Listen to the music

A 70s Ventura Barney Kessel copy, an imitation of a Gibson guitar of the same name.


It took my uncle a whole year to finish it, but it's finally done.

You see, a friend of mine gave me this guitar for my 20th birthday. It was in absolutely putrid shape at that point. She kept it in her garage for a good part of the year, without a case. Before that, her dad (the original owner) kept it in storage for a good long while as well, out of the case. I'm not exactly sure why they were so hell-bent on destroying this guitar, but they pretty much succeeded.

When I first got this guitar, it had the wrong kind of strings on it (someone somehow stretched piano wire on it), the electronics were all shot (the pick-ups were pretty much fried), the jack somehow found it's way loose and was rattling around inside, and the neck was pretty much unplayable.

Well, somehow, my uncle go it back to at least playable shape. He replaced the pick-ups with some Epiphone ones that work and have a great warmth to them, he rewired everything so that it actually plays, he fixed the bend in the neck, and overall just cleaned the poor soul up. It is now it pretty respectable condition, although there is still a lot of work I would like done on it.

I'm considering taking it to a real luthier, but for now, as long as it plays, I guess I can deal with it.

Maybe I'll get my first gig sometime soon. Who knows?