🔥 Rise of signature guitar brands — as told by SOLAR founder Ola Englund

The unstoppable rise of signature guitar brands — as told by SOLAR founder Ola Englund

With more artist products available today than ever before, and an entire movement of guitar brands run and owned by musicians, we take a deep dive into the evolution of signature gear with the help of SOLAR Guitars founder Ola Englund.

Rewind two and a half decades and it was perfectly normal to see signature instruments created in collaboration with some of the biggest artists on the planet.

You could walk into any high-end music store and find Gibson Les Paul models customized for legends like Slash, Joe Perry and Gary Moore, or Fender Strat guitars carrying the names of Eric Clapton, Yngwie Malmsteen and Jeff Beck.

Just a few steps away on the Ibanez wall, you’d discover guitars co-designed with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and George Benson, while elsewhere you might encounter ESP models tailored for fans of George Lynch, Ronnie Wood and Stephen Carpenter.

And it wasn’t just about guitars. Over the years, we’ve grown used to seeing artists develop their own amps, pedals, pickups, plug-ins, slides and strings — giving fans more and more ways to recreate the sounds of their heroes.

Today, it feels like players of every caliber have their own signature gear — from young acoustic virtuoso Marcin and Australian singer-songwriter Tash Sultana to modern blues torchbearers Jared James Nichols and Tyler Bryant, all of whom are still carving their names into legend.

And it’s not only shred virtuosos, jazz explorers and pentatonic powerhouses launching custom instruments. In recent years, Fender has released signature guitars for mainstream R&B stars like Bruno Mars, Steve Lacy and Raphael Saadiq — proving just how wide the playing field for artist models has become.

The birth of the signature brand

One of the defining trends of the past decade has been the rise of the “signature brand” — a movement kick-started by Zakk Wylde, who walked away from long-standing partnerships with Gibson and Marshall to launch his own company, Wylde Audio, in 2015 with Schecter.

Two years later, Animals As Leaders mastermind Tosin Abasi followed suit, leaving Ibanez to start Abasi Concepts. Ola Englund of The Haunted made the same move, parting ways with Washburn to create SOLAR Guitars. Nuno Bettencourt also left Washburn to launch Nuno Guitars.

So what drives a guitarist with an established endorsement deal to start again from scratch — this time as CEO of their own brand?

“Honestly, it all came from frustration”

“Honestly, it came from frustration,” Englund explains. “Before SOLAR Guitars, I had signature models with other brands, but I kept seeing outdated business models and distribution systems that just didn’t work in today’s fast-moving, social-media-driven world. I felt there was a better way to connect directly with players and deliver guitars without all the old barriers.”

While most companies try to juggle a wide range of styles, sounds and players, Englund has discovered that running a brand with a focused niche allows him to concentrate on what truly matters.

As the old saying goes, a jack-of-all-trades often ends up mastering none — and for visionaries like Englund and Abasi, guitar gear is no exception.

“Our greatest strength is focus”

“Our main strength is focus,” says Englund, who has also built a reputation as a gear tester and interviewer on his popular YouTube channel. “We’re not trying to make guitars for everyone in every genre. We’re building guitars for the metal community. That’s where our energy goes, and I think players can feel that dedication in the instruments we release.”

He notes that the trend of artists leaving major brands to launch their own companies is hardly surprising. It has never been easier to source parts and work directly with factories, effectively cutting out the middlemen.

The freedom and flexibility that come from a direct relationship between designer and manufacturing teams in Indonesia, China, France and Spain are simply impossible to ignore.

A direct line to the fans

“I think a lot of artists feel the same way I do,” Englund says. “They already have a platform and an audience, and they know that audience because they interact with them through social media. One of the biggest challenges in this industry is reaching people in such a crowded market. Having a direct connection with fans is a perfect springboard for starting something of your own.”

Now, as the head of his own company, if Englund wants something to happen, he can make it happen — without waiting for budgets to be approved or decisions to crawl through layers of management.

“I’m proud of what we’ve built”

As a result, the SOLAR lineup has expanded into a wide range of guitar shapes, basses, pedals and accessories, including artist models for Down and Crowbar riff wizard Kirk Windstein, At The Gates guitarist Anders Björler, Blind Guardian’s Marcus Siepen — as well as Englund himself.

“Our best-selling model is the Type A,” he adds. “It’s a modern take on the Superstrat. When you see it, you instantly know it’s built for metal. Our more extreme designs, like the Type X, have also become very popular because they stand out visually while still being built for performance.

I’m proud of what we’ve achieved. We’re a no-bullshit company with a strong community feel. It’s not about dealers, distributors or bureaucracy. I’m bringing it back to the player level and thinking about what people actually want.”