Ventura Les Paul Copy

1975 Ventura Les Paul copy made in japan (probably Matsomuko)standard
22 fret fingerboard with a twist! its hardrock maple! Its has a flame
maple cap with natural blond finish, cap is not solid carved though,
more like thin veneer glued and bound to main body, but done right!
this lightens it up a bit (a welcome relief compared to its counterpart) and does not seem to lack for sustain, even with a bolt
on neck! neck is an 11 on a scale from 1\10! never seen another cheap
guitar that could compare for feel, action, fret buzz or anything else
for that matter! if this guitar has any delinquincys, the neck makes
up for them! really!! I prefer this guitar to anything I've had yet
or have now for that matter as far as playability goes, and that includes my '80 gold top Deluxe! think I've lost it? JUST PLAY ONE!!
as far as stock hardware, well, you can't have everything! the stock
humbuckers are trash, the machine heads came from the same place!
the gold plated hardware didn't hold up long at all, but the stock
pots and virtually all of the original wiring are still perfect!

How does it sound? out of the box you have a good project guitar!
I know this because I got it brand new, un-touched in '75 for a christmas present. for the elementary years, I didn't know what a
great guitar sounded or played like, It was some years later before I
came to this. After installing a mighty-mite distortion PU in the
bridge, and a Dimarzio PAF in the neck, changing the bridge and tailpiece with with a schaller up-fit for metric applications, a gibson toggle switch, and a set of grover roto-matics w\pearl buttons,
well...simply put, SHE SCREAMS!!! if you like harmonics! this is
harmonic heaven! full rich sustain that would make tom scholz proud!
I've had her for 28 years and... I think I'll keep her!!

Fit and finish from the factory was..good..not great. the neck was
perfect though! I had to remove the "closehanger gauge" strings, and
dial in the string height a bit, pickups didn't matter as I mentioned
earlier, they are no longer with us! cosmetically though, no problems.
It features the "open book" headstock complete with Gibson diamond and
twin stripe pinstriping around the border, right down to the "CUSTOM"
truss rod cover, trapazoid block inlays (black) adorn the maple fingerboard, bookmatched flame maple veneer (beautiful tight pattern)
and black\white 5-layer binding around the top side. This guitar is
loved by everyone who see's and plays it!

Yes! I have played the club scene with this guitar for several years
mainly as a backup though, (I was ashamed of the name in my youth)
I played a '78 pro-deluxe up front that didn't play as well! but I
was more concerned about image at that point in time! go figure?
It has a bullet-proof finish! still looks new on the front and right
up the neck except for slight discoloration from string bending. Not
bad at all for a cheap "knock-off" approaching 30! I want say it is
better for the long haul than the original it portrays, but, that also
depends on the owner\player, I pamper all of my guitars!

I never go back to the mfg'r on anything! If I can't fix it, its
because it ain't worth fixing! and I'll right it off as education!

Overall, It is my first real guitar, I got it when I was 15, I'm 43
now and I currently own 17 guitars (mostly jap models) I do have an
80 model Gibson "gold top" that I also favor! along with a couple of
strats and one tele (mexican model) throughout my club days, I have owned and sold about 30 or so guitars, nothing on the extravagant
end though! mainly middle of the road models (I'm pretty conservative)
I not so much a collector, just an average joe player (eddie still rules) If I lost this guitar, I would be sick! this is a very unique
guitar that is far better than was intended for the price.

Japanese made sometime in the early 70's I guess. Flame maple top which appears to be plywood/veneer, maple neck, laminated, 3-piece with maple fretboard and black inserts. All-blond finish. Gold hardware and standard 2 humbuckers with 2 tone and 2 volume controls and lead/rhythm switch. Pretty guitar, basically well made, original hardware was kind of cheap. The body appears to be laminated from maple and some sort of wood with a grain like mahogany but that is light-colored. All cavity covers, pickup rings and headstock, as well as inlays on the fretboard are black.

When I originally bought it, the stock pickups were like nothing I'd ever seen, humbuckers yes, but with brass covers which were cut way to expose the pole pieces and the bobbins. One set of pole pieces were adjustable the other coil's were square studs. I cannot even remember how they sounded, I immediately replaced the bridge pick-up with a Mighty-Mite super distortion. With this, it sounded great, at least in the lead position. It served me well through my high-school band years. See additional comments in overall rating.

The action was always fantastic on this guitar, that is what attracted me to it (plus it looked cool). The action is very low and does not buzz and with the maple fretboard even I can fly on it. As mentioned elsewhere the hardware was pretty cheap. The only complaint I have is that the bolt-on neck is easy to move, by that I mean it is fairly tightly bolted, but you can change the pitch of the strings by changing the pressure exerted on the neck. The neck is thin though and a little narrower than standard, so this could be a factor. The fit between the neck and body are not the greatest. I may try to replace the screws and neck plate at some point, but it plays so nicely that for the moment I will not bother. The frets are getting a little beat, but it still plays great.

