Sarno Music Solutions Solar Flare Distortion

The Solar Flare Distortion is a distortion pedal from Sarno Music Solutions, described by Pedal of the Day as "the Solar Flare is a distortion for the ages." It is a 100% analog, hard-clipping distortion pedal, meaning the clipping that creates the dirt happens with hard-limited signal peaks, a design approach shared by many classic distortion circuits.¹

Sarno positions it as the big brother of the Earth Drive Boost Overdrive, and it was the company's second offering. Pedal of the Day describes the circuit as a reconfigured classic with a bit of modernness, descended from past predecessors, bringing out more richness and warm tonal quality than those earlier designs, with classic 70's rock sounds in reach.¹

What it does

The Dist knob covers a wide spectrum of dirty tones. According to Pedal of the Day, "the Dist knob will do slight overdrive, crunchy and dirty and all the way up to full-on powerhouse distortion," so a single control takes the pedal from a mild push into overdrive territory through crunchy rhythm tones to saturated lead distortion.¹

At the higher end of that range, the reviewer found the sustain especially strong: "The sustain is huge here at higher levels, too, making it excellent for lead runs and solos." The same review notes it holds up for down-and-dirty chords as well.¹

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