Fellow Pickers,

I am hoping that someone can shed some light on me regarding Ventura guitars and the name Bruno. Whenever I hear someone mentioning Ventura guitars, 90% of the time they usually add the name Bruno (as in Bruno Ventura). I understand that C. Bruno and Son Inc. distributed these fine Japanese made instruments here in the good ol’ US of A in the 1970’s until they were forced to shut down due to some law suit regarding patents or something.

Anyhoo, I own 2 Ventura’s. A V25 and a V696. Each of these has the label inside of the sound hole which reads:

VENTURA
B BRUNO
MODEL___ SERIAL___

I recently saw a Ventura without the name Bruno on the label. It was a V14 and the label (which was slighty different) reads:

VENTURA
Fine Fretted Instruments
Serial No.___
Model No.___
designed in USA built in Japan

I have seen this same V14 in an old Bruno Ventura catalog so I know that this model was also sold here in the USA. So my question is…why do some Ventura’s have the name Bruno on it and others don’t? My guess is that if it didn’t have the name Bruno on it then it was probably bought and sold in Japan…but that is just my guess. If anybody can help me out I would really appreciate it. Is one or the other of more value now? With or without the name Bruno on it?

Also as I mentioned above, it was my understanding that Ventura was shut down in the 70’s but I just saw a Ventura up for auction on Ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl… category=47064

and the description of the guitars says that it is NEW. How can this be? I mean, how can a company that has been out of business for 30 years have a brand new guitar? Could these be 2 different Ventura company’s? I have emailed this person but have yet to receive a reply. Thanks and happy picking!~

Ragster

P.S. If anybody knows of any websites or any information at all about Ventura guitars it would be really kewl if you can pass along the information. Thanks again!~