[HighGain510]

I guess I should start out by saying I'm a high gain, hard rock/metal guy when it comes to playing but I do love instrumental, blues and jazz music too! Now, with that out of the way...


The Junior Ninety is an absolutely phenominal guitar in every possible aspect! I own Thorn Jr. 90 # 09, which is the hardtail with the (best) Brazilian Burst. I'll break it down into pieces:

Feel & Playability - As all of Ron's guitars, this baby comes to you feeling like your favorite pair of well-broken in jeans. The rolled fretboard edges and hidden fret ends really add to the experience, you immediately feel comfortable playing this guitar. Extremely easy to play and I usually have my action set pretty low. When I received my guitar in California at the shop Ron had literally just set it up about 20 minutes prior to me playing it. No buzzing or fretting out anywhere on the neck, excellent!

Coming from temps in the high 60's with no humidity on the West Coast to a frigid 23 degrees in Philly when I received it, it was fair to say the setup wouldn't be as spot on as when I first received it. That's how it ended up for me, obviously due to the ridiculous weather change, but I'm happy to report after keeping it at room temperature in my house with the case open for almost a week now she has just about returned to normal without me having to tweak a thing. Might give the truss rod a minor tweak but that's it, action is still spot-on! Great job by Ron there! The nitrocellulose finish is sweet! I've never owned a guitar finished with nitro before and I have to say, I like it!!! If you tilt the guitar under light and let your eyes go out of focus slightly while looking in the reflection of the light you can see the nitro finish already sinking into the wood grain of the black limba. It has only been completed for a few weeks and already the finish is sinking, how cool is that? Instant vintage? You betcha!

The Brazilian Burst is really something you have to see in person to appreciate. Just as others have said about Thorn guitars, the pictures don't do it justice! It is possibly one of my favorite bursts that Ron has put on a guitar (and he is a MASTER of the burst finish IMHO!) and over Black Limba, it seems like it was a match made in heaven. Mine has those cool little dark streaks through it almost like an individualized birthmark making it different from all the other black limba Thorns. It has a cool little spot on the back of the neck too. Speaking of the neck, it's a medium-fat neck carve that is perfect for me as a guy coming from thin necks to loving medium to thick necks as they are easier on my hands/joints for extended playing. The burst on the neck looks almost like someone is shining a spotlight on the back of the guitar, very good indeed! This neck joint is fantastic, carefully sculpted and you can tell the extra effort was put into it. Comfortable access all the way up to the 22nd fret, this set neck design is fantastic! The hardware is top notch, highest quality electronics possible and it makes a difference. I'm also digging the 4-way switch being on the opposite side, makes using the volume knob very convenient!


Now for what you're all hoping to hear about... the tone report (that's what is most important anyways, right?!) - WOW. That's what I said the first time I plugged in the guitar through my Egnater MOD 50 head. For those of you not up to date on my gear list, I'm running an Egnater MOD 50 head with Svetlana EL-34's and the amp has a special "modular preamp" design. I have two dual channel modules, a VX and an E'Rect (Vox and Dual Rectifier). I run the guitar into my rather thinned out pedalboard which right now only has a Maxon OD-808, Lovepedal Eternity and the soon-to-arrive list includes my Tim, Timmy and recently purchased Catalinbread Silver Kiss Overdrive. My cabinet is an EarCandy 2x12 BuzzBomb loaded with one Eminence Wizard and one Swamp Thang.

Running channel A of the VX module with this guitar makes me smile. Really. Every single position out of the 4-way switch is usable, and there are tons of cool tone combinations you can get just using the toggle, volume and tone knobs on the same channel. My two favorite positions are 2 and 4 (I believe 2 is both pickups set up as humbucking, and 4 is set up as neck only) and varying the volume and tone knobs this guitar can get totally different sounds on that Voxy clean sounding amp. To my ears it can sound almost like an ELECTRIC-ACOUSTIC, and then with the volume and tone rolled down a bit it can do semi-jazzy stuff even through a chimey-style preamp!!! In position three the guitar takes on that twangy tele vibe which would probably work well for a guy playing country or in need of a twangy clean tone. Position 1 is bright but since the EQ on the pickups is quite even through the spectrum isn't not a piercing kind of bright, so I usually just roll down the tone knob a bit and I'm good to go. Very versatile. I like to run the OD-808 as a boost for my Rectifier module, but even set as a volume boost on the A channel of the Vox it sounds cool. Flip it to Channel B and you have a syrupy, thick Vox Top Boost, medium-gain sound. The preamp shares the EQ between both channels so I haven't messed with it too much on the B channel because channel A sounds absolutely PERFECT to my ears and channel B is very cool with the same setting. These custom staple-top Thorn pickups are killer, they have a very rounded EQ to them so nothing is overpowering in the lows, mids are quite present and the highs aren't piercing. Always a good thing, eh? As always, the Lovepedal Eternity is a great OD and has that perfectly thick overdrive duty handled, but it works best through the clean channel.

Here is the big surprise... these pickups do VERY well with my E'Rect module!!! I spoke with Ron and he made a funny comment about how most of the new owners of the first batch of Junior-Ninety Thorns were pretty traditional blues/rock/jazz guys so I would most likely be the first to experiment with high gain. I am pleased to say, without even changing the settings I use with my humbucker-equipped guitars, the guitar sounds awesome with the normal settings on the E'Rect module. Again, these pickups are sweet in that they have a very full, round tone to them so the Junior-Ninety makes an EXCELLENT guitar for high gain rhythm on the settings that I am using on the preamp.

Chords fly out with excellent clarity and sustain, which might be partially due to the fantastic Thorn solid-brass Hardtail bridge. Single notes just ring and ring. I don't use a compressor so I could only imagine what the sustain would be like if I had one of those in my chain! Again, I haven't tried changing the settings on the module from what I normally have it set to for humbuckers so it would probably sound pretty cool on lead with high gain with a slightly different EQ. I've been enjoying the current settings too much to bother changing it! As I sometimes do with my hum-equipped axes I tried boosting the B channel of the E'Rect with the OD-808 and another surprise: pinch harmonics on a P-90?!?! Yep, although not as strong as they would be on a hot humbucker they are definitely there, and it's a beautiful thing to my ears! Position 1 rules this territory but I found every position was quite usable, and the neck on high gain sounds great as well! I was surprised at the fact that a P-90 that sounds so well-suited to blues, rock and jazz would be able to handle some metal duties.

All in all, this is an amazing guitar that has more versatility than you might guess by the vintage-style appearance. Sure you can do blues, rock and jazz with any old tele, but I dare you to play metal with the same authority without a Junior-Ninety. A/B them, you will be shocked like I was when I first played mine. Wow.

A HUGE thanks goes out to Ron Thorn, John Gaudesi, Tony and Nick Vig. These guys managed to put together one of the finest guitars available, thank-you for making such a sweet instrument.

P.S. The custom TKL cases are killer as well! I'll be taking some more pictures soon, the weather has been poor here and by the time I get home it's dark outside!

[HighGain510]

LOL wow nothing at all in reply to this thread... that hurts guys! Since I know this is what you all really want instead of words, shiny pictures fire away!


















I love this finish!

[ibzrg1570]

yea that review is wayyyyy too long. remember: a picture speaks a thousand words! loving the finish