North Carolina Man Arrested for Selling Phony Gibson Les Pauls

Harnett Man Arrested on Charges of Selling and Possession of Fake Gibson Guitars

RALEIGH, NC. – Steven F. Sexton, 48, of Lillington was charged Friday with two felony counts of criminal use of a counterfeit trademark, following an investigation by the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Trademark Enforcement Section.

The investigation was initiated by a complaint to the Secretary of State’s Office from a victim who allegedly bought what appeared to be a “Les Paul” model Gibson brand electric guitar from Sexton.

Sexton allegedly advertised such guitars for sale in a regional newspaper. A Secretary of State Trademarks investigator found additional evidence of sales with guitars appearing to be Gibson Les Pauls, a famous line of electric guitar. The guitars were actually imported counterfeits of specific Les Paul models, complete with Gibson logos, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

One victim mentioned in the case, was a 15 year-old Cary teenager who found out his Les Paul model bought from Sexton was a fake when he became concerned with its poor quality and took it to a guitar shop, according to the Secretary of State report.

“This recent case highlights the risks to consumers when counterfeit products enter the North Carolina marketplace,” North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall said Wednesday. “In this case involving Gibson guitars, one young musician even had his dream of owning what was to him the perfect guitar, ruined by finding out what he had bought was a fake.”

A total of five counterfeit Les Paul Gibsons with cases were seized following a search of Sexton’s property, according to arrest records. In addition, two victims in the case also voluntarily turned in the guitars they had bought from Sexton in order to assist in the investigation.

“As we often say, selling counterfeit goods is a serious crime that robs legitimate manufacturers and merchants of business and brand identity. It costs governments in lost tax revenue. It opens the pipeline to criminal organizations seeking to ship merchandise into America, and in this particular case, it ruined some dreams of owning a fine musical instrument,” Marshall said.

The North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State has the statutory duty to enforce laws that protect the holders of state and federally registered trademarks.

MIDI Keyboard Controller Review Category

We're happy to roll out the MIDI Keyboard Controller category for user reviews. Until now, MIDI was mashed in with the Synth category. Eventually we will add many more categories, including Drums/Percussion and Computer Audio Hardware, with sub-categories to follow.

The existing MIDI controller reviews will live in the Synth category for the time being since it's a manual process to move them over to the new area. Going forward though, please add any MIDI keyboard reviews to the new area.
Thanks!

A new look for Harmony-Central.com

We've begun the rollout on the new site design! It's been a long time coming, and I for one am glad to see the lavender disappear. Some of the navigation has changed, but you should be able to find everything you're looking for through the top and left-hand navigation bars.

As you know there are A LOT of pages on the site (hey, it's 10 years old!), so we'll be adding the new scheme as we update pages. For now, most of the major areas of the site should have the new look. Leave your comments here and let us know what you think!

Cover Bands Beware...

Saw this being discussed in one of the forums and thought I'd mention it here. Apparently Van Halen and members of Led Zeppelin are suing a Colorado nightclub over copyright infringement because of bands playing cover songs there. Pretty weak IMO, particularly given Led Zeppelin's penchant for outright theft of old blues songs, then claiming them as their own work.

Forum upgrade/issues

By now you've all seen the updated forums, and while we've heard some complaints, most everybody seems pretty happy. A couple of issues I wanted to address and give an update on:

1. The look of the forums:
Yes, it looks like some other HC-type forums that are out there on the web. That's not intentional; it just so happens that many other sites use the default V-bulletin scheme. Once we get some template issues resolved, we will be adding some skins, and hopefully one of those will resemble the old look of the forums for you vintage-types:)

2. The search function:
*Edit: Search is now fixed!! w00t!

We appreciate everyone that makes this community what it is, and we appreciate even more you sticking with us through these changes. Rest assured our goal at the end of the day is to give you a better overall experience when you come to Harmony Central!

Another NAMM show comes to an end...

What a weekend!I know I was glued to my computer for most of it getting press releases posted to the site, and there are still many more to come. Also, if you haven't checked out the highlight videos from the show, they're posted on the Winter NAMM 2007 Theater page. Many more videos will be posted in the coming days, so check back often or subscribe to the NAMM '07 podcast feed to get the latest clips from the show delivered straight to your browser or feed reader!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from your friends at Harmony Central! Have a safe and prosperous 2007!

PA Speakers/Monitors Review Category

We've expanded our user review section into Live Sound, and the first category to go live is PA Speakers and Monitors! Now you can share with your fellow musicians what you love/hate about those new speakers you bought, and as more reviews come in, use it to help you decide which products you want to invest in.

Winter NAMM 2007 Coverage Begins

Harmony Central's Winter NAMM '07 coverage is now live! I'll be adding press releases as they come in, so check back frequently.

NAMM Anticipation

You can sense the buzz in the forums that the big daddy of industry trade shows--Winter NAMM--is fast approaching. The HC video team is getting their shooting schedule together, and the press releases are already rolling in. In the next week or so the Winter NAMM 2007 page will go live, and you'll be able to get a sneak peek at what's in store. Not from everyone, of course...some big names like to keep their new goods under wraps until the show starts, but others provide preview releases that I'll be posting. So stay tuned to the home page for the Winter NAMM link to go up!

Funny Friday Video

OK, this I just had to share:) This might as well be Michael Scott and Dwight from The Office!

Product/Trade Show Archive

Feel like a trip down Music Gear Memory Lane? The New Product/Trade Show Archive is the place to start.

Now the thousands of products Harmony Central has posted since 1995 are easily accessible, as is our coverage of NAMM, AES, and Musikmesse trade shows. It's cool to see how the site and the industry have evolved over the years, so take a look around!

AES Videos

Check out the 121st AES Show Theater page for all the product and performance videos from the 121st AES Convention in San Francisco! Not only will you get up close and personal with the hottest gear from the show, we've also got some great performance clips from Camp Freddy, "The World's Most Overachieving Cover Band" that includes Slash, Joe Satriani, Duff McKagan, Chester Bennington, Matt Sorum, Lars Ulrich, Scott Weiland, Rob Trujillo, and many more amazing players.

News and Reviews Are Down

As you know there was some site maintenance happening last night. Apparently something happened to the news and reviews database, resulting in many areas of the site being down. Don't worry, this isn't a new home page layout or anything like that...we have people working on it as I type this and hopefully we can get things going again soon.

Acoustic Guitar Reviews

In order to make the site more manageable and easier to navigate, we have created a new landing page and review category for acoustic guitars. We hope this makes it easier to find the information you're looking for!

RSS Feeds Updated

As the title would imply, we've updated our RSS Feeds to a new service. If you're currently subscribed, ditch those old feeds for the ones now posted on the RSS page. There's even one for the Guitar Hero vids, so you can be up to date when the interviews start being posted.

More Guitar Hero Vids To Come...

Almost 2,000 views for the Guitar Hero vids on YouTube in just a few days! It's nice to see the word getting out about these guys. We also shot interviews with all 10 performers, and those will be showing up in the coming days. There's an RSS Feed for the Guitar Hero videos here, as well as an iTunes podcast (link to come). The videos from these locations will be of higher quality than what you see on YouTube, so give 'em a look, and leave comments on the Guitar Hero blog.

Anton Tsygankov - Guitar Hero 2006 Finalist

Anton Tsygankov, also Russian, rocks the house at Guitar Hero 2006!

Joe Cefalu - Guitar Hero 2006 Finalist

Here's Joe's soulful rendition of Mariah Carey's "Vision Of Love."

Edward DeGenaro - Guitar Hero 2006 Finalist

Ed mesmerized the crowd with his fretless guitar playing!