Finnish issues? I thought Ola was Swedish!!!

The great question is: how their customer service is solving the issues? Every brand can and will have issues. How they solve them is the difference between a good brand and a crap.

Let me tell you a story, of why I'm so fucking impressed with LTD. I was squeezing the ass out of a starving artists budget, for two identical stage guitars. Having played everything in budget, it came down to Ibanez, Jackson, and LTD. My guitar shop hooked me up with the LTD UK distributer, on the phone, right there. It was THEY who suggested that I could get a deal on two 'factory seconds'. I said, "fine. I care not at all about finish issues, as long as the playability is unaffected". As I was not even fussy about colour, they sent me two down, through my local store, for £240 IN TOTAL. Then it took me and the store owner an hour to find the issues... a chip on the very tippy top of the headstock on one, some dust in the spraycoat on the neck-heel (no backplate on these, right there) near the pocket. A week later they rang back to make sure I was happy. Thus, is brand loyalty born.

Problem is, there's a lot of US customers who are getting shafted as they're having to pay a large sum extra to send the defective guitars back that shouldn't have gone out in the first place, solar should cover these costs.

I was excited to learn about my EU consumer rights until I realised that I live in the U.K.

My Solar 7 string does indeed have a cracked fret board. It doesn't really affect the playability that I have noticed.

Cracked fingerboards have nothing to do with QC, its fundamental manufacturing flaws - very likely some ebony boards have not been dried properly to 8% or below, plus a huge pointy inlay and when the guitar ends up in a drier environment, you get those nice cracks

Facebook groups are the septic tank of the internet

"I hate guitar players." Seriously. Guitarists aren't people.

Get him guys!!!! He got a T-shirt!!!!!

I think part of the problem that people have with Solar is that they are (or have given the impression that they are) an extremely online company. Through his KZfaq channel and his connections with other players, Ola has made Solar seem more open and accessible than other guitar companies. Therefore, people expect them to be more responsive to complaints.

"If you have an issue, just contact customer service and they'll take care of you" Wise words sir.

Every single one of those fretboard pictures looked very dry. I'd guess most are in northern hemisphere winter which is why the cracks are coming out. A guitar going from Indonesia in November to Spain in January, to Finland/Canada in February is asking a lot of the wood. Not saying that Solar shouldn't help out but wood is an organic material and sometimes it cracks with moisture/temperature changes.

You can always pick guitarists out of the crowd when playing live, they just stand their with their arms crossed looking angry.

Not gonna lie, a cracked fretboard with wood filler in the cracks would be a metal as fuck aesthetic

Just to put this in context - We have sold well over 50,000 guitars in my time and I cannot remember a single guitar developing a crack in the fretboard - that's over 26 years. To see SO many cracked fretboards on such a niche brand is definitely a major issue. Anyone for whom this occurs should return the guitar regardless of warranty period.

I hope Solar does good with the customer service. Im really cheering for Ola!

I've played sub $500 guitars my whole life and never had anything even close to this happen

1:08 im so glad theres a boat, you never know when you'll need it

Bribed with a Tshirt? Lol what do they think he is, an 80s groupie?

It looks like on a couple of those fretboards that the inlay was jammed in without enough tolerance, so when the board shrinks in different humidity, and the inlay doesn't, the board loses. That's such a shame. I really hope Ola finds a way to fix this moving forward, and compensate those affected. I'm a fan of his, so I hope this all works out.

KDH seems to have become the guitar police when it comes to consumer advocacy and ethics. I appreciate the content, but I don't wanna pigeon hole the dude. Good show KDH!

Timber had high moisture content when milled and glued up, subsequently dried out in time: cracks

I appreciate your genuine reviews

cracked wood isn't a case of quality control as often as it is a case of proper handling and transportation, humidity and temperature conditions while shipping, sat in warehouses, and generally being jostled around in an unstable/changing state while the wood is relatively fragile as it adjusts to different climactic conditions could easily cause this, might explain the weird delamination of the decals as well. guitars need to be looked after, and in the ongoing pandemic situation makes it harder for the logistics workers, who already do not know what they are doing to take proper care of these instruments in transit. i'd suggest that the factory Solars are made in includes something to act as a humidifier, under the normal plastic bag arrangement that it comes with in the box, if that helps nothing and these issues keep happening, then the factory isn't sourcing properly dried timber.

