One Reason Why I Don't Like Buying Used Guitars 

It only has happened to me that sellers didn't give the full info on the condition in the classifieds. Be sure to examine those guitars closely to avoid bad surprises. F.e. some older (90s) Gibson Les Pauls and SGs have Schaller Bridges which develop an inward bow over time.

I haven’t bought a new guitar since like about two years ago. I have always bought used since it’s more practical for me to have a used broken in guitar that isn’t too expensive. I usually only buy a guitar if I can find a deal on it. Living in the US it’s easier to get the guitars you want but being honest I would rather live in Japan because they have the coolest and nicest guitars. I have two mij guitars and they play better that all my others and they are illegal in America too lol!

Happened to me twice in 50 years, but 99% of the deals were satisfactory.

I met up with a guy to trade a electric guitar for a acoustic guitar. When I got there he said that he just happened to notice that the bridge was coming off. Then asked if we could still trade. Negative!!

I always get new, it just feels so special. The only exception is if I can’t get a new one or if it’s over 2 times the price of a used one. ESPECIALLY with my superstrats

Bought most of my guitars used, luckily never had a bad experience!

I was actually going to do a trade last year for a Gibson SG Jr. I was pretty excited about it. The guy sent me photos and said it was like new, but the pictures were not perfectly clear. Having done a deal with this guy in the past, I thought it would be okay to go for it and meet up. Upon inspection of the guitar, it had about 50 dents all over it. So in the end, no deal, but it was a complete waste of time for me and definitely frustrating.

I have a 2010 LP traditional that I bought used and it is amazing... but I had a really bad experience while looking for the right LP: I posted an ad on a spanish guitarists forum saying that I wanted to buy either a Traditional or an early 2000s Standard and a guy wrote me. He was selling an incredible looking HCS traditional... Amazingly flamed top, upgraded pickups, etc; but the frets were too worn. I sent the pictures to my local luthier and he said that they would need some work in less than a year and a complete refrete in about 3-4 years. So I nicely told him that I wasn't interested. He kept on saying that the frets were ok but it ended there... or so I thought. 4 days later (new years eve and new years day included) he told me that he got the frets fixed and that he would sell it to me for 200 less euros. I asked for some pictures and to my surprise they were the same pictures that another guy sent some weeks before. I told him that somebody already sent me those and he inmediatly blocked me 🙃. I phoned the other guy to tell him what happened and he told me that this scammer wrote him a day before saying that he was interested in buying his LP and that he needed some fret pics... really shitty people out there. Glad I didn't get scammed and a glad owner of an amazing used Les Paul.

I’ve yet (hopefully never will) encountered a situation like that. The minute someone tries to be pushy like that I would back out.

Cherry is cherry, brown is brown.😁

Well, the thing is that many cherry SGs fade into brown after a while by UV. I can see it on my 1973 SG Special on the back and under the tailpiece and bridge, when I remove those 🙂 It's still cherry there, but brown on all the other visible parts. Still, the guy trying to sell that one to you should just have said it was brown.

Sometimes items aren't just as described. I never drive far for used gear even with excellent pictures. That way if I don't like it I didn't drive all day for nothing. I tend to stay close to home. I see gear on Cragslist every day that I would buy but it's beyond my driving radius. Save lots of money that way.

Bro, I had one of the 'Cherry' SG Special Faded's......a 2016 and I paid $543 for it new @ Guitar Centers 'Guitar Moronathon', Memorial Day 2016'.....no one wanted it and they just marked it down down down till they were almost giving it away. I put a Bigsby B3 on it and it was stil tied for 1st as the most acoustically dead sounding guitar I ever owned/played/touched (along w/2016 LES PAUL Special 'Faded')....sold it for what I paid for it and its strange....I somehow misss that li' POS, I mean that's pretty much what it was ....CHEEEP WOOD, PAINT, PARTS !....... but it was a GIBSON.

Always a gamble buying 2nd hand, unless perhaps from a shop.

I have not had this happen to me when I was buying, but I have sold a Gibson Gothic SG before, and the buyer accused me of saying I was selling a standard when in reality he had talked to so many SG owners he had confused himself.

More times than I want to count. Good for you for telling him… nope. Weirdest one was buying a J Bass from a guy and he was standing over me while I tried it out… like right over me. I looked up to say something and when I did there were two guys standing over me… I threw the money at the first guy and got out of there pretty quick… but I still have the bass lol.

Met with a guy telling me the guitar was in excellent condition. Get there and the guitar is full of impressions and just because the paint was not falling off the guy said that that was okay. The worst part is that it was him that drove for 50 minutes to meet me. You will never waste your time if you are just honest.

Never had this with anything music related but had it multiple times with cars when I asked if it’s rusty and they said it wasnt but the holes were big enough for rats and once when I asked if it was a damaged vehicle and they said it wasn’t only for me to drive 1.5 hours to find the airbag just stuffed in the steering wheel and glued shut

I don't know if I should feel attacked or not since my first good guitar was the worn brown one haha! My parents got it for me as a graduation gift and as i've grown I tend to like black and white guitars and gibsons that have the trapezoids.

Its funny how they get mad haha, once a guy wanted to sell a bass, in the pics (he took good angles only) it seemed ok, in person the bass was super used and in the back it even had a chipped paint, the truss rod was maxed out and the neck wrapped, he still expected me to try the bass in an amp he had, i said No, turned around and left , he was mad but hey you are trying to rip me off what did u expected?