Was looking for specs about a pickup and came across this site
https://darthphineas.com/
There are many pickups reviews and articles. Some interviews:
https://darthphineas.com/2020/02/tim-mills-bare-knuckle-pickups/
https://darthphineas.com/2020/04/qa-steve-blucher-dimarzio/...
The one i had was repaired, and i remember various burns left on the PCB, which was very thin and all the tubes sockets mounted on it.
I wouldn't waste any money to mod it, unless is rebuild from scratch.
Depend how long are you cables, how many pedal you have, and if are all tbp (many are buffered, klones too). You may need a buffer when all your pedals are off.
Probably because of this https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/thread-on-larry-amps-and-who-he-says-ripped-him-off.208860/page-5
and other thread around the forums.
To me is flawless. For the price is normal to have some imperfections; but that fretboard look good to me. Can be cleaned easly.
Never had a Solar, but want to get one.