A friend of mine got one and they contacted him about how the guitar had a small ding and they offered a full refund or a reduced price. I don't know Ola personally but I've met him back in the day. I also know people that do know him and my old guitarist has covered for him on gigs and stuff. My impression of him is that he is a 100% legit dude. Too bad he didn't want to do an interview, tho I know he hates that stuff, but maybe we can get him to bring it up at an upcoming SWOLA or OLA FAQ?

If i were a customer with an issue I'd contact the company vs wait around for a public response to facebook group conversations. 🤷‍♂️

“I asked Ola if I could read this out and here is what he has to say” *KZfaq cuts to ad* sick

I have 3 Solars .... all are great so far. Going on 1.5 years on 2 of them. 6 months for the other.

literally on the verge of dropping coin on a Solar, this info is eye opening. I have 80/90s guitars that have zero issues. That's a worry. I have never seen a cracked fretboard like that. Ever.

Dude. I would testify against my own Mother in open court for a nice t-shirt.

Glad I held off on purchasing one. I have a beautiful LTD Delux with ebony fretboard that is perfect for 8 years now.

By EU law you should be able to return the guitar for free. Why is Solar asking you to pay the shipping cost? Finally someone asking this question.

Good thing Ola came out and said they’ll take any cracked ones back! And they also cover any of your costs at a shop if they arrive defective, if you choose to go that route

A fretboard cracking on a new $700+ guitar after a year is a HUGE red flag. I have multiple $200 new guitars that have been in a garage, no case, for years. No cracks. Disappointing out of Solar, but not surprising.

I like the way you come across as genuine and straight up. Thanks for these videos...

Here before Ola Solar Guitars are cool and I hope they fix these quality control issues soon. Still better quality control than Gibson in my opinion.

These fretboard cracks are not the end of the world when/if they happen. I'm not sure about the cracked maple, but cracks in Ebony are an easy fix. A luthier will sand a little bit to create a little bit of dust, then mix the dust and some resin and use it to fill the cracks. I had an ebony board once that was fixed this way and it came out perfect. Probably works with maple too I'd imagine

Ola seems like a decent bloke. I'm sure it's worrying to have issues with your guitar like that, hopefully the effected customers will be seen right. I'm sure they will. I like ola, and whilst his guitars don't appeal to me, I'd like to see the company succeed.

A lot of pride and Dunning Krueger lives in the guitar player world. Can’t force people to be introspective either. I’m kind of a Jackson guy, and I see the same thing on their forum. Even within the fanboys, it’s the MIJ’s against the USA’s, the Floyd’s against the hard tails... and everyone thinks they’re right. It’s like everyone forgot why they started playing in the first place, and that the whole experience is subjective. It’s ok to like all kinds of music, and all kinds of guitars. It’s also ok to really like a certain brand, and still admit that they’re not perfect. I do Ola’s riff challenges sometimes, and I’ve been really surprised at how positive and supportive his little community is, as guitar communities can be really toxic. I’m not the biggest fan of Solar, I kind of think they’re overpriced (maybe because he throws evertunes in most of them). But I definitely want to see the brand succeed because Ola (like him or not) is a hub for many really positive music related things. Anyway... my 2c...

Bribed with a tshirt. That’s amazing. Dude, you could take that as a compliment.

That statement was 100% not written by Ola lol. That was a copy-pasted damage control statement they had on deck exactly for this eventuality.

I like how he just airs people out with a calm Terminator like demeanor.

ESP / LTD are still the best QC bang for buck mid-range guitars. have been for over ten years now.

Moral of the story: never trust an Irishman wearing a T-shirt.🤠

Hey gang! I wanted to ad my two cents in the matter. Bear in mind this is just a theory. Indonesia has a much higher moisture level climate-wise. This could be theoretically the source of the problem. So they produce the guitar in a high moisture climate, then ship it to say Spain where the general moisture level is lower. The moist wood discharges the moisture (evaporates it), thus forcing the wood fibers to contract and producing the crack. Side note: I owned a Epiphone Lee Malia Explorer made in Indonesia. There were no wood problems with it, but when I received it from Thomann one of the frets had surface level corrosion on it and the gig bag had moisture stains on it.No biggy (some fine grit sandpaper and it was better than new)but comes to show you that some guitars coming from Indonesia are soaked. Edit: I ain’t bashing on Ola

I just bought a Solar and when it arrived the fretboard came pre-cracked... neat, also the binding was cracking where the frets were.

