GARDEN CITY, N.Y. &#8212 It’s a familiar tune, a sad lament actually, about a product falling victim to counterfeiters. Lately, they’ve been picking on guitars.

Last month, a Long Island music dealer was accused of selling $90,000 worth of knockoffs of classic Gibsons, a guitar known for its deep, melodic sound and used by virtually every country, rock and blues artist from Elvis to Eric Clapton.

“Unfortunately, consumers are ending up on the short end of the stick,” said Henry Juszkiewicz, chief executive of Nashville-based Gibson Guitars Corp.

Gibson guitars – inexpensive models start at about $2,000 – have a rich, distinctive sound that leads musicians to speak about them in reverent tones.

Knocking them off is a lucrative and easy business, according to Hank Risan, a founder of the online Museum of Musical Instruments who owns an extensive collection of guitars and other instruments, including a $15 million guitar once owned by Mark Twain.

“To put together a replica might cost me a thousand dollars, more or less, depending on the instruments and parts,” Risan said.

Add a fake logo and insert serial numbers that appear genuine, he said, and “the average person, and most experts, won’t know if it’s a really good forgery.”