Ventura Barney Kessel

Flamed archtop with tailpiece made in the 70's with two pickups and two volume and two tone controls.

Fabulous...I don't know what the other reviewers got but mine is hot. The pickups are great, the fretboard is incredible. This guitar almost plays itself.

Guitar has been set up perfectly but I don't know by whom, factory or luthier. Beautiful finishing. Mine would be perfect except for the fact that someone played it a lot with something on their hands which affected the nect finish at frets 1 5 and 7(sounds like a blues player). I think cologne or whiskey. Beautifully made

It is still great after 35 years...not bad

out of business

45 years folk and rock. Four years jazz. Yes if were stolen I would buy another...too much fun to play

1970s Japanese model, real close copy of a Gibson Barney Kessel custom. Noticable differences are much less arch on the top and back, laminated wood on the body instead of carved spruce top, and very little figure (birdseye or tiger-striping or flame) in the woods. The body has 3-layer binding front and back, and the neck and peg-head are bound. The peghead has a good copy of the 'musical note' inlay the Gibson had.

Five-piece maple neck is thin and fast and could be adjusted for excellent action with 10/46 strings. Truss rod nut was rusty and seized at first but worked great after a dose of penetrating oil. Rosewood fingerboard looks good and has big inlays with rounded corners. The frets are small and well finished all over. Tuners are stock and work OK but the 'gold' plating is mostly gone. Paint job is great, but the model I bought second hand had chips here and there from years of playing and apparently a few minor accidents. The body and neck and headstock are very solid and put together well.

The guitar came with a non-stock tune-o-matic style bridge that was not installed properly. I replaced it with a rosewood base and rosewood bridge, which resulted in a bright and loud acoustic sound with quite a bit of flat-top detail in the sound. The rosewood bridge allowed for very acceptable intonation because of the low action.

Had to replace the pickup switch since it didn't always make good contact. I rewired it to Gibson style -- the stock wiring has the output and pickup wires reversed at the volume pots, which is common in non-US vintage instruments, but I find really compromises the electric sound. The pickups had the 'gold' plating that was nearly all rubbed off, but they sound good.

Great for chording because the scale is 24 & 3/4, not 25 & 1/2 like most jazz boxes. The neck is thin and fast, and if you like small frets you can really zip around on it for single notes. I got a very bright and detailed acoustic sound out of it thanks to that light-weight rosewood bridge on the relatively thin top of the guitar.

If you strum very hard the notes blend together because the top has a resonance at a mid-range frequency that behaves like an amp's 'presence' control turned up to 11. But if you play moderately or quietly its a very nice clear sound with decent sustain and also woody undertones like a flat-top.

Electric sound is close to Gibson hollow-body since they basically cloned the body and pickups.

The action was terrible at first, due to about 3/32" of bend in the neck (hey it was a 30-year old guitar) between the nut and the second fret. After I clamped the neck flat and tightened the truss rod, the action became excellent.

Pickups were fine, but as usual with humbuckers on an archtop they can wobble around, so I put a stop to that with some foam inside the mounting rings.

The tailpiece works fine but the wooden crest thats on it made it hard to restring the D and G, so I had to cut away a little of the metal on the underside of the tailpiece. (The alternatives were to force the wooden crest away from the tailpiece tip and risk breaking it, or to have to take off all strings when restringing so as to get access to the tailpiece from underneath.)

The wood is functional but nothing to look at compared to the premium figured maple you'll find on most of the Gibson Kessels. But its very well cut, assembled and finished. The sunburst finish is very nicely done and the inlay work, especially on the headstock, is good. They even painted the back of the headstock like Gibson did.

As mentioned before, the electronic components and wiring are OK except for the switch, but I find the stock wiring configuration is not as effective as Gibson's.

This guitar will certainly stand live playing if staying in tune is any indication. I have strummed it pretty hard and bent a lot of notes, and not had to tune much at all. The finish is good -- this model had the same salmon-skin lacquer checking where the person's arm was resting on the top that I observed on a Gibson ES-225 of comparable vintage.

