to detail on these. It seems kind of odd that people find it worthwhile to make such an effort for a $90 mic. I think the font would be a pretty good indicator that they are, in fact, fakes. Looking inside would be an ultimate determiner of course. I think it would be funny and totally ironic if someone did some tests and found them to sound better than an SM57...(not that this would be too hard to do )...

Someone should do this and post clips. Seriously.

Don't be knocking no 57's man.

Best.

Mic.

Ever.

[Subsonic808]

I got suckered into buying one of these on ebay for €35. The seller was supposedly in the UK. A week after I paid for it I received a mail from ebay saying that the seller was a fraud. I thought the money was gone, but then two days later I got a package from China. I had to pay import taxes on that f*****g piece of s**t.
At first I went ballistic, but then I thought what the hell. It ain't worth the hassle trying to get a refund, so I decided to give it a try.
The thing looked almost real, it even sounded better than I expected, but not nearly as good as an original.
A couple of months later some idiot decided to steal one of my 57s at a gig. The one he took was the fake. I wasn't even mad...

[Fleaman]

Wow, what a story!

[andychamp]

Originally Posted by stickers

how many people just looked at their 57s, i know i did.

I did.
2 good, 1 fake.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by dwarves88

I

I just went through all of mine and they seem all the same, but one of them has a extra key hole in it (like above). I think it is old as dirt, so not sure if it is fake or not. I could try them out but because one is so old I am sure it sounds a little different. I will keep a eye on that one. Might just turn out to be me ached Chinese secret!!!


Glenn

[impact studios]

Hi

Great post....Just checked mine that i bought on Ebay a few weeks ago....
Glad to say mines okay checking against your pics....

Thanks again...Paul

[snüzz]

I just went through all of mine and they seem all the same, but one of them has a extra key hole in it (like above). I think it is old as dirt, so not sure if it is fake or not.

i don't think so. i just went through mine and one of my old ones (i've had it for 15 years plus it was used when i bought it) has the extra key hole like the fake ones and the fonts are different. it does weigh the same as a 57 should. so i wonder if they modeled those fakes after an older 57 design?

[dwarves88]

hey everyone thanks for your comments. As you can see i've gone into as much detail as i can about the mics so that noone else gets caught up in the mess i'm in. As i've only owned 1 real sm57 which was made recently i don't know the in's and out's of the wiring/transformers/mic features that were around 10, 20 or 30 years ago, but aslong as people can recognise a fake then i'm glad the humble and original sm57 will sit nicely in everyone's studio's ready to track that perfect take when that time of the month arrives.

[slaveern]

According to Shure's website LCE has the 3/8 adapter for "European style" mic stand, and LC just stands for 'less cable' - funny they throw in a cable. OTOH, is there any remote possibility that these are manufactured and marketed for a 3rd world country or something?

Some more stuff from Shure's forum:
---
The SM57 "microphone" used to come in two different "packages". One was the SM57-CN which included a standard, 7 meter, XLR to XLR mic cable. The other one was the SM57-LC which came without a cable - just the mic and stand adapter.

The SM57 microphone included with both packages is the same. Just packaged differently. A few years ago the package that included the cable (SM57-CN) was discontinued and we continued to sell just the less cable (LC) version.

So to answer your question, when you hold the mic in your hand, you hold a SM57 model, but Shure stock item number is SM57-LC.

[Jay Kahrs]

Wow. CraZy.

Shure & Sennheiser made a huge bust of counterfitters several years back but I guess they're still out there... not suprising at all since those fake 57's probably cost about $2 to build IF that.

Love the pictures of them sitting on the scale, the fakes weigh half as much as the real ones! If that isn't a tip off...

So you said that you bought these from a local dealer? Where did THEY get them from?!?