[drak10687]

Ventura, Bruno V-13, model 40304
I only have my little built-in laptop web cam now to take a picture, but I'll get some better ones as soon as I get the chance... if you want

Don't know if this even counts as a vintage guitar... but I'll give it a try. Basically my dad used to play guitar when he was my age, and when we moved to "the states" (I'm from Russia), someone let him borrow this, and then just let him keep it. I picked it up a while back, but now I'm getting pretty interested in guitars, and decided to check out what this guitar was all about.

My first instinct was to go to the Ventura guitars website, as it has "Ventura" written on the headstock... but they had absolutely no models that came even close to this one. So I decided to just look up the model name, which seemed to me to be "Bruno (V-13)". What turned up is a fan site, and some forum posts. I'll just put in some quotes to make things easier:

from: http://www.angelfire.com/blues/rockinjohn/ventura/ventura_bruno.html

These pages are under development to help identify and chronicle the Ventura branded guitars that were imported to the United States from Japan by C. Bruno and Company during the period of late 1960's until early 1980's. Most of the guitars were copies of popular models from the major American manufacturers of the day. They ranged in quality from good to excellent. It is common knowledge among guitar gear junkies such as myself that the 60's and 70's were rife with Japanese copy guitars that filled a need to supply economical instruments to many aspiring young musicians, myself included

from: http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Ventura/V-13/10/1

Mahagony dreadnought, brass nut, saddle, and bridge pins. Enclosed grover style tuners, ebony bridge, ebony fingerboard, (or ebonised rosewood)All solid, x braced. dark tortoise martin style pick guard, very dark herringbone purfling, tiny Larrivee sized MOP fret markers. Gloss finish, but the tone, the Sustain!!!!! It plays very
complex jazz chords without muddying the tones, with no decay. it sounds like organ music it goes on so long. No electrics, no cutaways no frigging abalone or frills, just imppeccable sound and an understated elegance of an all mahogany Dreadnought with brass. Like Daion Heritage models. Incredible sustain. No Martin or Taylor could ever put it to shame. Truss rod neck, easy playing, great action, Says "designed in USA made in Japan".

from: http://www.8notes.com/f/35_21891.asp?spage=6

As stated in my previous post, Ventura`s were imported in the early 70`s By C Bruno of New York. They made superb copies of the entire Gibson line, including Les Pauls, ES-175`s and the flying V. Ventura then became the first victim of many that Gibson would sue over "look a likes". The Ventura line has some of the best `undiscovered" guitars around. As more people discover them, the prices will go through the roof. C Bruno is still in the Music biz in the Atlanta area. Maybe they would have more info.

Anyways, mine has some fret buzz in a couple of places, but otherwise it plays great. Unfortunately I didn't do the best job of taking care of it (leaving it all over the place without the case) through out the years, but now that I'm much less ignorant, I'll do my best (might even buy a humidifier, since my room is always heated due to it being in the semi-basement).

 

[drak10687]

For anyone who is intrested, got around to taking a better pic:


judging by all the responses, it seems it's not much of a VINTAGE guitar, so maybe this could just be moved into the accoustic guitar section...

 

[Scottone]

The 2nd guitar that I ever bought was a Bruno. Got it used from a mucisian who gigged quite a bit with it. Mine had flame maple on the sides and back and was actually a pretty nice cheapo.

Unfortunately, it got left in my parents basesment back in the 80's and got ruined by the high humidity down there.

 

[PaulS]

From the info you have gathered I would say this is definetly can be classed as a vintage guitar. Looks pretty sweet in the photo. Very Gibson-ish....