gear award 2022

Ola Englundā€™s merry band of guitar builders serve up an affordable shred gem.

A killer, ultra-playable guitar with top components at a nice price.

The EverTune bridge and Fluence Modern pickups are very niche-specific components that could turn some players off.

$1.349

Solar GC1.6AFAB
solar-guitars.com

5
4.5
4.5
4.5

Ola Englund, YouTube sensation and guitarist for the Haunted and Feared, started Solar Guitars, his own line of high-quality instruments, in 2017. The company is based in Sant Gregori, Spain, and their guitars are made in Indonesia. But as the marvelously decked-out GC1.6AFAB reviewed here reveals, this collaborative formula is yielding killer results at relatively affordable prices.

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An overachieving overdrive that gets way bigger than its name suggests.

Sweet balanced crunch tones. Dynamic. Sparkling, full, and clean at attenuated guitar volume. High-quality build.

Pretty expensive.

$249

Great Eastern FX Small Speaker Overdrive
greateasternfx.com

5
4.5
4.5
4

Overdrive pedals donā€™t often set my world alightā€”even great ones. But Iā€™ve spent a month with the England-built Great Eastern FX Small Speaker Overdrive, and it remains attached to the other end of my coil-y cable. Ostensibly, the Small Speaker is meant to be a variation on the tweed-Fender-Champ-in-a-box theme. However, both the pedalā€™s name and the Champ associations fail to do justice to how large and alive it sounds and feels tethered to a bigger amp.

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A smart, potent boost thatā€™s much more than meets the eye.

A well-built and truly great-sounding boost/line-driver pedal boasting a handful of clever bonus functions.

Some buyers might find it a little pricey.

$199

Source Audio ZIO
sourceaudio.net

5
5
4.5
4.5

Source Audio nicknamed the new ZIO pedal ā€œthe Better Box,ā€ which is a fair summation of what this thing will do for your tone. Purists may rant endlessly about the virtues of plugging straight into an amp. But many legendary players understood that a little extra ā€œhotā€ between guitar and amp can add up to magic. From Jimmy Pageā€™s Echoplex preamp to Brian Mayā€™s Rangemaster to Angus Youngā€™s Schaffer-Vega wireless system, a lot of signature sounds have been shaped with a little extra kickā€”and often from unexpected sources that are something other than simple boosts. Source Audioā€™s first all-analog pedal is more than a conventional booster, too. And, to some degree, it celebrates these alternate paths to boosting tone.

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