I know its a lot of work, but John Suhr and Peter Stapfer and Peter Diezel, are in their groups on Facebook every day. They reply. Make suggestions to try to help resolve stuff, and provide customer service themselves. Both Peters from Diezel reached out to me to be facebook friends when I posted about buying a used Diezel amp in a forum. This is the new customer service model. The companies I've mentioned have existed since before the internet though, so they've grown with this idea. Ola is transitioning from KZfaq personality to Guitar MFG owner. There's almost nothing related in the business types. It would be to his credit if he addressed some of the issues publicly on his channel or in social media. To be honest, I've seen the same thing happen to Kiesel guitars with ebony boards. I've heard less issues about his brand than either Chapman or Abasi. Why are people picking on Ola specifically?

To be honest, Jackson has a lot of cracked or damaged fretboards. Even mine had, the point of a headstock broken off, very badly actually.

Having been apart of that FB group and owning 2 Solars myself...I've never been involved in a group that gives me so much anxiety when scrolling fb haha! Even seeing this video makes me want to run to my music room and check both my guitars with a torch for any signs of 'cracking'...

I’ve worked in manufacturing for many years. When demand goes up, qc usually suffers. The way that qc works with thousands of pieces of material is- qc will randomly pick X-amount of fingerboard and body wood and test it for moisture content, cracks, knots etc. If a certain % passes, the whole lot of material is signed off, ready for production. $1K+ is not that much for a guitar these days (you can thank the big companies for that), and with the guitar market as saturated as it presently is, competition for the demand manifests itself in issues like this. If Solar wants to survive, these things will change.

TBH you're pretty much the only KZfaqr that I feel can be trusted in terms of whether your opinion is genuine or not.

I had the same issue out of the box. The guitar had neck finish flaking off and the ends of the frets were finished horribly. It took alot of emails and effort for Solar to acknowledge that there was an issue. In the end they offered a refund. It was not delightful experience.

Never got into the Solar guitars. Didn’t like Chapman guitars either.

I liked the look and feature sets of Solars at first, but the prices didn’t line up with the quality level. Not surprising at all given we saw all this happen with Chapman just a few years ago.

That statement was NOT Ola. That was a Solar marketing person. Guaranteed

When you read Ola's statement, I still heard it in his voice. Burps and all.

I have 2 solar guitars that I purchased about 1 year ago and they are still in great condition.

Back in the day (TM) Guitars were made in the country were the brand was actually based and to some extent from domestic woods (exceptions apply). Wood was slowly grown, stored for optimal humidity (if it had to for years) and then crafted in to a Guitar. These days wood is grown industrially, chopped down, quickly dried and then CNC'ed on the spot. In Indonesia an other countries with high humidity. Before the glue and paint is dried (overemphasized for dramatic effect) the guitars are shipped to all around the world. If a guitar that was made last month in Indonesia and is unpacked in say Arizona today might react to the rapid shift of humidity and climate. No guitar company that proudces like that is safe from these issues.

Ok long winded comment but i hope this clears up why this happens to solar guitars and old washburn solars. This is due to the inlays and not a lack of quality or subpar timbre. The solar logo on the wood has very sharp ends. This creates what's known in engineering as a stress concentration. The sharp corners amplify the stress at those points. What's worse is that the sharp ends of the inlays point vertically along the fretboard with the grain of the wood. This means that over time as the wood expands and contracts and goes through stress cycles you get tiny cracks along the grain of the boundaries of the wood which end up expanding. Only way to fix this is to change the inlay to something less sharp and more radiused. (which i dont think ola would do as its a established brand logo). Early planes that had square windows (The de Havilland Comet) crashed because the edges of the windows would create stress concentration over lots pressurization cycles and cause the fuselage to crack. As a result, all modern airliners have very rounded window edges. Only ways I can see Ola can fix this while still keeping the current logo is by either using decals instead of inlays. or cut the wood slightly larger and more radiused that the inlay and use filler around it to reduce the stress concentrations. Its sad that Olas getting so much hate over this because he makes really good guitars and sells them for a very fair price and these cracks aren't something that will happen at the factory QC stage as they take time and stress cycles to happen (much like the hairline cracks you eventually get at the neck joint of most bolt on neck guitars). I just hope he tries to fix this small flaw in the design of his guitar instead of pulling a Gibson and making the shitty flawed design for 60 years.

