The former Fender Custom Shop Master Builder & Director has relaunched Thorn Custom Guitars with the brilliant SoCal C/S.

Let's start with the C/S's atypical silhouette.

What might seem like an arbitrary shape to the casual observer actually has several well thought out benefits to the player - when playing in a seated position, the C/S's slightly offset shape balances perfectly while also angling the neck at the perfect playing position. It's subtle, but genius, and it makes the C/S exceptionally comfortable right off the bat.

Next, let's look at neck. The medium C neck carve, Ron's "hidden fret ends" (and phenomenal fret work), the 10" radius, lack of a string tree (due to a specially engineered neck angle making a string tree unnecessary), and Ron's ultra-stable dovetail neck joint make the C/S a joy to play. This is the sort of neck carve that simply works, beautifully, and "gets out of your way" when playing. There's no fighting it, thinking about it, no struggle....it simply becomes an extension of your left hand.

Electronics. The C/S is loaded with Ron's own in-house wound VC-50 pickups, and their atypical orientation and wiring (volume, tone, 5-way) offer up some really amazing tones - think expanded Strat-like tones and you'll be in the ballpark. There's more range and fatter bridge tones than a standard Strat....it's incredibly cool and inspiring whether you live in clean tone land, edge-of-breakup land, or love to get into EVH territory.

Last but not least...Ron's original bridge designs. The C/S comes in three bridge flavors - hardtail, 1-piece tremolo, and a 2 piece bridge & tremolo, the latter features Ron's "Brass Knuckle" saddle and ridiculously cool, touch-sensitive, and expressive tailside vibrato. The 1-piece tremolo, pictured on this C/S, has a very expressive feel, smooth travel, with no tuning concerns whatsoever.