I don't play gigs, but so far the Ventura has been as dependable as any of the Gibsons I've played over the years.

I don't think there's a company to deal with anymore. I got mine on e-bay, and I did get a little bit of very useful advice (about the 5mm allen key for the truss rod) from another e-bay seller who was an expert on Japanese guitars of this vintage. The work I did to set it up and rearrange the wiring was no different from what could be done on a hollow-body Gibson, although of course you wouldn't have to redo the Gibson wiring.

I've been playing and tinkering with guitars for over 25 years. I still have (and need to sell some of) 2 Gibson ES-225's, a Gibson ES-330, a 1979 SG, a Jay Turser hollow-body bass, and a Takamine J-15E.

If this guitar was stolen or lost, I'd really scour ebay to get another one. I find it has much brighter and more detailed acoustic sound than my Gibson thin-line guitars. The 225's have the clubby late-50's necks, and the 1965 330 neck is comparable to the Ventura.

I like the fast neck, the small frets, the easy access to the high frets, the light weight, and its striking appearance. I don't like the dissonant jangles the strings make between the bridge and tailpiece, but you'll get that on any hollowbody that doesn't have a wooden tailpiece.

All in all I'm very happy to pay what I did for the guitar and some parts, compared to spending 6 to 10 times more on a Gibson Barney Kessel Custom.

This is a Japanese copy of the Gibson Barney Kessel model archtop. I am not sure of the date of this particular model's manufacture, but I would guess late 60's to early 70's. I would guess that Gibson put a stop to this one as well. In comparison to other Kessel copies, many are very oddball, this one is very accurate in form. I especially know this as the store of its purchase had a real Gibson BK for sale as well. It is all maple construction, except for the fretboard, which is Rosewood. It has MOTS inlays, which, because the wood was so dry when purchased, seemed to have shrunk. This was remedied by rubbing the fretboard with fretboard conditioning oil.

I purchased this guitar, in part, in loving tribute to Barney, shortly after he passed on, as I am such as big fan of his style. I also like the fact that it's a little off beat.

As far as tone, the guitar pretty much blew. The cheap pickups were quite week and the rest of the electronic components were cheap and inadequete, but I knew I had plans for it.

The instrument had to be refretted, which I had done inexpensively by a local pro, who did a great job. The previous frets were a joke that were dangerous as well, with nasty sharp edges and all. A neck position Lollar Imperial PAF was purchased and built to my specifications (extra windings to give a warmer bass response) and installed. I disconected the bridge pickup as this is generally unused for the traditional bepop sound. I also replaced the jack, pots and switch with high quality components purchased from guitarelectronics.com. In a addition, I replaced the El Cheapo Japanese bridge with a Rosewood base Tune-o-matic one from an ES-175.

All of these mods really have seemed to do the trick. The guitar is very musical, full and warm sounding and I regret to say beats the ES-175 that I own in the tone department. I mainly play through a Fender Deluxe Reverb '65 reissue.

As far as future plans, I would say the tuners with eventually have to go. I plan to replace them with aged plastic Kluson-types. This is not that critical as I don't do alot of bends with this axe and the thing stays in tune pretty well.

The used guitar, when purchased, had, and continues to be in very good condition body, finish and neck-wise. The neck is very straight. It is also a slim, fast one which is quite a contrast to the ES-175 reissue. The body is also a bit slimmer than a 175, around 2.5" so a little more comfortable to play in that regard. My only complaint would be that the fretboard is a hair too narrow, which takes getting used to. But, I am used to it and it is not really an issue.

I think that these guitars are a great value for those who like to modify and tinker. An instrument that is 30+ years old has aged and definitley built up points for vibe. For the musician finicky about their sound, I would recommend using one of these guitars as a vehicle for experimentation and personalization.

I feel that this instrument is reliable and rock solid. I, for one am not comfortable hauling around vintage instruments. If this one were stolen I'd be upset, as it suits me very well, but I know that I could easily recreate it without breaking the bank.

N/A

My overall rating reflects the condition of the guitar when purchased, not as it is now. I mainly bought this guitar for the body, as I knew it had to be gutted.