My first one was a mid-60's Ventura V75 flattop jumbo. It was shaped like a dreadnaught with a couple of inches spliced into the middle. I paid $35 for it used, and a couple of years later I ordered a new case for another $35. High action (the previous owner had strung it up with flatwounds in an effort to make it playable), thin neck, 3/8" thick pickguard, cheap tuners. The top looked like nice spruce, but that was just the veneer. Underneath was Philipine mahogany plywood and floor-joist bracing. Over the years I learned to inlay on its peghead, carved a piece of cherry wood to replace the white plastic heel cap....At one point I had a single-coil steel pickup in the soundhole and I used it as a lap-style.
After many years of playing electric, I decided I needed an acoustic again, so I had a luthier replace the plywood top with an excellent bearclaw spruce top, add a Guild-style bridge (compensated) and reset the neck. That turned it into a 6-string piano! Finally, I changed out the tuners to Gotohs. I use it for bottleneck, tuned to G (D-G-D-G-B-D) and in fact I had it out last night, playing some new material with my stepson. It's an amazing sounding guitar, and still has the original Ventura label inside the body for baffling visitors.