The main problem with my Vega was that the neck was attached to the body with dowels, apparently a cost-saving measure. The neck joint was not stable and in the early 1980′s I had it reset by a luthier in Vermont. It held for a while, but continued to be unstable, and the action on the guitar was never very playable. I had given up on the Vega until recently, when I brought it to Owen Davidson, a luthier in Northampton, Massachusetts. Owen performed major reconstructive surgery on the neck joint, sawing off the neck where it joined the body (it had been glued with epoxy during the first reset) and creating a bolt-on neck. He also replaced the saddle, installed a new pickguard, and adjusted the action to where it is playable again. I now use the Vega mainly for open tunings and slide, and the fact that the action is a bit higher than I prefer for fingerstyle playing (I have a Martin 00-18v and a Taylor 415 set up this way) makes it perfect for this style of playing. It has a very clean, almost “crisp” sound, possibly related to the fact that the guitar, in Owen’s words, is “lightly built” (probably a synonym for “cheap”). For this reason I don’t string it with anything heavier than light gauge strings (D’Addario Phosphor Bronze).
Hi I have a brochure of Vega by Egmond Guitars in Netherlands and own a V446 which is a bit unstable and prone to bellying behind the bridge – solution – use light strings (originally fitted with Martin medium 150′s as per the brochure) and leave it with no string tension every so often and it pops back as does the tone . Give me an email and I’ll forward them to you. I’m suprised it is a dowelled neck rather than a mortice and tenon joint.