NOGD: Ventura, Bruno

I've had this guitar around the house for a number of years. It was a gift from a family friend who got it new, never learned to play and forgot about it. The bridge was coming off so I left it in it's cardboard case in the mudroom of our house by the back door. This thing has seen the worst of it. Cold, heat, sun, moisture...

One of my bandmates used to own a guitar shop and did repairs. Another bandmate is a teacher and needed a guitar to use for class room stuff, so I left it with ex-guitar repair bandmate at the beginning of the school year to fix the bridge. Well the school year's over, so I called him and said, "Hey, I got a gig and I really need to use that guitar. Can you get it to me by then?" Lo and behold, he got it to me last night at practice.

Today I strung it up, disassembled the adjustable bridge lubing the moving parts so it would work and got it set up. There is a hump in the neck where it joins the body. It's not really worth it to me to have that fixed, so I got the action up to the point where it doesn't fret out and tunded to Open G and got the slide out. Wow! This is fun! I plugged it into my practice rig and added a little delay and turned the Tube Screamer off and on a few times. This is going to be a real useful guitar.

I may add a piezo pickup and run it into my acoustic blender, or I may just use electric guitar strings to get the wound strings a little louder. It was cheap, it's had a hard life, but it's been resurected and it's going to get some serious stage time. I've named it "Bruno Ventura" since that's the company and model name.

Hmm...

- Unfashionable brand name... Check.

- Less than perfect cosmetics... Check.

- Not a dreadnaught/nought... Check.

- Built-in magnetic pickup and controls... Check.

I thought I had overcome my GAS, but this sure punches all my buttons. I wanna hear it!

Ventura was one of the "better" copy guitars from the 70s. (I think all the MIJ's were made in the same 5 factories with parts from 5 more companies so take that with a grain of salt) Anyway I had a Ventura "Country Gentleman" copy for a long time and it was a really nice guitar. I have a Jazz bass of theirs too and it's pretty good. You done great there.

Hmm...

- Unfashionable brand name... Check.

- Less than perfect cosmetics... Check.

- Not a dreadnaught/nought... Check.

- Built-in magnetic pickup and controls... Check.

I thought I had overcome my GAS, but this sure punches all my buttons. I wanna hear it!

It's a little dark sounding with the pickup placed where it is, but it sounds surprisingly good for what I'm doing with it. It sounds real good unplugged, too. The intonation is much better then I would have suspected. It can double as a campfire guitar. I'm using it on a gig this weekend and we're going to record it, so I'll let you know where we post the audio/video.

I had a Ventura 12 String that was one of the sweetest sounding guitars I ever had. In fact, a gal that had a gibson 12 string wanted to trade me guitars. I sold it when money got tight and I sure wish I had her back.

Another discovery. The tone control is wired backwards. I just instinctivly dimed both the knobs and plugged it into an amp. No wonder it seemed so muddy sounding. There's plenty of treble. Enough that I'll have to dial some back.

I gigged with it today. We played the 40th Anniversary party for the local Food Co-op. I did a couple of songs on the Ventura and I think it was the highlight of the set. I played slide through my regular pedalboard and amp. Just used a little delay. I'm really diggin' this guitar. Open G is fun!