Solar Guitars A1.6 7 Unsponsored Review and Full Mix Demo
8Solar Guitars A1.6 metal guitar review by High Z Productions. Do Solars live up to the hype? Has the fretboard cracked? Does the Evertune work? I really like this guitar and touch on positives and negatives in this video with timestamps for organization. Not sponsored!
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The legendary Ola Englund’s guitar brand, Solar Guitars, has taken the internet and metal scene by storm. Is the flagship guitar, the A series, any good? I’ve used Solar guitars in many songs over the last few years, including both 6 and 7 string iterations. They are Indonesian made and they do feel like they are more on the budget side. Top shelf features such as the Evertune bridge help bring up the value. Overall I’d say this guitar is worth the price and is a great tool for music production and performance. I do touch on both positives and negatives.
The guitar is very light, either by design or by price point. This is good in that it won’t weigh you down or fatigue you, might be bad if you want the most resonate and perfectly balanced instrument.
The sound is good, it fits in a mix really well. It’s more biased towards metal and layering distorted guitars and less so towards a thick, single guitar sound. There is an interesting phenomenon with the Solar Duncan pickups where they might not sound so great on their own, but in a mix they sound incredible. They produce this certain grown in a fully mixed and finished song, especially with rhythm guitar playing, chords, and riffing, that is truly satisfying. The fact that they're not the highest output really make them bring out the best in whatever amp or plugin you're using.
The Evertune works nicely for recording and live sessions but it isn’t perfect and has its quirks and caveats. You do have to adjust the tuning heads to keep the strings in the perfect bending zone - the pitch doesn't go out of tune but the internal mechanisms that move in relation to changes in the strings do. So if you need to do frequent bends over time, and the conditions of the environment change frequently, you will still need to "tune" this guitar. If you don't do bends that often or do smaller bends, then there will be virtually no issues. The pitch does drift out of tune over time though, and I still recommend checking tuning at least once per recording or live session. You will get hooked on staying in perfect tune however, and hearing guitars being slightly out of tune after using an Evertune will drive you insane.
The fretboard has not cracked although I do oil all my guitars fretboards with every string change. The grain in ebony fretboards will naturally separate with time and has done so even on my ESP and Ibanez guitars. Conditioning the wood closes up the grain. Like all woods, its in a constant state of change depending on the environment.
The neck is not too thin and fret access is unparalleled. The neck feels like an ESP LTD with the width of a Fender or Ibanez, so if you like both of those, you will like this. Playing fast and shredding is good although this neck truly shines when you're riffing - this and all other Solar guitars are riff machines.
The body is more towards a Tele-style slab shape and the Evertune bridge is more low profile, so this does not have the feel of a tune-o-matic bridge. It's more closer to a hipshot, Floyd Rose, or Ibanez Edge feel.
Overall I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a less expensive metal workhorse guitar that you won’t mind getting damaged unlike a much more expensive guitar.
00:00 Introduction and not sponsored
00:22 Review summary to skip full video
00:35 Summary of sections
00:52 Full mix demo
01:41 Playing feel section
01:45 Balance on a strap
01:55 Body feel while playing
02:13 Evertune is lower profile
02:21 Ease of setup and tuning
03:14 Neck feel
03:37 Neck heel
04:14 Body cutaways by the neck
04:28 Lesser sustain
04:52 Fretboard has not cracked
05:01 Quality of materials
05:26 Dubious output jack
05:40 Evertune truths - it’s not perfect
06:09 Tune evertune to stay in bend zone
06:32 Higher string tension in bend zone
06:53 Saddles can get stuck
07:23 Overall evertune is good and useful
07:31 Sound and pickup discussion
08:11 Is this guitar worth it?
09:01 Outro