Shure SM57's FAKE !!!!!!! ?????

[cosmos]

hi,

i need your help here, i bought 4 sm57's, 2 from seller no 1, 2 from no 2 . both from ebay.

i noticed that in package 1, the case is shiny black, on the botton of the mic theres 3 small holes, 1 screw 2 for the XLR connector, the sticker on the top of the mic is shiny black with small fonts.

package no 2 : the case is 1 inch larger, black matte color, only 2 holes on the bottom, 1 screw, 1 for the XLR connector, top of the mic, matte sticker with larger fonts of Shure.


inside the mic !!! :

package no 1 : brown plate, 2 wires, orange & blue.
package no 2 : while \ light green plate, 2 wires, green % yellow

they are both weight exactly the same !

WHATS GOING ON HERE ??? which is fake ? both packages was purchused from high feedback sellers.

$100 fake mic ??? does people gone crazy ?

i need your help here !

[PDC]

Originally Posted by cosmos

hi,

i need your help here, i bought 4 sm57's, 2 from seller no 1, 2 from no 2 . both from ebay.

i noticed that in package 1, the case is shiny black, on the botton of the mic theres 3 small holes, 1 screw 2 for the XLR connector, the sticker on the top of the mic is shiny black with small fonts.

package no 2 : the case is 1 inch larger, black matte color, only 2 holes on the bottom, 1 screw, 1 for the XLR connector, top of the mic, matte sticker with larger fonts of Shure.


inside the mic !!! :

package no 1 : brown plate, 2 wires, orange & blue.
package no 2 : while \ light green plate, 2 wires, green % yellow

they are both weight exactly the same !

WHATS GOING ON HERE ??? which is fake ? both packages was purchused from high feedback sellers.

$100 fake mic ??? does people gone crazy ?

i need your help here !

You could have bought new mics for $69, why would you buy used ones for $100? Or was it $100 for multiple mics?

[cosmos]

all of them they were new for $99 each ... both shipped from the US ...

**** it, i dont care about the rip off, shit happens ...now i dont know which is real and which is fake ...

[flail19]

Originally Posted by PDC

You could have bought new mics for $69, why would you buy used ones for $100?

musicians friend, sweetwater, zzzounds, guitar center, 8th street all sell them for $99. Where do you get them for $69???? You might want to lay off the guy.

[cosmos]

god, GearSlutz forum, nobody have an original SM57 that i can compare with my crap here ??? i have 4, 2 are fake, i dont know which ....

[londontown]

Originally Posted by cosmos

god, GearSlutz forum, nobody have an original SM57 that i can compare with my crap here ??? i have 4, 2 are fake, i dont know which ....

They may all be real, different production years and all that? Do they sound different?

[Jim vanBergen]

different production years, paint, some used three wires, now only 2... now all tooling & fabrication is in Mexico.

Does it say Behringer on it somewhere? Unless it has Chinese markings, it's probably one of about sixty possible Sm57 variations.

Jim

[cosmos]

Originally Posted by londontown

They may all be real, different production years and all that? Do they sound different?

thats the problem, i dont have the option to hear them, all my gear will be shipped overseas ...

they are identical, but i just noticed that on the inner case theres a sticker " made in china " , now to get thing more complicated, on Yahoo pictures, all the SM57's loos like the china production ... im going crazy !

[AlexLakis]

Well, heck, if you can't plug them in and hear them, then what's the problem?

I don't think there's much profit involved in making "fake" SM57s...I'd say you just have different revisions. Don't sweat it!

