The "Fake Guitarist" Witch Hunt: Why Social Media Can't Tell the Difference Between Editing and Fraud

Alright, listen. The internet's been losing its mind over "fake guitarists" the past few weeks. Ichika Nito just dropped an unedited one-take performance to shut down the noise. Kid Rock's defending himself against lip-sync accusations. And somewhere in a Reddit thread, someone's probably accusing a 16-year-old of "faking it" because her video had good lighting.

Here's the thing: We need to talk about what "fake" actually means. Because right now, the word's being thrown around like a pick in a dive bar—everywhere, hitting nothing, making a mess.

The Real Problem: We Can't Tell Editing From Fraud Anymore

Let me break this down. There are two different crimes being lumped into one accusation:

1. The Editing Angle
A guitarist records a riff five times, keeps the cleanest take, and posts it. Maybe they add some color correction, adjust the audio levels, throw a filter on it. That's not faking. That's production. Every record ever made is edited. Abbey Road didn't happen in one take. Hendrix's "Purple Haze" was layered and spliced. If we're calling that "fake," then every studio guitarist in the last 70 years is a fraud.

2. The Playback Angle
A guitarist stands on stage (or in front of a camera) and the audio you're hearing isn't coming from their hands. The guitar is silent, but the track is playing. That's lip-syncing. That's the Milli Vanilli move. That's actually fake.

Social media is mixing these up, and it's getting stupid.

Why Ichika Nito's One-Take Video Matters (And Why It Shouldn't Have To)

Ichika posted an unedited, single-take performance because the internet was accusing them of faking. One. Take. No cuts, no splicing, no second chances. Nailed it.

Here's what that tells me: The burden of proof just got flipped. Now, to prove you're a real guitarist, you have to perform like a circus act for the internet's approval. You can't just post a clean, edited video anymore. You have to prove your humanity by showing every mistake, every restart, every moment of struggle.

That's not accountability. That's performance theater.

The Workingman's Perspective: Why This Matters to You

Here's where I get mad on behalf of actual working musicians:

You know what a session player does? They show up, nail the part in 2-3 takes, and move on to the next song. That's the job. You're not trying to win an Oscar—you're trying to serve the song. If a guitarist records a riff six times and picks the best version, they're doing their job right. *(By the way, if you're still thinking every performance needs to be a "live, unedited" moment, you're not listening to records—you're listening to rehearsals.)*

And here's the thing: Real faking is obvious to anyone with ears.

If a guitarist is genuinely lip-syncing to a backing track, you can tell. The timing's slightly off. The hand movements don't match the audio. The "feel" is dead. It's not a mystery—it's just bad.

But editing? Clean production? That's not fraud. That's craft.

What Actually Matters

So here's my take: Judge the performance, not the production method.

Ask yourself:

• Does the player actually know how to play? Can they do it in different contexts? Can they adapt? Can they play live?
• Is the audio real? Are those actually their hands making those sounds?
• Does the song feel good? That's the only metric that matters.

If someone's lip-syncing on a big stage and pretending it's live? Yeah, call that out. That's fraud.

If someone edited a three-minute video down from six takes? Leave 'em alone. That's how music works.

The Secret Sauce

The internet wants everything to be "authentic" and "raw" and "unfiltered." But here's the secret: The best recordings in history were built in the studio, take by take, layer by layer. Hendrix didn't nail "Foxy Lady" in one shot. The Beatles didn't record "A Day in the Life" live. They edited, spliced, and rebuilt until it felt right.

If your hero guitarist had to post an unedited one-take video to prove their worth to the internet, they'd probably fail. Because that's not how music is made.

Real talk: Stop confusing perfectionism with fraud. They're not the same thing.

The Bottom Line

The "fake guitarist" witch hunt is mostly people who don't understand how music production works, accusing people who do. It's gatekeeping dressed up as accountability.

If you want to know if someone's a real guitarist, ask yourself one question: Can they play the song when the backing track stops?

Everything else is just noise.

Now go make some noise.