Harmony Juno Electric Guitar Review

A short scale, compact offering with gold foil P90s that’s new for 2020 from Harmony

Cost: $1199.00 from Harmony.co and Reverb.com!

Check out my UG Shot of the Harmony Juno for some quick sounds and my thoughts!

Overview & Final Score: 8.4

Harmony’s Juno electric guitar packs a ton of volume and tone into a really small package. 25″ scale length guitar features 22 frets on a C-profile neck that leads to a deceptively small LP-style body. I was sent a gorgeous “Champagne” colored guitar with a classic nitrocellulose finish. Harmony’s signature custom “half-bridge” sits below two gold foil P90s that are 3-way switchable. The electronics include an Orange drop capacitor that lets you roll off a ton of treble when you pull the cupcake volume knob.

The lightweight and compact Juno sports a USA-made Mahogany body and neck with Ebony fingerboard. Harmony’s locking tuners provide great tuning stability and modern flair to this vintage inspired guitar. It’s certainly not short on looks, even if it has a short scale length.

Sound: 8.5

For some reason, the smaller scale and comfortable feel of this guitar made me just want to finger pick on it. I was instantly impressed with the incredibly clean tones from these gold foil P90s, and found myself playing chill, mellow arpeggios and chords instead of my typical punk riffs and pentatonic solos. The P90s were also exceptionally quiet for single coils, played through both my solid state and tube amps. Harmony’s Juno had a ton of chime in the bridge position, perfect for sparkling pop lines and modern, almost acoustic-like rhythm tones.

The neck position was creamy, more Les Paul like, and was perfect for those single note blues and jazz lead lines up and down the neck. The neck pickup also didn’t get too muddy, until you engage the push-pull. To be honest, I don’t fully understand this push-pull Orange drop capacitor. It made the pickups incredibly muddy, with all treble rolled off. It was fun, and I certainly got some cool slide tones out of it, but really couldn’t do anything else with it. However, that’s not necessarily a knock on the Juno as that’s just an extra feature. The gold foil P90s were also great with some distortion and fuzz, easily venturing into Black Keys territory, much to my delight. But honestly, the clean tones are just vibrant and engaging, that’s why you should pick up this guitar in the first place in my opinion.

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Playability: 9

Tuning stability was excellent, thanks to Harmony’s high quality locking tuners. The C-profile neck and short scale made it super comfortable, fitting in between both a Gibson and Fender feel. Honestly, the super small body made me feel like I had more control of the neck, which (maybe this was just placebo) improved the playability a ton in my opinion. The fret work was also excellent, with easy access up and down the fretboard. Specifically, they emphasized that lower cut out, so that it’s far more comfortable than your typical Les Paul. This gives it both a more unique appearance and excellent feel. It is by all means a player’s guitar!

Finish & Construction: 8

The champagne finish isn’t for everyone, but the finish quality was excellent. The nitro feels and looks amazing, somehow seeming both worn in and brand new. The construction gets high marks from me as well, I love how light the guitar is. It’s super easy to play sitting down, to carefully fingerpick and I see it as a great tool for a songwriter, more-so than a live, gigging instrument. Not that it wouldn’t make an excellent live guitar, I just feel like I would buy this to write songs in a studio or house. There was one small ding on the headstock, but I’m not too mad about it, a lot of times companies send used models for review and I’m just super appreciative they sent me one! I would have few reservations about Harmony’s build quality, as everything else was near-perfect on this Juno!

Value: 8

The Harmony Juno certainly won’t break the bank, but at almost $1200 it’s no impulse buy either. For the money, I believe you get an excellent guitar with unique looks and tones. The Juno is an above average value for the money overall, but certain players will get more out of it than others. Songwriters, acoustic players, and studio musicians will love the comfortable feel and tuning stability. This is a guitar you can play for hours with a tape recorder and notebook by your side. It’s a superb example of a “lifestyle guitar” or a guitar I think you’ll constantly pick up throughout the day and never get rid of.

Good for: Jazz, Pop, Blues, Clean Tone Enthusiasts, Smaller Sized Guitar Players, Players Who Fingerpick