[gigantorbuzz]

theres a whole thing on ebay about fake 57s, do a search on ebay for 57s and youll see link about "Spotting Fake SM57s"

[gigantorbuzz]

here i did it for ya:

Use caution when purchasing a SM57, SM58, or Beta 57 or 58 online. Ebay has been flooded with scam auctions for these mics. If you are looking for a brand new one, make sure you buy it from an established US based seller with good feedback specifically for selling microphones. Watch out for the sellers from China with private feedback that are selling these mics for far less than US dealers. You will end up with counterfeit mics that will look good but will not perform like the real thing. Even worse are the thieves that are listing these mics as 24 hour buy it now auctions at outrageously low prices using hijacked inactive accounts. Look at the sellers feedback. If they have not been active, or have only been buyers, or have not sold microphones in the past, and are suddenly listing a ton of Shure mics, Stay away and report it to Ebay. They will take your money and you will get nothing. Another good tip-off is when a seller claims to be in the US but writes instructions with a heavy Oriental accent and claims he will ship EMS at a high shipping rate. These are no-brainers. If a deal looks too good to be true, it is. I have been reporting these scams to Ebay but they are extremely slow in responding. By the time they wake up and stop the auction, the seller may have already made a bunch of BIN sales. Ebay likes us to think that buying online is safe, but if you are not extremely cautious, buying on Ebay can be about as safe as a midnight stroll through downtown Baghdad.

[AlexLakis]

Wow, I had no idea. Didn't think many people bought used 57s since they're so cheap new, and I figured more scammers would be counterfeiting Neumanns and the like...

A nice heads up for those considering!

[cosmos]

yea, a fake for sure ... well, i need a hammer & screw driver, maybe ill manage to make a good "Chillum" from those mic's ...

[T.RayBullard]

Originally Posted by cosmos

yea, a fake for sure ... well, i need a hammer & screw driver, maybe ill manage to make a good "Chillum" from those mic's ...


t

maybe if you lay off the "chillum" you wont buy fake mics.

[Reptil]

nah!

(to OP: Did you contact Ebay? And did you start a dispute? You have to do that within a certain timeframe, I believe it is six weeks. oh and post in the scam warning thread. ppl. see that. Nail the SOB to the cyberwall!)

[cosmos]

Originally Posted by T.RayBullard

maybe if you lay off the "chillum" you wont buy fake mics.

LOL , are you crazy ??? never ....

ive checked with ebay, the seller was from the US with 600+ feedback raring, ebay claming that a third party used his account . i filed a dispute with paypal.

[PDC]

Originally Posted by flail19

musicians friend, sweetwater, zzzounds, guitar center, 8th street all sell them for $99. Where do you get them for $69???? You might want to lay off the guy.

I am not doggin" the man. It read to me like he bought them used. Maybe that was because of "ebay" being mentioned.

I don't buy my gear from those places you mentioned. Well, GC in a pinch. I do spend a ton at Full Compass, Sound Productions in Dallas and a couple of others.

GC/MF has some of the stoutest buying power in the industry. When I worked there in my college days, we bought 57s for around $39 each. This was in the 80s. Not much has changed since then. Retail and street are the same. So they are making some killer profit. Other dealers can't buy below end column, maybe buying a 58 for $69, because of their limited sales. I have purchased my 57s for $69. If you haggle I am "Shure" you could too.

Maybe this guy got some mics from China. Shure and Sennheiser got some help and busted a manufacturer making clones. There are some other companies making knockoffs that look just like them. Maybe a dealer is knowledgable about it, maybe not.

[warhead]

We got yelled at for selling SM57's for $69.99 a few years ago...just a tad below MAP ya know. It sure brought traffic to our site!

War

[bigbone]

Originally Posted by gigantorbuzz

here i did it for ya:

Use caution when purchasing a SM57, SM58, or Beta 57 or 58 online. Ebay has been flooded with scam auctions for these mics. If you are looking for a brand new one, make sure you buy it from an established US based seller with good feedback specifically for selling microphones. Watch out for the sellers from China with private feedback that are selling these mics for far less than US dealers. You will end up with counterfeit mics that will look good but will not perform like the real thing. Even worse are the thieves that are listing these mics as 24 hour buy it now auctions at outrageously low prices using hijacked inactive accounts. Look at the sellers feedback. If they have not been active, or have only been buyers, or have not sold microphones in the past, and are suddenly listing a ton of Shure mics, Stay away and report it to Ebay. They will take your money and you will get nothing. Another good tip-off is when a seller claims to be in the US but writes instructions with a heavy Oriental accent and claims he will ship EMS at a high shipping rate. These are no-brainers. If a deal looks too good to be true, it is. I have been reporting these scams to Ebay but they are extremely slow in responding. By the time they wake up and stop the auction, the seller may have already made a bunch of BIN sales. Ebay likes us to think that buying online is safe, but if you are not extremely cautious, buying on Ebay can be about as safe as a midnight stroll through downtown Baghdad.

