The new SON!Q is not your father’s IQ.

The cover is the familiar, popular and hugely successful R2S Pearl, but the core is the Centripetal HD, which has an RG value of 2.47 for 15- and 16-pounders that is one of the lowest Storm has ever produced, meaning it revs up quickly.

Although the 14-pounders have an RG of 2.51, meaning they don’t rev up quite as quickly as the 15s and 16s, I did find my SON!Q to rev up as quickly as any symmetrical ball I’ve ever thrown.

(Please always remember when evaluating my reviews that I throw 14s and that often means a ball's key numbers are different than they are for 15s and 16s.)

For my SON!Q, I chose my standard pin-up strong drilling with the pin over the bridge and the CG kicked to the right, in this case at roughly a 60-degree angle. With my numbers of 4 over and 5/8 up, the ball's numbers are 4 1/2 pin-PAP, 3 7/8 MB-PAP and 3 1/4 pin buffer. No weight hole was needed to get it static legal, so I left it without one. I will add one if I want to try to change the motion.

So far, I have found the SON!Q to be an interesting combination of core and cover.

Although the R2S pearl provides its standard easy skid, the SON!Q revs so quickly that I struggle going out and back with it, as was a piece of cake with the IQ TOUR PEARL. (The famous gold ball remains one of my all-time favorites — the greatest house shot ball I’ve ever thrown so long as there isn’t a giant puddle of oil — and still is a part of my arsenal.)

The SON!Q is much more like the IQ FUSION was for me, and that was a ball that was very conditional – when it worked it was great, when it didn’t I put it away. I would say the SON!Q is in the range of 3-5 boards more than the FUSION — I can’t directly compare because I no longer have a FUSION.

I’ve always considered quick-revving low-RG balls to be better for players with higher speed than me, and I typically have trouble getting them down the lane consistently.

However, the one thing they are good at is giving me confidence that I won’t throw it through the breakpoint when I’m trying to throw it hard (for my 55-year-old Raisin bones).

And that’s how I had great success with the SON!Q in the Madison Area Bowling Association Masters.

As I detailed in this story, I was not keeping up with the high scoring pace on the modified house shot, so I grabbed my SON!Q, stepped back to the right and tried to throw it as hard as I could (which isn’t hard!) direct up between 10- and 15-board. That delivered me a 257-247 finish to sneak into the stepladder and then two stepladder match wins.

With the early revving power of the SON!Q I didn’t have to worry about it not getting into a roll or bouncing off the oil line.

My other best option for such wet-dry conditions has been the plain urethane HOT CELL, but as much as I love that ball if there is the possibility of using resin in such a situation I am going to take it — and the SON!Q provides that.

With its heavy rolling profile, the SON!Q goes through the pins tremendously so long as it hasn’t burned off too much energy: I have seen few ringing 10-pins with the SON!Q.

However, every time I have tried to pull the SON!Q out and bowl with my regular speed and shape it, it tends to read too early, not give me good motion and not carry well. I know others have posted about how great it is for house shots shaping it, but that has not been the case for my slow speed and moderate revs. And I have tried it with everything from the box shiny gloss knocked off by a 4,000 Abralon pad to down to 1,000.

The one kind of pattern I have not tried it on that I think it might be great for is a short pattern like Kegel BOARDWALK or BROADWAY, where I think I could get outside and go direct with high speed for my game. I will update this review if I have a chance to try it on such a pattern.

Because the SON!Q seems to give me something I don’t get from anything else resin in my arsenal at this point, I am keeping it and will bring it along where I think it might work.

I do think people with higher speed than me — especially if they have a high rev rate — might find the SON!Q to be a tremendous ball for a wide variety of conditions, because it will give them enough revs to pick up consistently with controllable motion off the breakpoint. In other words, a great ball for house shots or more challenging conditions that have cliffed.

I would recommend it for anyone looking for a ball that rolls quickly and strongly, and is good for controlling cliffed patterns.

The only players I would caution about the SON!Q are those who are rev dominant with slower speed who can't pick up the speed when necessary.