Solar Guitars by Ola Englund

[jclogston]

Holy shit this looks fucking amazing.

https://www.solar-guitars.com/product/ab1-6frnb-natural-brown-matte/

I am seriously considering this but am hesitant as I cannot try before buying. How are the necks? What are they similar to in terms of readily available guitars?

Thanks in advance
Jeff

 

[Soulmate]

I am seriously considering this but am hesitant as I cannot try before buying. How are the necks? What are they similar to in terms of readily available guitars?

Thanks in advance
Jeff

Like a slightly slimmed down Fender C.

 

[GoldDragon]

I am seriously considering this but am hesitant as I cannot try before buying. How are the necks? What are they similar to in terms of readily available guitars?

Thanks in advance
Jeff

It does look great.

Only hesitation, only.. is not fret marker inlays. I think I would be confused playing it.

But I like the 12th fret inlay and I get that is the solar trademark look.

 

[jclogston]

It does look great.

Only hesitation, only.. is not fret marker inlays. I think I would be confused playing it.

But I like the 12th fret inlay and I get that is the solar trademark look.

Same here but you can always buy decals for them

 

[Soulmate]

I only look at the side dots when I play

 

[jclogston]

Any neck measurements available? Like thickness and width at various frets?

 

[Soulmate]

Any neck measurements available? Like thickness and width at various frets?

Nut width 43mm
1st fret ~20mm
12th fret ~22mm

 

[aesthyrian]

if that HS bolt-on was available in a 7... I might be interested in buying one. I never would because I just don't need more guitars, but that thing is near perfect to me. Ola's a good man for only making it in 6 and keeping my temptations in check.

 

[Aliascent]

If we could get the AB1.6S with the bridge and price of the AB1.6HTPB that'd be perfect. The evertune is the only thing preventing me from pulling the trigger.

 

[MadYarpen]

It does look great.

Only hesitation, only.. is not fret marker inlays. I think I would be confused playing it.

But I like the 12th fret inlay and I get that is the solar trademark look.

I don't think you will. I am a total begineer by most people's standards and it is no problem at all.

Also, I don't really like how the reveal new models. I will be ordering a new 7 string in a month or two, and Solar is the most possible option. But I can't really pul the trigger if every time something better could be revealed "next week".

I wish I knew if they planned 26.5 inch V 7 for example...

 

[thomas.reuter]

Anyone have any experience with putting Bare Knuckles in a Solar? I think it would look killer to have the same colors of the BKPs in the Juice Burst Qatsi in my 2.6LN, but I'm debating which pickup to go for.

 

[Atefred]

Anyone have any experience with putting Bare Knuckles in a Solar? I think it would look killer to have the same colors of the BKPs in the Juice Burst Qatsi in my 2.6LN, but I'm debating which pickup to go for.

I'm interested in hearing about that as well. I really don't like the stock solar bridge pickup, especially for heavily downtuned stuff. Sounds too round/loose.
Never changed pickups myself before though. Would bkps fit without additional routing or filing of the pickup baseplate? Is the wiring pretty much the same as the Duncan solars?

 

[Massive Sound Productions]

Happy new guitar day ! Got my new and first Solar guitar delivered last week, the Solar A1.6 Artist LTD in black. After playing it intensively over the last few days and doing some recording I did a Review video of it sharing the sounds I got using it with you and of course give my opinion on this beast. Especially the Evertune bride once again is such an amazing tool which helps you so much in your daily guitarist life. I was a bit skeptical if I shall spend so much money on an Indonesian made guitar but am overall very happy with my purchase. Hope you like my short video ! What are your thoughts about Solar guitars? Anyone else playing the Artist model?

 

[MadYarpen]

I'm interested in hearing about that as well. I really don't like the stock solar bridge pickup, especially for heavily downtuned stuff. Sounds too round/loose.
Never changed pickups myself before though. Would bkps fit without additional routing or filing of the pickup baseplate? Is the wiring pretty much the same as the Duncan solars?

I just replaced mine. I can measure the stock one later if it helps. You can probably find some diagrams of bkps. In any case, pole pieces in a regular seymour Duncan bridge 6 string are a little narrower. So it is not perfectly aligned. But close enough, I don't think trembucker is necessary.

 

[Cryovillain]

Another new model I have wanted a purple guitar for some time and this tickles many boxes...

Anyone have an idea how that neck pickup is like?

 

[jephjacques]

I'm interested in hearing about that as well. I really don't like the stock solar bridge pickup, especially for heavily downtuned stuff. Sounds too round/loose.
Never changed pickups myself before though. Would bkps fit without additional routing or filing of the pickup baseplate? Is the wiring pretty much the same as the Duncan solars?

Judging from photos, they should fit in the existing routes. BKPs come with standard 4-conductor wiring, the color coding might be different than the Duncans but wiring them up is a simple job if you know how to use a soldering iron. If you're looking for something tighter and more controlled, an Aftermath or Juggernaut is a good choice. If you want something with more output, you could do with a Ragnarok or Blackhawk set.

 

[Atefred]

I just replaced mine. I can measure the stock one later if it helps. You can probably find some diagrams of bkps. In any case, pole pieces in a regular seymour Duncan bridge 6 string are a little narrower. So it is not perfectly aligned. But close enough, I don't think trembucker is necessary.

thanks, good to know! As long as it's close enough and sounds right.

Judging from photos, they should fit in the existing routes. BKPs come with standard 4-conductor wiring, the color coding might be different than the Duncans but wiring them up is a simple job if you know how to use a soldering iron. If you're looking for something tighter and more controlled, an Aftermath or Juggernaut is a good choice. If you want something with more output, you could do with a Ragnarok or Blackhawk set.

Good to hear, thanks for the info! Not soldered anything since school, should be a fun project. Aftermath it is!

 

[Metropolis]

Anyone have an idea how that neck pickup is like?

I have no idea which Seymour Duncan pickup it's based on, or which is close. Ola is playing it here. Could be Hot Rails?



But I ordered one, and will probably know how it's like at the beginning of July.

 

[binz]

Anybody here that has experience with both the solar pickup and dimarzio fusion edge that are typically in the equally-prized Ibanez Indonesian built guitars? (I only know the solar ones and generally have no clue about pickups)

I'm talking about the bridge pickup. Not sure if I'm just not having any use for the neck one or that solar one is just crap.

 

[goremotel]

Hello! I have a Solar V2.6C and I want to have some upgrades done to it.

First, I'd like to change the stock tuners to locking ones. I found an older thread from 2018 in which someone suggested to go with Grover locking tuners (albeit for an E2.6 model): https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/solar-guitars-replace-tuners.331699/

Does anyone know if the Grover 406BCL6 tuners could be installed without drilling new holes into the headstock?

Another thing I want to do is to replace the stock nut with a Graph Tech BLACK TUSQ nut. Maybe someone has done this before? From my (not very precise) measurements the PT-6643 version should be a good fit.

And last but not least, I'd like to change the pickups. Will there be any problems replacing the stock Solars with a Nazgul/Sentient set? Or to put it in another way, are original Seymour Duncan pickups a drop-in replacement for Duncan Designed pickups?

Thanks!