A couple of weeks ago i did buy a beta 57 from one of these ''chinese'' seller on e-bay for 59 $,,,e-bay cancel the auction sending me a e-mail that this couldl be a scam,
i did send a e-mail to the seller, and he said that he desn'y know what happend
5 days after, i did recive the mic in the mail,EMS mind you........ i was sure that if was a fake, so i went
to the music store, open the mic (same part)....A/B the mic with one in the store, and it sound the same ( mind you it's 160$) ...........so i guess i was lucky,
i'm not encourage you do do that,but when i did tell my story to the store manager,
he told me that sometime on e-bay, peoples will buy container of stuff,and sell it back without the accord of the maker of thoses goods, i'm not saying that you don't have to be careful........but i guess i was lucky.
And another thing about the guys who charge you a couple of $$$ to spot a fake mic
if he was SO incline to protect you, he will do it for free i guess........
So i guess the moral is always be carefull on e-bay............

[ImJohn]

I have a SM57 I bought several years ago from American Musical Supply. If I screw it apart in the middle there is one yellow and one green wire like your package #2. I think mine is a reissue made in Mexico but I'm not sure (no pun intended).

I also unscrewed the XLR connector and there is a red and blue wire going to it.

Best of luck!

[digibird]

Buy all your Shure mics from here from now on:

http://northernsound.net/Sales/mics/frame.html

You will get a great price and be very happy.

My last 2 from them were the Beta 87a and the SM7b. Both excellent mics.

No BS/spam, just a very happy customer. Have fun.

[DarkSky]

Four of the SM57 mics here were purchased from a Shure dealer within the past 18 months and they fit your description of the second pair you purchased on ebay.

If both the pairs of mics you purchased were supposed to be new and recent production, then the first pair sound suspect.

[TheArchitect]

Originally Posted by warhead

We got yelled at for selling SM57's for $69.99 a few years ago...just a tad below MAP ya know. It sure brought traffic to our site!

War

You got yelled at for ADVERTISING 69.99. Thats what MAP is, minimum advertised price. You can sell for what ever you want. Shure has their money

[jdier]

Originally Posted by flail19

musicians friend, sweetwater, zzzounds, guitar center, 8th street all sell them for $99. Where do you get them for $69???? You might want to lay off the guy.

It is about timing. I have bought for $99, $89 and $79. Most recently it was from Music123 packaged with an SM57 t-shirt for $89 during their free shipping special. The first 3 I bought I paid $79 for three after calling up one of the online vendors and asking if there was any special pricing (I bought $1800 worth of stuff that day, so I may have paid more for some other things.)

Yes, they are typically $99, but if you keep checking, you can find the deals.

Jim

[aussie_techie]

i dont think ive tried 2 57 or 58 that sound the same. they always have the similar 57 sound you can always always tell the sound from a real one from a fake one (like the korean JTS things) but never the same they have a pretty wide manufacturing tolerence.

[TheArchitect]

Originally Posted by ImJohn

I have a SM57 I bought several years ago from American Musical Supply. If I screw it apart in the middle there is one yellow and one green wire like your package #2. I think mine is a reissue made in Mexico but I'm not sure (no pun intended).

I also unscrewed the XLR connector and there is a red and blue wire going to it.

Best of luck!

Not really a reissue. They just move the manufacturing to Mexico at one point.

[joeq]

what a strange phenomenon.

for someone to make and sell a fake SM 57 seems like a lot of trouble and risk for a small profit- kind of like making a counterfeit one dollar bill.

[pan60]

wow i never knew their where counterfeit sm-57's.
holly cow when will it end.

[stagefright13]

Well here is a picture of real ones. One is 5 years old and the others I bought from my friends store about a month ago. He is a shure dealer... They all look identical.

http://stagefrightonline.com/57