My custom guitar! (Thorn content enclosed!)

[HighGain510]

As you may know I'm currently without a 7 string right now but planning on buying one soon. What I do have, however, is a custom Thorn on order! These guitars made by Ron Thorn are some of THE nicest looking, playing and best of all, SOUNDING guitars I've ever seen! I ordered mine LAST YEAR in August so I'm over a year into it but from what I heard I SHOULD be getting it sometime around or maybe a little after Christmas! Here are the specs for mine:

Thorn Artisan Deluxe # 153:

Carved Top: Bookmatched Flamed Walnut

Body : Chambered ONE-PIECE Walnut w/ Clear Gloss Finish

Total body thickness: 1-7/8"
Tummy cut and rear hand contour: Yes
Neck: Flamed Walnut w/ Oil Finish

Headcap: Match Top
Neck Carve: PRS Regular Carve
Fretboard: Flamed Walnut / 25" Scale / _____" Radius / 22 Frets
Nut: 1.687" Earvana Tusq
Fretwire: Med./Jumbo Stainless Steel
Bridge: Thorn Tremolo w/ L.R. Baggs Piezo - Brushed Nickel
Tuners: Locking Sperzel - UltraLite w/ Pearloid Buttons
Pickups: Bare Knuckle Rebel Yell calibrated set
Neck -HB Rebel Yell neck
Bridge - HB Rebel Yell bridge
Purfling: Paua Body Top/Sides / Fretboard / Headstock
Side Dots: White Mother of Pearl
Dunlop Straploks - Nickel
Inlaid Logo: Pearl/Paua
Inlaid Truss Rod Cover - Brazilian Rosewood & Sterling Silver
Fretboard Inlays: Paua Firesuns

Neck Heel Inlay: "Matt Garcia" Signature in Paua

Controls:
Master Volume, Tone and 3-way toggle switch (Humbuckers, EBMM Metal toggle switch).

Blend knob for piezo.

3-way mini-toggle for Humbuckers only / Humbuckers+Piezo / Piezo only.

Mini Mono/Stereo push button
Mini Toggle (Parallel Humbuckers)


Color: Natural


Body: Gloss Finish

The guitar is going to be sweet (even though it's missing a string as far as most of you are probably concerned hehe) and well-worth the wait. I've had the pleasure of checking out about 30+ Thorns already at various gatherings here on the East Coast and each and every one was truly amazing and DIFFERENT too! Mine will be the first Walnut Thorn which is pretty cool. Don't see many Walnut guitars anymore, but they have a tendency to be heavy as f*ck so I had Ron CNC a chamber into the body of mine for weight reduction which doesn't really have an effect on the tone! Here are some early pictures of it:

Here is the Top Wood:

The Body Wood:

This is a finished Thorn that I used to show him how I want my electronics to be positioned:

My Neck rough carved and my top before getting glued together and cut:

I have some more pictures at home of the body getting glued up to the top after the chamber was CNC'ed in the body but I don't think I have them hosted anywhere at the moment so I'll post more if you guys want to see them! I can't wait to get the picture of the fretboard and the top after getting the CNC carve! I'm really excited!!! It's peanut butter jelly time! I also got lucky as Ron has received SO MANY freaking orders in the last 12 months he has officially closed his order list for at LEAST 1-2 years!!! The last orders that were placed were pretty much told they had to wait 2 years for theirs to be ready... ouchies! Got my order in at a good time!

 

[darren]

Wow, that looks like it's going to be incredible! Walnut is a great sounding wood. It has the brightness and snap of maple with a bit of the warmth of mahogany. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!

 

[HighGain510]

Definitely! Me too! I originally spec'ed out an all black limba Thorn but I sold my custom Carvin DC-200 that was solid black walnut to make the first payment on the Thorn so Ron told me about the killer walnut he had in his private stash and suggested an ode to my Carvin. Only problem is this guitar would kick the crap out of my old Carvin even though it was a killer guitar! The Carvin was all walnut with an ebony fretboard and it was exactly as you described... maple snap with a bit of warmth to it. Hope my Thorn turns out to be similar with a little more OOMPH behind it! I think this will be a great hard rock/metal axe, plus the Bare Knuckles should be sweet!

 

[metalfiend666]

Sounds absolutely amazing, and the in progress pics look stunning. This is one guitar that I'm really looking forward to seeing finished pictures of. Interesting to see you going for the Bare Knuckle pickups, they must have cost a fortune in the US.

 

[HighGain510]

James, you have no idea! It was $330 for the calibrated set! However, when you're talking about a guitar that cost a little over 3K, you don't skimp on the pickups, eh? I have tried the Miracle Man pickups and was VERY impressed with them so I'm hoping the Rebel Yell set rocks as I've heard good things from friends. If not, I can sell them and pick up a set of WCR Fillmores and I'll be good to go! Ron has this attention to detail that I've never seen in a builder before in my entire life! There was one story that is especially memorable where there was a guitar that he refinished something like 5-6 times because there was a tiny, TIIIIINY (we're talking like a mm or a fraction of a mm!) haze in the finish that was only visible if you were right with your face up to the guitar and he refused to let it leave the shop like that until it was absolutely perfect. I don't mind the wait time as I know once it has been completed it will be perfect and I know Ron won't let anything less than that leave his shop in California! I also opted to buy one of the Custom Moody/Thorn straps made for my guitar so it's a Moody Leather (REAL leather like they make in Italy for those 1K jackets lol) with the Thorn "T" logo inlaid onto a piece of flamed walnut and attached to the strap. It's going to look uber cool once it's all finished, I can't wait! If I get the new progress pictures soon I'll be sure to share them with you guys! From what I heard my fretboard was running on the CNC on Thanksgiving so that means pictures coming soon... hehehe....