Once you contact Solar, they tell you it's your fault the ebony cracked and it's not covered. At least that's what happened to me. So if they are changing their tune on this, I'm wondering will they pay for my repair?

My LTD of 14 years has fewer issues compare to my Solar E2.6 from 1 year....

Cracked fretboards is a critical flaw with the builder..Quality builders stand behind their products..not belittle the buyer.

I have owned a lot of Indonesian made guitars over the years, and lived near Indonesia for many years. I always check all Indonesian guitars when I get them and make sure they have not suffered from dried out fretboards due to Canada being a lot drier a climate than islands in the South China seas. I usually lubricate all of them within 3 months after changing the strings for the first time and then adjusting the action as it usually changes intonation which tells me they are drying out. If you use the right lube, this usually eliminates the problems as the wood adapts to the climate eventually and doesn't dry out.

I totally understand possible environmental issues and I’ll even slightly concede possible mistreatment by the player I guess. But have to say cracked fretboards as seen in those pictures is flat out NOT something you see very often. On any guitar from any brand. Simply attributing it to shipping or the player not conditioning the fretboard doesn’t add up to me personally. Those cracks looked quite severe in my opinion.

As a solar owner I am a little frustrated that ola himself hasn't made a statement on this, I am continuing to check mine for any defects

Why the Jem had a vine and not an inlay that takes up 3 frets...wood and plastic expand from heat at different rates; wood especially from humidity. Get your custom inlays wood on wood.

The problem is the stupid gigantic logo in the middle of the fretboard. Washburn Solar had the same problem. The wood shrink and expend and this huge logo in the middle stands in the way and the fretboard cracks underneath most of the time.

Thanks for the info my dude. This is a great channel. You seem genuine and your pulling the curtain over these fake guitar personalities out there. Fresh change of pace hearing a talented guitar player who is pretty darn humble and cool person. Thanks for the material and I hope you give out another one of the big fat picks again cause I'm gonna be the first person to enter to win it. I'm a total pick nerd brother lol.❤

Cracking wood generally happens in younger uncured wood or if you heat treat it and fuck about with the timing of the process. I'm a woodworker and a guitar player but ebony was always expensive wood and it was bizarre to see the guitar making industry pick it up and start using it as a common component. With regards to the roasted maple stuff. And all the variations that exist, it's a process that needs attention if you want it to be successful. Cracked wood literally slips through QC checking as well because of how long it can take.

Well. To be honest I had different issue with my Solar guitar. In 2018 I bought Solar V 2.6 White. I ordered it from Thomann. The guitar was working fine. I found out that there is a problem with the humbucker or the electronics inside the guitar. Every time I wanted to use the neck or bridge pickup and I was using the switch, the pickups werent working. The sound was so quiet that I couldnt hear the guitar. Thomann offered me to send the guitar back to their shop. After a few months I bought my second V, which was V1.6 BOP from Solar, and guess what? Another guitar and the same issue. I tried contacting Ola. I wrote to Solar Guitars. Send them few mails. I didnt get the response. I still have the videos with that issue, and I remember that I sent them all of information about that issue. Weird thing. The V1.6 doesnt have any cracks, but still... I dont know why they didnt answer.

when he said "I hate guitar players" I felt that

All famous brands, Ibanez, Jackson, ESP etc, have way more experienced personnel to check the quality of their guitars. But let’s see some Thomann prices: ESP LTD MH-1000 FM STBLK with evertune and EMG 81/85 costs 919 pounds. Solar Guitars V1.6 Canibalismo with evertune b u t with duncan/solar pickups costs 925 pounds. Solar Guitars GC1.6D LTD Aged Natural with an evertune and with duncan/solar designed costs 925. Same can be said for Solar Guitars S1.6 PP So, Solar, with evertune, but without original pickups, costs more that an LTD with evertune and EMG’s. Thus, I’m not convinced at all. Ola seems to be a cool guy (which of course is very general since we cannot judge people through KZfaq videos), but that doesn’t justify the price. I don’t have a clue who was responsible for making my Ibanez and Jackson, but I’m extremely satisfied and that’s what matters. (same comment in the other video)

