Wayne, It could be a ton of things, yes, neck warpage, worn out finger board, truss rod frozen or broken,loose fretts, worn out fretts, bad binding, broken machine heads, and if it's an electric guitar, electronic problems.bad pots, bad pickups, bad controls, let me put it this way i would never buy a guitar sight unseen, but i will buy a drum sight unseen, to many things can be wrong with a guitar without playing it first. i have sold around 10 high end guitars but these where turn key instruments and all in excellent condition they were take em out of the case and play and smile guitars,,Yes Sir

As in a pain in the neck I take it.

My son is having a ball with his el cheapo $200 Epiphone, but he has got his eye on a Gibson Les Paul...

His teacher says.. "New or vintage doesn't matter ... you can still end up with a very expensive canoe paddle"

Hmmm.. I don't like the sound of that... but I guess we have all seen at least one nice floor tom being used for a trash can.. :)

Lest we forget Big Headed Ego Sweat. It usually drips into those hard to clean areas just under and between the pickups and pick guard. Sweat contains salt and this builds up over time and can work it's mojo under there. Just something to check if it's of decent value.

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I can agree and disagree with your sons teacher. By that I mean yes, you can indeed spend several hundred or thousands on a top name guitar and not get the quality you'd expect. This is particularly true of US made guitars on the market currently.

Japanese and Korean guitars however, have come a long way in the last 20 - 30 years. They use modern CNC machinery which makes the tolerances much closer than they were years ago.

A well cared for vintage guitar of good quality will be an investment. These days however, you need a 2nd mortgage to buy a vintage Gibson, Fender or Rickenbacker from the 60's, so unless you find the rare closet classic where the owner has no clue of it's market value, be prepared for 5 or 6 figure price tags.

If your son want's a Les Paul, do yourself a favor and check out Agile guitars (www.rondomusic.com). The higher end Agiles (in the $350.00 and up range) are Korean made and are of excellent quality. I own an Agile AL 3k (about $400.00 with shipping) and it is a beautiful instrument. I own 2 other Agiles and they are also of superb quality. Check out the reviews on Harmony Central.

Many have compared them to Epiphones costing twice as much, and feel the quality is equal to, or better than the Epi's. A few have even dared compare them to true Gibson Les Pauls in the $1000.00 or so range and feel the same way.

The main complaint these days with the higher end US guitars is that the quality varies wildly within a given model. Pick up 3 different but equally priced Fender American Standard Strat's and they all feel different, none of them are set up well and there's a good chance you'll find a flaw somewhere, either physical or cosmetic. In my opinion, that's unacceptable for a $1k dollar guitar.

I've played guitar since I was 16 or so. I've had everything from vintage Les Pauls to vintage Fenders and even a few high end contemporary guitars in my hot little hands. Some were great, others were not. After playing and owning a couple of Agiles, I don't feel the lust i used to have for those $2k to $3k guitars any longer.

Sure, I'd grab a 59' Les Paul in a heartbeat if they were selling them for $1000.00, but at $200,000.00 for a good, clean condition guitar, I'll just play my cheap Korean guitar and ignore the name on the headstock :)

Man we are losing the original thread here, but to comment again, I collect and sell vintage guitars and amps, and big daddy hit some points on the money, the current gibson company makes literally make musical firewood, meaning JUNK!!!! i have a real 1961 les paul SG, not a reissue, the crap that gibson is calling les pauls, sg's,es's are not one bit like the real gibson company, the nashville guitars are completely buit differently now cnc'd machined bodied, hormone grown wood, a guy was have a discussion about this subject the other day he had his 1961 SG reissue custom shop, $3000.00guitar, when we put his guitar in my case it fit very loosely, he was stunned at the differences in my real 61 to his reissue guitar, the were completely different guitars, the new ones have a completely different neck angle and radius, and this is just the gibsons, the fenders and ric's a whole chapter could be written on them to. also to add to this from another thread, about vintage drum prices getting to the level of vintage guitars, IT WILL never HAPPEN!!!!! the day i see a vintage drum pull down $300.000 to 1 million dollars, I hope i'm not alive

I don't think the thread lost it's direction. When talking about vintage vs. modern guitars and each having their issues, I think it's valid to point out that the Korean's are presently kicking our collective butts when it comes to quality.

As for a direct answer to the original post - "what is the main concern when shopping for vintage guitars?"

There is no one word answer. Everything Vintagemore2000 said is true, but it's not a complete list. How about adding counterfeit guitars to the list? Just like we see with the occasional vintage drum (Radio Kings seem to be a favorite of the fakers), there are folks out there selling fabricated vintage guitars.

The list goes on, but I gotta run to rehearsal :)

I think were both saying the same thing, and yeah your correct, and I was wrong about loosing the original thread, there are far more guitar players out there than drummers, so the real horror exist that the guitar you bought sight unseen or not educated enough to know what your looking at is a fake, it is very real,I do like rickenbackrews vintage line those are good guitars, but gibson, and fender have gone greatly down hill,and yes there are some mighty fine import guitars,but there are awesome guitars being built here in the ole US to, just not the recongized name brands<<

Agreed - A 59' Les Paul however will still fetch big bucks even if it's not the best one ever made. The vintage guitar market has gone through the roof price-wise. It's collectors, not players doing this.

Take 70's Fender guitars for instance. Quite possibly the worst run of guitars (thanks CBS) until some time in the 80's when the quality started to go up again. Yet some 70's Fenders are selling for big bucks.

I guess some might say the same about Black Beauties and their high price tags, but the vintage drum market is much more reasonable overall than guitars.

Sad really... the last US made electric I purchased was in the mid 90's. A PRS Standard. Wonderful guitar. Well made, sounded great, played nice, etc... I sold it because I just wasn't playing it much compared to my other axes. Since that time, I've purchased imports because the bang for the buck is just way better than with US made guitars.

Heck, my Japanese made Fender Telecaster was purchased in the late 90's for $250.00. The same guitar now fetches between $600.00 and $800.00 used on eBay. I'm old enough to remember a time when Japanese guitars were considered beginner or throwaway guitars. Now they are appreciating in price and some players prefer the Japanese "Vintage Style" Fenders to the US made ones saying that they are closer to the true vintage models.

Don't even get me started on the Chinese Gibson Les Paul thing... ugh.