 

[Kagami]

That's beautiful dude, I posted up some Thorn pics before, they're awesome looking guitars.

 

[skinhead]

Nice guitar man, i love the way you put the switches, and the top it's very nice.

I want to see that monster alive!

 

[Shawn]

That is beautiful. I like how it's looking so far too in the last pic, that is going to look very nice.

 

[Nick1]

Nice

 

[HighGain510]

Thanks for all the nice comments all, you guys rock! I'm super hyped now that I'm coming down the home stretch (at least I'll be getting it sooner than later!) so I can't WAIT for it to be finished. I found those other pictures I was speaking of before so here's some more Thorn porn for ya!

 

[darren]

What's with the little stump of a "tail" on that one?

 

[iumentum]

Cool that you are getting a Thorn! I wish I could try one out here in Norway...

 

[HighGain510]

Darren: The stump has a little hole and you can see another one towards the top of the body. Ron uses them to lock the wood down to the flat surface inside the CNC machine so when the tools are carving up the guitar it doesn't go flying off the table! Those arm and drill bits in the CNC machine are moving around at INCREDIBLE speeds so if the wood wasn't locked down it would bad news for my guitar! The use of CNC makes the guitars accurate down to something ridiculous like .0001 of a mm! Very cool stuff. Once the guitar gets to the body carving stage the stump gets trimmed off and everything is ready to be sanded from there.

iumentum: I don't know anyone in Norway that has one, but there are Thorns in both Belgium and a couple of them in the UK. Problem with buying one right now is at the moment Ron is no longer accepting new orders for anywhere from 12-24 months (from what I've heard the last people who placed their orders are looking at a 2 year wait for their guitars so I'm betting it might be 2 years before he starts accepting orders again! ) so even if he said it was cool you won't be able to order for at least 2 years! Sucks, however, once his shop IS open for orders I have a feeling the window for new orders is going to be small as he has a LOT of people chomping at the bit to place another order with him, myself included! They are some of the greatest playing AND sounding guitars ever. He won't make a 7 string Thorn though, I tried asking him a couple times now! Maybe someday, I would love to try out a 7 string Thorn!!!

 

[HighGain510]

Hey guys, for anyone following along I just got some more update shots of the fretboard and the neck together:


Here the fretboard has been routed for Firesun Inlays and the side dot inlays have been completed.

Ron working hard, routing my fretboard for the abalone purfling.

And finally a group shot of some other in-progress necks, mine is on the far right. It's all glued up and ready for firesun and purfling inlay! Woo hoo!

I'm SOOOO excited!!! I get to visit her in person in two weeks when I fly out for NAMM! KICKASS!

 

[Shawn]

That looks nice, I like the sun inlays, very nice. Looking good so far. Nice looking necks too.

 

[HighGain510]

Houston, we have firesuns! Spoke with Ron over the weekend, apparently his Pops has been hard at work getting those boards finished up so my fretboard officially has Firesun inlays as well as the side purfling. I didn't want to bug him for pictures as I know how busy he was but I will be grabbing some new shots when I get out there. Maybe he will get the stainless steel fretwire installed before I get out there... sweeeeeet!!!!

 

[tylershelburne]

That is incredible it will turn out nice

 

[HighGain510]

Resurrecting this old thread with some new pictures I took when I visited the shop in California during NAMM weekend!

Here's my baby without anything on her, natural beauty eh?

This shot was taken outdoors after I wiped some naptha (lighter fluid) on the top which allows the figure to show, similar to what it will look like once it is painted.

Another shot with some naptha on her, looking good!

Here's a shot of the neck in progess, roughed out and inlaid!

Just another shot of the neck, slightly different angle. Check out the figuring on the fretboard!

Headstock action... excellent! Displaying why Ron Thorn is THE best inlay artist in the industry, just ask the big-name custom shops who they prefer to do their work!

Close-up of the Thorn "T" logo on my headstock... sweet! Look Ma, no filler!

Some of the fretboard inlay...

Moving up the fretboard....

Still going, I love how the paua is so colorful!

Mmmm the firesun at the first fret is gorgeous... bluish-purple! VERY nice!

Hope you enjoyed the new pictures! I'll post some more once I get news from Ron Thorn. Next step will be CNC... now THAT is when it starts getting really exciting!!!

 

[ibzrg1570]

very nice inlays indeed. i remember guitar world magazine showed one of the writers' custom guitars that ron thorn did the inlay work on and it looked amazing. this is going to turn out really sweet, congrats!

 

[HighGain510]

Ron was featured in a couple guitar world shots now, it's pretty cool! He had the Fender Koicaster (not sure if that one hit GW or not) but I saw a custom-shop steinberger with the headless horseman painted on the body and the neck inlay was the Vine of Life with PUMPKINS on it!!! It looked sweet!

Sweet!