Solar CHUG SOLO 3-in-1 Doubler, Echo and Reverb Pedal

The Solar CHUG SOLO gathers the three effects you actually reach for when the lead break lands — a doubler, an echo and a reverb — into one enclosure with a single footswitch to bring the lot in. It is the second digital box in Ola Englund's CHUG line, and the thinking behind it is refreshingly plain: instead of three pedals, three power draws and three sets of patch leads eating your board, you get six knobs, two ins, two outs and no menus to dig through.

Three effects, each with its own mix

DOUBLE MIX blends in a light modulation that fattens single notes, so a line reads as though a second guitar is tracking it; wind the knob to its limit and it steps over into chorus. ECHO TIME and ECHO REPEATS cover everything from a tight slap-back to a full two seconds of delay, and the repeats are filtered so they sit behind the dry signal rather than smearing across it. REVERB SIZE morphs the room from a small booth up to a hall, with REVERB MIX deciding how much of that space arrives with you. Because every effect carries its own mix control, you set the balance by hand instead of accepting a preset's idea of it.

Split mode: front of amp and effects loop at once

Look along the input side and the plan becomes obvious — IN 1 is stamped DOUBLER, IN 2 is stamped ECHO-VERB, and the pair are bracketed SPLIT MODE. Run it conventionally and the whole pedal sits in front of your amp, mono or stereo, guitar into IN 1 and one or both outputs away to the amp. Or split it the way Ola wires his own rig: guitar into IN 1 with OUT 1 feeding the amp input so only the doubler hits the preamp, then IN 2 and OUT 2 patched into the effects loop so the echo and reverb land after the gain stage, where they stay clear instead of turning to mud. Two 1/4" inputs, two 1/4" outputs, no adaptors required.

Tap tempo and pedalboard manners

A 3.5 mm TAP jack on the rear panel takes any non-latching footswitch — Solar have tested the Boss FS5U and Harley Benton's tap switch — so the echo can be set against the song on stage rather than guessed at between numbers. The 3.5 mm to 1/4" cable is in the box; the switch is not. The blue anodised chassis measures 120 x 70 mm, an ordinary slot on a pedalboard, and it runs on standard 9V DC through a 5.33 mm centre-negative barrel, drawing 180 mA from a supply rated at 200 mA or better. There is no battery compartment, buffered bypass keeps long cable runs honest, and a USB-C port sits on the rear panel beside the power and tap jacks.