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To say I'm a fan of Solar Guitars might be an understatement. A friend in Colorado sold me a Solar A2.4 bass a few years ago and I've loved the brand ever since. In 2020 I got an A2.6S that is still my go-to guitar. A little over a year ago I got an A2.6CAR (candy apple red) and it still stops me in my tracks when I see it.
Won an amazingly underpriced eBay auction for an A2.7FR in Lemon Neon back in late February and it's also a show stopper, looks wise. But, I have zero need for a Floyd Rose, but have wanted a 7 string to complement my Jackson HT7.
So I started looking again.
I've loved the Solar Canibalismo paint scheme since they first introduced it awhile back and actually ordered a red/black one last year, but the delivery date kept getting pushed back, so I cancelled the order.
When they intro'ed this one a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted one.
What really amazes me is the shipping speed. Ordered from Solar late last week, they shipped it from Spain the next day, it was on my doorstep in the Twin Cities yesterday. I had a Reverb seller on the other side of town take longer to send me a Bogner Mini a few months ago.
So far, every Solar I've bought has just wowed me right out of the box. The A2.6CAR needed absolutely nothing and was even in tune when I unwrapped it. So, my expectations were probably a little unrealistic with this one.
When I pulled it from the box the first thing I noticed was the strings looked old, and up between the nut and tuners the strings had some sort of black residue all over them - almost like the strings were on it when they splattered the black paint on - which I'm sure they didn't, but... (Canibalismo strings anyone?).
Then looking further, the fretboard was crazy dry and the fretboard doesn't line up quite right with the neck between the nut and first fret. None of that is a huge deal, but it took a little shine off the apple, unlike my other Solars.
I ran it through the Uber gain preset I have in my Fender GTX combo to see what the Solar+ pickup sounds like and, yeah, it is MEAN. Love that for sure.
Once I got off work, I brought it down into my "studio" and went to restring it. Pulled the dirty strings off, conditioned the fretboard and while doing so noticed the nut was really dusty. Maybe it's graphite put in the string slots to help them slide that then transferred to the fretboard and surrounding headstock? Dunno. Just another oddity compared to the other Solars.
In person, unless it has direct light on it, the green is much darker than I was expecting.
But it seems to brighten up a lot under the lights, which is kind of interesting. In the room it's a shade or two darker than these pictures would have you believe.
The Lemon Neon actually has some sort of fluorescence to it, that makes it "glow". This one doesn't do that, but it definitely looks different depending on the light source.
Either way, I dig it. Just not quite as "love at first sight" as I was with my other Solars. Kinda feel like if I could choose from several of these in a store, I'd have put this one back and grabbed another of the same model instead. But, that's the dice roll we take buying guitars online, right?
I think I'm set for Solars now (even though the Lemon Neon is for sale).
Won an amazingly underpriced eBay auction for an A2.7FR in Lemon Neon back in late February and it's also a show stopper, looks wise. But, I have zero need for a Floyd Rose, but have wanted a 7 string to complement my Jackson HT7.
So I started looking again.
I've loved the Solar Canibalismo paint scheme since they first introduced it awhile back and actually ordered a red/black one last year, but the delivery date kept getting pushed back, so I cancelled the order.
When they intro'ed this one a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted one.
What really amazes me is the shipping speed. Ordered from Solar late last week, they shipped it from Spain the next day, it was on my doorstep in the Twin Cities yesterday. I had a Reverb seller on the other side of town take longer to send me a Bogner Mini a few months ago.
So far, every Solar I've bought has just wowed me right out of the box. The A2.6CAR needed absolutely nothing and was even in tune when I unwrapped it. So, my expectations were probably a little unrealistic with this one.
When I pulled it from the box the first thing I noticed was the strings looked old, and up between the nut and tuners the strings had some sort of black residue all over them - almost like the strings were on it when they splattered the black paint on - which I'm sure they didn't, but... (Canibalismo strings anyone?).
Then looking further, the fretboard was crazy dry and the fretboard doesn't line up quite right with the neck between the nut and first fret. None of that is a huge deal, but it took a little shine off the apple, unlike my other Solars.
I ran it through the Uber gain preset I have in my Fender GTX combo to see what the Solar+ pickup sounds like and, yeah, it is MEAN. Love that for sure.
Once I got off work, I brought it down into my "studio" and went to restring it. Pulled the dirty strings off, conditioned the fretboard and while doing so noticed the nut was really dusty. Maybe it's graphite put in the string slots to help them slide that then transferred to the fretboard and surrounding headstock? Dunno. Just another oddity compared to the other Solars.
In person, unless it has direct light on it, the green is much darker than I was expecting.
But it seems to brighten up a lot under the lights, which is kind of interesting. In the room it's a shade or two darker than these pictures would have you believe.
The Lemon Neon actually has some sort of fluorescence to it, that makes it "glow". This one doesn't do that, but it definitely looks different depending on the light source.
Either way, I dig it. Just not quite as "love at first sight" as I was with my other Solars. Kinda feel like if I could choose from several of these in a store, I'd have put this one back and grabbed another of the same model instead. But, that's the dice roll we take buying guitars online, right?
I think I'm set for Solars now (even though the Lemon Neon is for sale).
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The grandpa Springsteen natural finish metal tele is in that same boat. It's mainly the inlays I don't dig.
