Solar Guitars by Ola Englund

[BusinessMan]

Who is this guy? All I can find is that he played killer riffs at the Randal and Fortin booth.

Seems like a strange endorsement for a small company, but I trust that Ola knows what he is doing.

He’s got a pretty killer YouTube channel.

 

[josh1]

Is that the first Solar without Solar inlay?

They replaced the gaudy Solar logo inlay with an even worse one.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Who is this guy? All I can find is that he played killer riffs at the Randal and Fortin booth.

Seems like a strange endorsement for a small company, but I trust that Ola knows what he is doing.

Outside of being a real good player with really good tone, he's got a good deal of industry experience and connections given his "day job".

He used to post here fairly often. Good dude.

 

[A-Branger]

I think someone may have put the bridge on the wrong way. The intonation screws are on the pickup side instead of the outside towards the tailpiece?

thats how TOM bridges are. You can see some with the screws on the opposite side, but 90% of the gutars usually they are on the pickup side. And if you check Solar site all their TOM guitars are like that

makes it "easier" to intonate specially if you have a string trough guitar or a close tail piece with 0 access to the screw unless you take the whole string off. This way you can still access it by loosing and pushing the string a bit. One of the reasons why I dont like TOMs

 

[HungryGuitarStudent]

Who is this guy? All I can find is that he played killer riffs at the Randal and Fortin booth.

Seems like a strange endorsement for a small company, but I trust that Ola knows what he is doing.

I don’t know who he is, but I like that his custom Solar has fret dots. With the modular necks (bolt-ons), I hope fret dots become a more common option.

 

[MadYarpen]

Covid hit them really hard in Indonesia it seems. Guitars' shipment postponed another month, now it says September 30th...

That sucks. I am on the fence regarding new solar vs some used KM-7 or whatever, and this doesn't the help Solar option

E: not all it seems. Hope restored!

 

[Atefred]

Question for you lot, on the offchance someone knows:
I have an A1.6 with an evertune, which I have tuned to F#F#BEG#C# (the "architects" tuning). The evertune is kind of handy here to keep the bottom string in tune despite the short 25.5 scale. I have a 70 gauge string for the low F#.
I just had the bridge pickup replaced, and the tech who did the work mentioned that the neck will likely get warped if I use that type of string gauge on the low string for any extended period of time. Claimed the wood wasn't high enough quality / strong enough to withstand the pressure.

Does that sound legit? I have similarly thick strings on my 7 string ibanez prestige, no signs of issues. Of course the neck there is 5 piece maple and walnut I believe, vs the 3 piece solar maple neck (and of course possibly different quality wood in general). Also, does the gauge actually matter? tuned down that low, the tension should be ~13.3 pounds, which isn't high at all.

 

[Mathemagician]

Unless there is something structurally wrong with that specific guitar, that guy is full of shit.

I once had a tech adamantly tell me that floyd roses were not supposed to have anything heavier than 9-42’s and definitely not drop tuned. Not surprisingly he worked for Guitar Center.

 

[Metropolis]

Question for you lot, on the offchance someone knows:
I have an A1.6 with an evertune, which I have tuned to F#F#BEG#C# (the "architects" tuning). The evertune is kind of handy here to keep the bottom string in tune despite the short 25.5 scale. I have a 70 gauge string for the low F#.
I just had the bridge pickup replaced, and the tech who did the work mentioned that the neck will likely get warped if I use that type of string gauge on the low string for any extended period of time. Claimed the wood wasn't high enough quality / strong enough to withstand the pressure.

Does that sound legit? I have similarly thick strings on my 7 string ibanez prestige, no signs of issues. Of course the neck there is 5 piece maple and walnut I believe, vs the 3 piece solar maple neck (and of course possibly different quality wood in general). Also, does the gauge actually matter? tuned down that low, the tension should be ~13.3 pounds, which isn't high at all.

It won't do anything to the neck, tension is equivalent to 0.042 string at standard E. And Solar necks are very solid anyway, where these myths even come from?

 

[Atefred]

Thought so, made no sense given the tuning. Thanks for confirming

 

[T00DEEPBLUE]

I just had the bridge pickup replaced, and the tech who did the work mentioned that the neck will likely get warped if I use that type of string gauge on the low string for any extended period of time. Claimed the wood wasn't high enough quality / strong enough to withstand the pressure.

The fuck is he talking about?

Seems like any uneducated dipshit can call themselves a 'tech' these days.

 

[I play music]

Question for you lot, on the offchance someone knows:
I have an A1.6 with an evertune, which I have tuned to F#F#BEG#C# (the "architects" tuning). The evertune is kind of handy here to keep the bottom string in tune despite the short 25.5 scale. I have a 70 gauge string for the low F#.
I just had the bridge pickup replaced, and the tech who did the work mentioned that the neck will likely get warped if I use that type of string gauge on the low string for any extended period of time. Claimed the wood wasn't high enough quality / strong enough to withstand the pressure.

Does that sound legit? I have similarly thick strings on my 7 string ibanez prestige, no signs of issues. Of course the neck there is 5 piece maple and walnut I believe, vs the 3 piece solar maple neck (and of course possibly different quality wood in general). Also, does the gauge actually matter? tuned down that low, the tension should be ~13.3 pounds, which isn't high at all.

Change your "tech"

 

[Dust_to_Dust]

Question for you lot, on the offchance someone knows:
I have an A1.6 with an evertune, which I have tuned to F#F#BEG#C# (the "architects" tuning). The evertune is kind of handy here to keep the bottom string in tune despite the short 25.5 scale. I have a 70 gauge string for the low F#.
I just had the bridge pickup replaced, and the tech who did the work mentioned that the neck will likely get warped if I use that type of string gauge on the low string for any extended period of time. Claimed the wood wasn't high enough quality / strong enough to withstand the pressure.

Does that sound legit? I have similarly thick strings on my 7 string ibanez prestige, no signs of issues. Of course the neck there is 5 piece maple and walnut I believe, vs the 3 piece solar maple neck (and of course possibly different quality wood in general). Also, does the gauge actually matter? tuned down that low, the tension should be ~13.3 pounds, which isn't high at all.

Load of bull mate. I used to run with a .74 on my Les Paul Custom for years in Drop B, neck is still perfectly fine to this day.
Same with my Esp!

 

[T00DEEPBLUE]

https://www.solar-guitars.com/product/e1-6-priestess/

Cool and subtle design feature is the stepped body like a Firebird's.

Also 25.5" scale too.

 

[Louis Cypher]

 

[Fred the Shred]

Yeah, Marzi is big into the Firebird raised center thing. His guitar looks pretty killer!

 

[manu80]

Still waiting on the stealth’s take by solar

 

[MASS DEFECT]

Solar needs a Warrior/Xiphos fighter.

 

[lewis]

Solar needs a Warrior/Xiphos fighter.

maybe a slightly different shape to avoid problems - similar to the failed Matt Heafy Dean Prototype? -

 

[MASS DEFECT]

^I don't consider Dean ML shapes to be similar to Warrior/Xiphos/BC Rich Stealth shapes. MLs are their own thing. While the Warriors have some offset horns.

But considering Ola is a Dime fan, that possibility is not far off.