Ive had my solar for around a year and never had an issue. I dont know if it is just mine. Keep in mind that i take great care of it always conditioning the fretboard and treating it with as much care as i can. The only thing that it has is that the logo has bubbled up a little but never with my fretboard or anything. I personally love it and have had great experiences with their customer support. Im not saying that its the fault of the people that have their guitar cracking but maybe my guitar hasnt had this because its over a year old. Maybe their QC has been affected by Covid or maybe their qc has just gotten worse

My solar arrived with pallet jack holes going through the hardshell case and shipping box. Don't tell any Solar/Ola fan boys. They always try to tell me I'm lying and just making stuff up...

It is maybe about environment dryness, lack of humidity regarding season and weather?

I bought a solar guitar got it and the pickups came rusted and scratched and tried getting touch with them a few times and never heard a word back from them at all. Not even a sorry to hear that we will try and do better after paying 1400$ for a guitar.

Hope they resolve their wood/finish qc issues. I like ola and his brand. I dont own a solar, and probably wont until they fix this issue. I considered a 7 string from them with evertune because it is a good value. But at this point id rather pay $600 more and get a custom kiesel.

"Orientated" is not a word. Carry on.

this could be a material issue. if the wood is not dry enough it will crack. but, being made in Indonesia and being sent across the oceans, being submitted to extreme contitions, it´s a wonder any guitar makes it unharmed. and that goes for all and any brand

The problem is that many people respond to a problem by complaining online instead of actually doing something productive. If you get a defective product you contact the seller and work it out. It sucks to have to do that, but that is part of life.

Is this really a Solar-specific thing? "Their" factory makes guitars for other brands, so I would expect those to have to same issue unless they have QC in whatever climate they are being sold in. (and if that is the case, there's the solution.)

My Solar Story: First, let me be clear: I DO NOT have a Solar guitar. I like Ola and was interested in adding a guitar with an Evertune bridge to my collection. I play only 10s and 11s on my 25.5" scale guitars and all of the guitars on the site came with 9s. I contacted their customer service an asked whether they could swap the strings before shipping (I offered to pay for the strings and any service fee they deemed appropriate for their time). They emailed me a simple "No." I was a little surprised by the blunt response and reiterated that I would pay for the change. Again they responded (slightly longer that time) that they wouldn't make any changes and I had to buy the guitar "as is". I then asked if the guitar came with info on how to reset the intonation on the Evertune after I swapped the strings and never got a response at all. I sent another request a month or so later and, again, got no response. This was back in late 2018. Not a great start.

Guitars die in hot cars! Humidity inside a living tree is very different to your location. Rush it through the supply chain (cheaper) and you get what you pay for, which is indirect if solar are profit motivated (when failure rate is too high)

I never played a newer solar. I had a Washburn solar from back in the day and I remember it being a really good guitar. The fretboard made my fingers so black though. Worse I ever experienced. I’ve dealt with the black finger phenomenon many times from various brands. Wether it’s dyed fretboards or dirty wood or whatever it may be, this was the worst. My finger tips looked like I dipped them in printer ink and then tried to wipe it off with a dry paper towel. Once that abated it was a good guitar and I’ve been debating trying one of the newer ones out. I still may. I live in the states and I had a warranty repair with origin effects. This is like 2-3 months ago so during covid. They said that I would have to pay for the shipping there but they would pay for the shipping back. This is after I had to make a video to show them the issue and have them verify it was indeed not my fault. I agreed because the pedal was like 700 bucks. It’s a custom revival drive. I go to ship it and the cheapest option was like 250 bucks. I didn’t send it. Covid has really wreaked havoc on shipping costs. I’ve read articles talking about free shipping may not be a thing in the coming times. So, I can kind of understand a company not wanting or being able to pay those prices for repair shipping etc. I’m not saying it’s right and I certainly didn’t feel good when I wrote origin telling them about the shipping issue and they were like sorry bro. It sucked and I was pissed. As a customer when you spend a lot of money on something you hope the manufacturer does the right thing. It’s good to hear that Ola seems to be doing right by people with issues. Has anyone said that they contacted customer support and was denied or was treated poorly by solar?

