Palmer Custom FX The Solarist V2

The Solarist V2 is a fuzz pedal from Palmer Custom FX that combines two Fuzz Face circuits, one germanium and one silicon, with a Rangemaster treble boost, all in one box. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson called it a "Swiss Army Fuzz Face and Rangemaster combo," and the description fits: instead of choosing between germanium warmth and silicon aggression, you switch between them with a footswitch, and you can stack a Rangemaster-style boost on top¹.

The pedal carries both transistor families at once: 2 x GT404B and a 2N1308 germanium, plus 2 x NTE123, a 2N5458 and a BC108B silicon, with Ge/Si options on the Q1 and Q2 positions²¹. Delicious Audio's fuzz buying guide summed it up as "a Fuzz Face and Rangemaster-inspired fuzz+boost with separate footswitches and a variety of clipping options for each channel"³.

A Fuzz Face and Rangemaster in one pedal

The Solarist line is built on two classic circuits. The Fuzz Face side does the distortion, and the Rangemaster side is a treble booster, the same pairing many players used to achieve by putting a boost pedal in front of a fuzz. Here both live in one enclosure, each with its own footswitch, so you can run the fuzz alone, the boost alone, or both stacked¹³.

What separates the V2 from a straightforward clone is the component selection. Guitar Pedal X's reviewer, who owns both the V2 and the Solarist Green edition, wrote that "everything about these 2 pedals is top drawer," including the top quality audio transformers used as pickup simulators, which let you place the pedal anywhere in your signal chain rather than only first in line¹. The same reviewer later called both editions "superb"⁴.

The controls and footswitches

The Solarist V2 carries three footswitches, listed as the Red / Yellow Footswitch, the Fuzz Footswitch and the Range Master Footswitch¹. Its six knobs are Volume, Input A, Bias A, Input B, Bias B and Fuzz / Gain¹.

Alongside the knobs are the RM Range switch with Mid, Hi and Lo settings for the Rangemaster section, a Pickup Simulator On/Off switch, and the three footswitches: RM Boost, Mode A/B, and Fuzz¹.

The A/B Input and Bias design is the heart of the pedal. Each mode has its own input level and bias trim, so you can dial in two completely different fuzz voices and jump between them mid-song. Karlsson's verdict on this arrangement was blunt¹:

A/B modes

A Mode and B Mode are the two Fuzz Face voicings, each with independent Input and Bias settings¹. In his own use, Karlsson described keeping the Red A Mode "voicing a little more aggressive, Input A just knocked back a touch," while on B Mode he used the Trebly Cap option for a different character¹. Because the bias trims are per-mode, the two settings can sit at very different gain structures, which is where the pedal's range comes from: one mode can be a tight, aggressive silicon-style fuzz and the other a looser, warmer germanium-flavored voice, or any mix of the two¹.

The pickup simulator is worth a note here. Classic Fuzz Face circuits are sensitive to what feeds them, which is why they normally go first in the chain. The V2's audio-transformer pickup simulator removes that restriction, so the pedal can sit after overdrives or other fuzzes and still see a pickup-like signal¹.

Versions of the Solarist

Palmer Custom FX has built several versions of the Solarist, and the differences matter if you are comparing them¹⁴:

A reviewer who owns both the Solarist V2 and the Solarist Green Edition calls them "both superb," and describes the V2's A/B Input and Bias design as "wholly genius" with "ingenious and highly intuitive controls"¹.

The Green edition shares the exact same core components as the V2 but trims the feature set: you lose the third RM footswitch (boost moves to a toggle switch) and the Q2 Ge/Si option, meaning one less germanium transistor, 1 x GT404B plus 2N1308 germanium and 2 x NTE123 plus 2N5458 silicon¹². Karlsson noted the Green "delivers quite a distinct timbre and tonality not exactly matched by the V2" and is the more recently updated of the two circuits, with internal trim-pots including Q1 GE Refine and De-Noise that may eventually transition across to the V2¹².

The limited-edition Solarist SE is essentially the V2/V3 design in a V1-style enclosure, with Ge/Si Q1 and Q2 options (GT404B/BC108), dual Input and Bias controls, and a deep set of internal trimmers including Contour, Q2 Bias, Fetzer Valve Bias, Range Master Bias and Spit Mode options⁴.

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