WHAT!? Okay, I'm now interested in Solar

  • Thread starter Thread starter DanTravis62
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Solar actually makes pretty decent stuff, despite being marketed to angsty teenagers.

I picked up one of their sustainiac models because I've always wanted a fernandez sustainer for tricks and textures in recordings, and turns out it's a surprisingly cool guitar. I was expecting just some cheap flimsy thing but it's pretty solid. The neck profile feels great, the ebony board is a deep even black, frets are stainless steel and feel super smooth and well polished with no fret sprout, etc. All in all it feels very well made.

The worst thing about these guitars, easily, is the obnoxious 12th fret logo. I kind of hate it. It's just a great big OLA THE YOUTUBE GUY advertisement right in the middle of the guitar. If they would replace that logo with the standard two dots on the 12th fret design, I don't think there would be a thing I could complain about.
 
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TheGreatGreen said:
Solar actually makes pretty decent stuff, despite being marketed to angsty teenagers.

I picked up one of their sustainiac models because I've always wanted a fernandez sustainer for tricks and textures in recordings, and turns out it's a surprisingly cool guitar. I was expecting just some cheap thing flimsy thing but it's pretty solid. The neck profile feels great, the ebony board is a deep even black, frets are stainless steel and feel super smooth and well polished with no fret sprout, etc. All in all it feels very well made.

The worst thing about these guitars, easily, is the obnoxious 12th fret logo. I kind of hate it. It's just a great big OLA THE YOUTUBE GUY advertisement right in the middle of the guitar. If they would replace that logo with the standard two dots on the 12th fret design, I don't think there would be a thing I could complain about.
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I've never been interested in a Solar, but the finish and the binding + no floyd? This guitar is exactly the kind of "super strat" that I wouldn't mind having in the arsenal
 
He did a Coffee with Ola a couple weeks back. I had no idea he was playing Solar, but it definitely makes it tempting to pick one up. The dude is a monster player. There were some issues with Solar's back in 2020-2021, I was hearing through mutual contacts of distributors and dealers with some pretty crappy quality concerns.. But it seems Ola has been taking things extremely serious and I haven't heard a whisper about those concerns since.

 
vultures said:
He did a Coffee with Ola a couple weeks back. I had no idea he was playing Solar, but it definitely makes it tempting to pick one up. The dude is a monster player. There were some issues with Solar's back in 2020-2021, I was hearing through mutual contacts of distributors and dealers with some pretty crappy quality concerns.. But it seems Ola has been taking things extremely serious and I haven't heard a whisper about those concerns since.

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I really like the more grown up styling of it tbh, as well
 
Only tried one Solar but what a dead, stiff, lifeless POS it was. Played nicely enough, can't fault that aspect of it so hopefully that one was just a dud and most are better than that. Too plastically sounding/feeling for my taste.
 
DanTravis62 said:
I really like the more grown up styling of it tbh, as well
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I have to say that sig model's "black into a transparent green that's so dark you can only just barely make out the quilt top under it" burst is seriously cool. I love understated stuff like that.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
Solar actually makes pretty decent stuff, despite being marketed to angsty teenagers.

I picked up one of their sustainiac models because I've always wanted a fernandez sustainer for tricks and textures in recordings, and turns out it's a surprisingly cool guitar. I was expecting just some cheap thing flimsy thing but it's pretty solid. The neck profile feels great, the ebony board is a deep even black, frets are stainless steel and feel super smooth and well polished with no fret sprout, etc. All in all it feels very well made.

The worst thing about these guitars, easily, is the obnoxious 12th fret logo. I kind of hate it. It's just a great big OLA THE YOUTUBE GUY advertisement right in the middle of the guitar. If they would replace that logo with the standard two dots on the 12th fret design, I don't think there would be a thing I could complain about.
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What is the neck profile like on these? I assume a wider, 43mm nut?
 
Shask said:
What is the neck profile like on these? I assume a wider, 43mm nut?
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Yep it's got a 1-11/16ths nut so it's wide. As far as neck thickness goes, before I played it, I was expecting a kind "shreddy" neck, you know, shallow but D style, meaning chunky shoulders. But it's not like that. It's a standard C shape, so it's comfortable. It's not super thin but it's not thick either. I'd say it's on the thinner side of medium, kinda like a Fender Modern C.

Edit: something else about these guitars is that the upper fret access is insane. The horns are cut back into the body pretty far and the neck-through construction means there's no heel joint. If I slide my hand up the neck until it stops, my thumb rests on the 20th fret and my pinky rests evenly across the 24th fret.
 
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TheGreatGreen said:
Yep it's got a 1-11/16ths nut so it's wide. As far as neck thickness goes, before I played it, I was expecting a kind "shreddy" neck, you know, shallow but D style, meaning chunky shoulders. But it's not like that. It's a standard C shape, so it's comfortable. It's not super thin but it's not thick either. I'd say it's on the thinner side of medium, kinda like a Fender Modern C.
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Hmmm I almost always prefer 42mm nuts, so not sure if I would like them. I have always been curious, but they dont publish neck specs for some reason.
 
Shask said:
Hmmm I almost always prefer 42mm nuts, so not sure if I would like them. I have always been curious, but they dont publish neck specs for some reason.
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Yeah when paired with the modern C neck depth, the 1-11/16 nut does feel kind of wide. That specific part of the guitar does feel shreddy.
 
I've had several solar before they started having QC issues after covid. All were great guitars. I saw this model and was gas'n pretty hard. Some of their more mature looking models are really tempting.

Solar was the first brand I used that had SS and luminlay. Glad to see other brands follow suit. I currently don't have any evertune model guitars but I really wish I did still have at least one. The mayones regius I had with one was an amazing guitar
 
The 12th fret inlay was always a deal-breaker in even considering a Solar, (and still is). It's silly, and to shove it down the throat of every buyer, (to me), only reaches certain people. He'd probably sell more guitars if he just went with Solar on the headstock, and ditch the obnoxious inlay.
 
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I’ll be the 3rd person in here to say I can’t deal with the 12th fret inlay. Deal breaker. It might as well be a Nike swoosh. Head stock and font ain’t great either.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
Solar actually makes pretty decent stuff, despite being marketed to angsty teenagers.

I picked up one of their sustainiac models because I've always wanted a fernandez sustainer for tricks and textures in recordings, and turns out it's a surprisingly cool guitar. I was expecting just some cheap flimsy thing but it's pretty solid. The neck profile feels great, the ebony board is a deep even black, frets are stainless steel and feel super smooth and well polished with no fret sprout, etc. All in all it feels very well made.

The worst thing about these guitars, easily, is the obnoxious 12th fret logo. I kind of hate it. It's just a great big OLA THE YOUTUBE GUY advertisement right in the middle of the guitar. If they would replace that logo with the standard two dots on the 12th fret design, I don't think there would be a thing I could complain about.
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Complaints of poor quality are out there
 
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