Guess part of it, is you have been a pretty straight shooter. You're becoming trusted by the community. It's a double edge sword.

its probably the combo of high humidity and hand done (chiseled) inlay ; many of the cracks in pictures were originating at the sharp tip of an inlay. And the fretboard wood thickness is where margins are made on most guitars nowadays, thinner wood should probably not have inlays (which are silly anyway, the player can't see them!)

Wonder if the recent anecdotal damage has been due to the wicked chilly winter this year, half frozen guitars being chucked around in a van can't be particularly good

There's no way Ola wrote that letter himself.

From the perspective of someone looking to buy an 8 string in this price range and has discounted solar out of hands for this issue: why would anyone choose to roll the dice if a cracked fretboard is not covered in the warranty?! It would be insane to buy one one of these guitars based on repairs/replacements being provided as a matter of goodwill. Or genuinely am I missing something?

About 2 to 3 years ago I bought a Solar Guitar with Bolt on neck. The fretboard was alright but it had some issues: The first was a bit more annoying: The Fretboard was not exactly stright in the bolt on region which caused heavy fret buzz in this region. I wasn't able to adjust the action as low as I would normally do. The others were not as bad: Backplate was a bit to tight, so it was really difficult to take it off. And the screws in the back of the Floyd Rose were not directing straight into the wood which made it a bit more difficult to adjust it but it still worked out alright. This guitar was 899 € back then and for this price it was acceptable. Still I sold it after some time because the problem with the action meant that it was less playable then my other guitars. But the same guitar today costs 1099 €. And for this price, I expect the problems to be fixed. Currently I'm wating for the A1.6FR Vinter to be released. Maybe I will give it a shot if it is the "special of the day". But this time I will immediately return it, if it has any issues.

Of the 40 or so geetars I have owned over the years I have never experienced a cracked fret board. ‘nuff said.

...20 year old Squier laughs in the corner

I've asked several times if people had reported this issue to solar and the majority replied with no. Its just more convenient to complain on fb. Its become more of a group of people wanting attention rather than goto solar to fix their issue and has become such a negative forum because of it. If it was my guitar I would have went straight to solar with my issue and if it wasn't resolved with them then I would have taken it up on the forum.

My ~2 y/o Solar has had some problems with the electronics and the Floyd. Right out of the box the locking nut would shift whenever you used the bridge which was annoying, but an easy fix at home so no customer service required. Then the volume pot started crackling whenever you’d use it. After that, the wound string would pop when pulling back on the Floyd. I’ve taken the guitar for repairs about twice now for the latter problems but they keep coming back. Mine seems to be an anomaly though since I haven’t seen anyone with these particular problems.

I went guitar shopping about a a month or so ago as I was getting rid of the three guitars I already had (for those who care, I had an Eiphone Jason Hook M4 explorer, Schecter Demon-7 and a Chapman (yes THAT chapman) ghost fret V2) I opted to sell them all in favour of one quite expensive guitar. I had initially looked into buying a Solar guitar but remembered KDH's initial report on the QC problems and promptly bought a Schecter Banshee-7. So glad I didn't buy a Solar

People just don't know how to maintain their guitars. If it's not shipped to them like that, it's not a QC issue in my opinion.

Dunno why, but I just don't feel inclined to by products that come from lines started by people who got 'famous' reviewing gear on KZfaq. I'm an old fart now. I remember when we used to want to get equipment developed and endorsed by people/companies who made their name, career and money from recording, performing and playing. Check out this amp developed for Eddie Van Halen to use on his next tour.... Vs, check out this guitar from a company started by a guy who does generic reviews of distortion pedals on KZfaq.

Did a set up on a Solar last week. I think it was a few years old. It had a crack in the fretboard around the OLA logo edges. The neck has also gotten a bit of a warp around the 12th fret so you couldn't get the neck straight. I really liked the guitar though, it felt nice, sounded really nice and I'm thinking my next guitar will probably be a Solar.

I just noticed something in the pics of the cracks in the fret boards , it looks to me like the cracks are coming from the sharp point that's routed out from the logo inlay , it looks like the sharp point is causing the wood to split in that area, maybe if the wood grain is running straight with the logo point in the route it causes it to begin to crack , I'm sure this could be easily remedied tho !