The only "gigging" that I ever did with it was in high school with my band. It did see some abuse, for sure. I also had a buddy of mine borrow it for some gigs, he liked it very much, so much that I had to go by and personally pick it up. I think he was hoping I would forget about it. Then I did something horrible with it, or I should say my parents did. When I moved out of the house, I had other guitars so I left it there. At some point they put it in the attic where it was treated to several (many? perhaps as many as 10!) years of alternate summer and winter temperatures. When I finally did retrieve it, it was still perfect as far as the finish and neck straightness, etc. WOW! I'll have to give it a 10 for that.

Never even tried to call them

I am certainly not a professional player, but I love to play and I am a tinkerer. As mentioned before, I had replaced the bridge pick-up with a mighty-mite and installed a coil tap switch early on. At some point I took a stock pickup (PAF-type) from a D'Agostino LP copy and replaced the original neck pickup with that. Until December 2002 that was they way it stayed. I got to looking at the guitar then and noting the peeling gold on the bridge and tail piece as well as the fact that my brother-in-law gave me a Seymour Duncan JB pickup, I decided to redo it. I ordered up a Gotoh bridge and tailpiece, a new jack plate and a on-on-on DPDT switch. I considered new tuners, but the old ones (while looking pretty bad) were still working quite fine. I lined the control cavity and switch cavities with brass for noise reduction, dropped in the JB pickup and DPDT wired for series-coil tap-parallel and moved the Mighty-Mite to the neck. Then I mounted up the new hardware and intonated it. The results? Amazing! I have never owned any Gibson guitars, certainly played a couple, but I never have played anything that suits me better than this one. That JB pickup wails, the guitar is silent even with your hand off the strings and it sustains forever. I think I might replace the nut as the G-string tends to bind up there and this makes keeping that string in tune a bit difficult. For a 30+ year old POS Les Paul copy that originally cost me 125 bucks, I could not be happier. If you see a Ventura hanging around somewhere, buy it! I certainly would. I will give it a 10 bearing in mind that it is a cheap copy.

I personaly like and play all styles of music (RAP is NOT music) and this ax has done it all. Good sound and plays well although the pick ups don't seem to respond as well some (age maybe?)

I have always done a full adjustment on any guitar I own for maximum performance.
Overall a quality instrument.
The gold finish has almost worn away but all hardware still works flawlessly

I hauled hay all summer to purchase this guitar 30 years ago and have been playing the hell out of it ever since and have never had the need or desire to tote a back up. I orriginally chose this guitar over a gibson les Paul because I liked the narrower neck. (I know, bad financial choice)out of all the guitars I,ve ever owned this is the one I never considered parting with and if I find another one I'll have a back up just for the hell of it!

Never needed !

I've been playing going on 40 years and have owned tons of other guitars and equipment. This truely is an old faithful friend.(and it doesn't crap in the floor!)I'm considering haveing all the hardware gold plated as the old finish has worn understandably. It may have been a little more fun with a whammey bar but that may have just been a ploblem.

i think this guitar was made in the late 60's or early 70's.i saw one exactly the same on ebay that was a 69.it has 22 frets,and the neck is pretty skinny.it has the basic humbucker/humbucker 2 tone,2 volume and 3 way switch configuration.tune o matic and stop bar tail.its a bolt on neck,rosewood colored.

it suits my music style perfectly.i play alot of punk,hardcore and really thrashy grindy stuff.i really beat the crap out of this guitar.i took out the stock pickups and replaced them with some other pickups that were much hotter,and it sounds amazing.i use ghs tnt boomer strings that are .52/.10 .i play it through a rogue tube rider head that pushes a crate gx 4x12" straight cab and a kustom leadIII straight cab.it sounds like any other les paul.i am switching the bridge pickup to a bill lawrence any day now.this thing is going to be a screamer

i am still using the original faded fold hardware (exception is the tuners,were upgraded to sealed ones).i set the intonation every time i change strings.the action is real low and real nice.no deads spots.plays like a dream.i love this guitar to death.i can wail on it for hours and it wont go out of tune,and boy do i wail

this guitar has taken a beating.i replaced the pickups,toggle switch,and tuners.the finish is real nice.i put some staplock deal things on it.i did have to relocate the back strap hole,but other than that everything is fine for a 30 year old guitar.

n/a

i have been playing off and on for about 6 years.i just started seriously again this past year.the only thing i wished i asked,is that i could have gotten it cheaper,im always out for a good deal.but i did get it for $100 out the door.the one thing i dont like is the switch placement in it,and any other les paul.i play pretty violently and i am always accidently switching pickups.i plan on moving it down by the volume/tone controls and cut the top to match the bottom horn.

if this was stolen,i would cry like a little emo boy,then go find whoever took it and beat them bloody.i have grown quite attached to this cheap little les paul.i liked it better than the 79 gibson marauder i bought just after it.