Ventura Howard Roberts

Mid '70's Ventura Howard Roberts Custom. 22 frets, laminated Maple Top, Back and Sides. Single Gold Humbucker mounted to the neck, with Master Volume, Treble and Mid Range Rolloffs, W/B/W triple Binding on all edges, except neck, which is single bound w/White. Bound Rosewood neck, with notched MOP inlays at 1,3,5,7,9,12,15,17,19,and 21.This is a full hollowbody Jazz guitar, sized as an ES-175 would be, with a sharp florentine cutaway on a 16" x 3" body. Tuners are early Gotoh "Star" sealed, bridge is Ebony with MOP inlays and the tailpiece is a very nicely done L-5 replica, with "Varitone" tension adjustment on the tail, just like Gibson's version. All hardware is gold plated. Scale length is a very Fendery 25.5", and the neck is quite thin and shallow, very comfortable to play ...

Nice Warm, articulate almost acoustic like tone to this guitar. I can actually play it without amplification, and it sounds like a shallow bowl Ovation or travel acoustic guitar. I use it with an variety of amps, mainly Tweed Fenders and it's got "The Tone" ... There are two rolloff controls for tone, one for Treble and one for Midrange, but they don't seem to have such a dramatic impact on the tone. I guess I'm used to active EQ's with large sweeps, but these are effective nonetheless ....As far as a true, Hollowbody Jazz guitar tone is concerned, there is NONE better than this guitar for my personal tastes. I"m a big Howard Roberts fan, and every time I pick this guitar up, I can hear a little of his Tone in it...

Wonderfully built guitar, with great tone woods, and a professional execution. This is the best of High quality Japanese guitar building, and I've not seen a Gibson from this era ('70's) that was even close to the quality displayed here

Glossy sunburst
Hollow, single cutaway
Stop tail piece, wooden bridge
Tuners are Gibson star copies
22 frets
Laminated top
volume, two tone
pick-up attached to neck--had mine rebuilt by Lindy Fralen

Sounds great for what I do with it which is mostly guitar solo, chord melody, guitar/vocal, straight-ahead gigs. I liked the sound before the pickups were rebuilt and like it now.

Plays great. tiny neck.

Survived so far. Pickup was bad when I got it and I finally had it repaired. Other than that, no complaints.

NA

I love this guitar.

Finish: light tobacco sunburst
Body Style: archtop jazz box, fully hollow
Bridge: floating wood bridge
Tuners: sealed tuners w/ star emblem at back, good quality
Neck: medium scale, rosewood fingerboard with binding
Manufacture: Japanese, likely Matsumoku factory, probably c. 1974
Controls: one volume, two tone pots for bass and treble boost
Pickup config: one humbucker "clip on" at neck joint
This is a heavy instrument.

I play roots, blues and country and this guitar is perfect for that.
No effects - I just plug it right in to a variety of good clean reverb amps, such as my Fender Pro Reverb and Peavey Bandit.
The guitar's electronics are noiseless, and the amplified sound is very natural. Not a lot of variety here, just good tone.

Classic Japanese craftsmanship, no visible flaws and the finish is still pristine 30+ years after it was made
Neck and body are totally bound and the binding is in perfect condition
Frets are totally good and the fingerboard is like new

This is a well-made guitar that I use for recording sessions and regular blues gigs. I leave it at home when I attend jam sessions, just to minimize any potential damage when there's lots of guitar idiots running around; for that, there's always my Peavey T-60 or my Harmony archtop.

Finish is amazingly resilient, basically no flaws except a little buckle rash on the back. I believe this guitar was little-played before I got it.

One issue; the strap button at the heel broke off when the guitar was shipped to me, and the screw broke in the wood, so I have to get it tapped and replaced -- this was a packing issue and doesn't reflect on construction or quality.

Ventura as a guitar make is long-gone but their guitars remain in circulation. Notably good are their "Bruno" model classical guitars and their excellent 335 copies (non bolt-on).

I bought this guitar to replace the very same model stolen from me in 1982 in west Texas when I was playing folk music with the only two hippies left in town.

For the last 25 years I wanted to replace it and finally bought this one online; same thing with my Vantage semi-hollow 335 copy, bought last year to replace another stolen guitar. In the case of this Ventura, the original one was given to me by my best friend's dad when he saw that I was headed down the guitar path, and I loved that guitar from day one. When it got ripped off, it was a total bummer and I never quite forgot about it. Having this guitar now somehow brings me some peace about losing the first one, and about those crazy early music days in general. Now if I could only get my punk rock jacket back from the time our tour van was ripped off in SF... hmmmmm.

To me, this purchase was totally worth it and of the highest value to me.

Probably 70's Japanese 22 Fret Lam Top Volume and Two Tone Contros.
Floating Humbucking.Passive
Mostly Flame Maple front/back.
Body is ES175 size and profile except no F-holes. Single Oval Soundhole.
Floating Compensated Bridge with Deco Styled L-5 type tailpiece.
Typical Gibson Copy "Star" Tuners.
3-piece Maple lam neck, Thin and quite wide.

I play solo jazz standard chord melody. It's good for that.
I'm a GUITAR/AMP guy. No effects.
Noise can be overcome
Chimey so I modified it with an ebony tailpice and a Bartolini JS6 or old clone of a Johnny Smith Pickup.
The sound is totally honest and natural. It can be muffed down to thick and dark jazzy with it's own controls and a Polytone or Princeton/Deluxe Reverb (that's what I use.)
I'd like to have the REAL and ACTUAL description of what the tone controls are supposed to do. I've heard they are treble and bass "Roll off" but maybe one of mine are hooked up Backwards?

This is a stout guitar. The hardware is crap. I changed most of it.
This guitar is in amazing condition but has obviously been around the block several times. The frets are WORN but it still plays great. I've thought about refreting but that's rediculous until I starts to affect it's playability.

I'm the customer and the support so I give this catagory a Solid 10

Playing 6 years.
I've had a few of these Gibson HR copies and I like this one the best but I'd probably never find another Ventura? Venturu.
I dig it's natural tone. I wish I knew what the tone controls were supposed to do. I just play and set them. I play it Over my
'71 ES 175D. It does everything it can do that I want. But of course I've modified it with a different pickup/bridge/tailpiece/knobs. It's now a pretty serious jazz box.