Solar "Chug" Pedal - Available Now!

[complex-barb.0t]

I talked about it with my best friend which is very knowledgeable about this stuff.
He's currently making his line of very high end amp heads, which all sounds great so far
(Unfortunately he's not willing to promote himself until he has completed his line of 4 amps of different sizes and wattage, and since it's not his main work, god knows how long it will take him)

Anyway, he said the pedal sound insanely good for the price and only complained about the 9V voltage of the power supply
He says that the low Voltage cuts the wave signal and that the more transparent overdrives and distortion use the 18V power supply, with extreme cases like the Carl Martin that uses 220V

He says that the problem is in the push of the current gen pickups, so the wisest guitarsts drop the pickup signal of 4,5V, to not cut the wave signal, but as a downside, they have more noise

I'm not an expert, just reporting what he told me
As for myself I must say I'm pretty interested even if I can't imagine an use in my poor rig which consists in a PodGo going into an Headrush 108

No idea the circuit, but it's possible that internally the circuit runs at 18v. It's not uncommon for pedals to step up voltage.

Like others have said the OG Tight Metal is the benchmark to me. It's the best distortion pedal I have personally tried. I am guessing the CHUG will not beat it out, but it seems good so far in the demos, but we all know how we can be fooled. Guessing Ola would not trash his product line with a completely shitty cash grab pedal though. Then again Soldano had no problem with those mini amps... I don't pay attention to YT/Forum drama so I have no idea if the guy is loved or hated.

I will have to say we have a lot of good choices these days in "pre-amp" pedals. So many sound awesome, almost reduces the desire to buy a tun of guitar amp heads....Almost.

 

[wakjob]

I thought it sounded great, probably won't pick one up as I have zero need for it. I feel like it was kind of a wasted venture for Ola in such a saturated market with stuff like this, but what do I know, I'm just some idiot on a guitar forum.

Pedals in general have become a quasi collector market.
Some people just by them to add to their collection.

 

[wakjob]

Ola has a particular taste, I do think his taste is very good when it comes to how something should sound. It is entirely possible that this pedal is amazing. It seems to be, wait and see

This is an interesting take... I think Ola's opening tone to his videos is a near perfect metal tone. And that's coming from that Plini plugin.

no overdrive, sounds a little twangy to my ears. Could be a bad thing? I dont know

I think I get the concept they were shooting for here.
This pedal sounds like they cooked in a clean boost overdrive right into the circuit set the way most players like it. Vol. full, Gain off, tone to taste ect...

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I talked about it with my best friend which is very knowledgeable about this stuff.
He's currently making his line of very high end amp heads, which all sounds great so far
(Unfortunately he's not willing to promote himself until he has completed his line of 4 amps of different sizes and wattage, and since it's not his main work, god knows how long it will take him)

Anyway, he said the pedal sound insanely good for the price and only complained about the 9V voltage of the power supply
He says that the low Voltage cuts the wave signal and that the more transparent overdrives and distortion use the 18V power supply, with extreme cases like the Carl Martin that uses 220V

He says that the problem is in the push of the current gen pickups, so the wisest guitarsts drop the pickup signal of 4,5V, to not cut the wave signal, but as a downside, they have more noise

I'm not an expert, just reporting what he told me
As for myself I must say I'm pretty interested even if I can't imagine an use in my poor rig which consists in a PodGo going into an Headrush 108

If might have a charge pump.

 

[Kaura]

I'd definitely get one if using physical pedals with plugins didn't feel so wrong. Love the features on this pedal. More knobs = more fun.

 

[Mathemagician]

He’ll get sales just from it being on his site when someone’s buying a guitar. Good for him, sounds good.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

It sounds like the Fortin/Randall Satan judging by the clips. Got that dry, twangy "produced" tone, especially with the HF/LF gain controls.

 

[Kosthrash]

I really like the voicing, tight, brutal & versatile... A psu is not included and there is no battery usage alternatively, right?

 

[Werecow]

I thought it was pretty meh until he played it through the FX return of that Mesa. Was pretty great then. I'm seemingly happy enough where i am with gear to not be tempted by things like this anymore though.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

So judging by the videos; it's not a distortion pedal that's being advertised as a preamp pedal (coughrevvhorizoncough), but an actual preamp pedal that just happens to be able to run in front of an amp with the right settings.

 

[soul_lip_mike]

Now he just has to do strings and drum software.

 

[Deadpool_25]

It sounds good in the demo but as usual Ola kind of just makes everything sound pretty good. Yeah, high gain preamp pedals is a bit of a saturated (ha!) market right now, but there are enough people like me who will buy every one we can get our hands on just to have "options" that he'll probably do fine, especially given his prominance on youtube. What I'm curious about is whether it's completely new/original or variant on an existing design. Either way, I'd bet that the per-unit margins on it are going to be better than on guitars, so getting into the pedal market's probably a smart move for Solar.

I like that it has a built in gate and the depth/presence are a nice addition. The thing that it appears to be missing (which is really common with preamp pedals) is some kind of clean channel. Either an actual clean channel with separate EQ that you get when it's bypassed (like some AMT and Mooer preamps have), an effects loop that you can put a different preamp into (Tight Metal Pro style), or at least something like the channel switch feature that the Vox Valvenergy pedals have. As it is, it looks like one where, to use it as an actual preamp, you'd need a separate clean preamp pedal and you'd have to tap dance to switch between them.

That's just my standard gripe with high gain preamp pedals. I'll probably still end up with one of these some day. Or at least the Joyo clone version when that inevitably follows.

You aren't wrong. The answer,
is something like a JHS Switchback. Basically a two-loop switcher. Throw a clean preamp on one side and a CHUG! (ugh) on the other. I get that's not ideal and it would be nice if it was onboard. IJS

 

[Deadpool_25]

Inb4 jba5150

JBA AxeFX

 

[Kosthrash]

It'd be really cool if there was a mini amp head with this exact preamp...

 

[lewis]

When it was in the FX Loop, it actually reminded me of the sound of my old Randall T2

Dry, tight asf and a little top end fizz

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

It'd be really cool if there was a mini amp head with this exact preamp...

If this is being made by BAD then there's a chance.

 

[complex-barb.0t]

Folks at TGP are speculating based on the prototype Ola showed that it’s a digital modeling pedal. Will be interesting to see if that is the case.

 

[lewis]

Folks at TGP are speculating based on the prototype Ola showed that it’s a digital modeling pedal. Will be interesting to see if that is the case.

What would the internals of that look like?

In SWOLA he shows an early prototype of the internals of the pedal and its pots attached to cardboard. May be able to screen grab that picture to take a closer look at these internals.

 

[complex-barb.0t]

What would the internals of that look like?

In SWOLA he shows an early prototype of the internals of the pedal and its pots attached to cardboard. May be able to screen grab that picture to take a closer look at these internals.

There is not much to look at in the prototype. You can only see the knobs on the front of the pcb. Likely won’t know until somebody gets theirs and opens it up.

 

[JimF]

Six concentric stacked knobs? Holy options paralysis Batman!