NGD #2! Solar E-Type

RevDrucifer

Fractal Fanatic
This one showed up today and holyyyyy sheeeeeit is it a beast!!!!

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I've wanted an Explorer for years and when I saw Ola was making them with Solar, I knew I was going to be getting one. The specs are too hard to argue; stainless steel frets, locking tuners, Evertune bridge, glow in the dark side dots, ebony fingerboard, mahogany body with a flame top. This is my first Evertune guitar and I was a bit concerned as I've heard people discuss tone suck with them but if this thing is sucking tone, than this guitar must be FULL OF IT.

Despite mainly being a chugga chugga guy, aside from I'm ripping off Floyd or Big Wreck, I don't own a decidedly 'metal' guitar. This will definitely not be my last Solar. I got this from their outlet store which sells scratch and dent models. THIS is what made it a factory second-


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So if that's any indication of the quality, that's not a bad sign! It came from Spain, went through several states into the hot Florida weather and when I pulled it out of the gigbag, it was in tune. :tearsofjoy: The frets are stellar, finish is great, it's smooth as hell. I was initiall thinking I was going to put a set of Devin Townsend Fishman's in it because I love them so much, but I'm digging these Duncan Solar's quite a bit! The neck is a little thicker/rounder than I expected and that's not to say it's big by any means, for some reason I was just expecting something flatter. This is definitely the heaviest guitar I own, figuratively and literally.

The Evertune was really easy to set up, took about 25 minutes from start to finish and that's including learning how it all works. I put the strings on, tuned/intonated it then plugged it in, checked that it was in tune then went crazy bending the shit out of the strings. I did not stretch them at all previously, hit a big open C (I'm in drop C) and it was dead nuts in tune. I really can't get over this thing all around! I've been a Floyd Rose guy more than anything else my whole guitar playing life, but I absolutely love this thing. I tend to go a little crazy checking my tuning every take when I record. No more of that!

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Congrats! Evertune is a game changer imo.

Of all the shit that’s been released with the phrase “Game changer” attached to it, this is the only thing I’d consider worthy of it. I’ve been recording an album for a while now and have gotten increasingly anal about tuning/intonation. I layer the shit out of my songs with either guitars, strings or synths and the smallest tuning issue will drive me up a wall. Not tuning between every take now is going to save at least 2 hours from each song.

I’d be hard pressed to consider a fixed bridge guitar without one of these. String changes are going to take 5 minutes now, between the locking tuners and the Evertune. I tracked some guitars for some of my songs last night using this to compare it to the Ibanez SZ/Fishman’s I’ve been using to track with and man, I’m digging the tones with this much more, to the point I’m most likely going to re-track all the heavy guitars with it. Even the non-modern metal stuff I go for with Friedman/Cantrell tones, it’s just KILLER!

All I want to do is go home and play it!
 
Every now and again I get explorer GAS. This doesnt help! Unable to try one first though, which helps immensely.

Oh, be careful, if you call it an Explorer around Greg McPatches he’ll get all bent out of shape and write a 6 foot post about how it’s not an Explorer that will probably end with something to do with Clint Eastwood and animals bones or something. :D

It doesn’t feel like a Gibson Explorer at all, not any I’ve ever played. Feels a bit beefier. I think that’s what surprised me the most about this, it just feels like It was carved out of a giant piece of wood, it doesn’t feel like it’s multiple pieces of wood glued together. I don’t think I’ve played a guitar with a neck quite like this, it’s just big enough to fill my hand comfortably and very round, but not limiting in any way. I was expecting a much flatter back to it, knowing Ola’s played a ton of Ibanez’s over the years, but there’s nothin’ flat about it at all! A medium C is probably the best description.
 
Explorer has to be one of the coolest body types ever. Enjoy!!

I used to HATE Explorers with a passion, I thought they were so damn ugly! I think it was just seeing Hetfield for so long, that silhouette just screams “metal frontman” to me and in the last 5 years I fell in love with that shape. The extra cuts on it make it a bit more comfortable than a normal Explorer, too. My forearm doesn’t get banged up as much.

It definitely screams “I play metal!” :D
 
Cool! Congratulations.

Now you should bring it to play at the nearest jazz public jam session 🤘

My former bass player/great friend, possibly the most metal dude I’ve ever met in my life, quit playing in metal bands recently and joined a bluegrass band, playing upright bass. He’s invited me to sit in a few times and the timing hasn’t worked out and I’d need to learn their set, but I would totally rock this if they were playing in C!

I was really surprised with the tones I was able to pull out of it. It obviously does metal just fine, but I was thinking that rolling back the volume would produce a brittle tone as the gain dialed back due to the pickups being more suited for metal; not the case at all. If I’m not doing scooped 5150/Dual Rec/MK IV tones, I’m doing Friedman/Cantrell tones and this had no problem going between the two or with anything else I threw at it. I’m really surprised at how well these pickups sound!
 
I used to HATE Explorers with a passion, I thought they were so damn ugly! I think it was just seeing Hetfield for so long, that silhouette just screams “metal frontman” to me and in the last 5 years I fell in love with that shape. The extra cuts on it make it a bit more comfortable than a normal Explorer, too. My forearm doesn’t get banged up as much.

It definitely screams “I play metal!” :D
To me, it says 'southern rock', specifically Allen Collins....
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