Mama Bear Emulation Preamp for Acoustic Guitar

This unit is a "New/Old Stock" unit that we've had for over 10 years. It's been boxed up in my home studio for that whole time, as I once had intended to use it for recording. However, I find myself downsizing my gear - "thinning the herd," as they say - and this totally AS NEW unit is on the auction block. 

It comes with everything, and it all looks brand new. The unit, the power supply (US/Canada), the manual, the original info card, and the original box, all in as-new condition. Over the years, the unit has been opened and demoed a few times, and we just recently tested it (8/26/2026) to ensure that it all is in perfect working order, which it definitely is. 

Because this is a discontinued preamp, it is considered a "clearance" item, and is sold "as-is." No returns will be entertained. 

Sound samples can be heard online at the Seymour Duncan page: LINK 

Years back, we were a dealer for D-TAR - "Duncan|Turner Acoustic Research." D-TAR was a joint venture between Seymour Duncan, of pickup fame, and Rick Turner, the talented luthier who developed the amazing Renaissance Bass.

The intent of the joint venture was to create tools to better amplify acoustic instruments. They provided pickups for acoustic guitars and other instruments, as well as three Preamp/EQ units, in the interest of creating a better acoustic amplification solution. 

We primarily carried the two units that also worked well with bass (obviously) - the Solstice Acoustic Preamp and the Equinox EQ unit. Both worked fabulously with upright, and lots of our customers found great success using them with their double-basses. 

The third preamp was a bit different, though - the Mama Bear was expressly made for acoustic guitar, and using clever digital technology, it was designed to both optimally buffer the high impedance of acoustic guitar piezo pickups, but then also use what they called AGE technology to neutralize the pickup, and subsequently restore the natural body resonance. The result: now the finest acoustic guitars can sound like, well—themselves. Only louder.

Additionally, it provided the means to alter the output sound to tonally "emulate" a variety of other acoustic guitar body styles - see more on that, and the "models" it emulates, in the list below. 

I don't overstate the unit's ability to "model" these guitars - I think of this as not so much a tool to make your cheap Chinese acoustic sound exactly like a Martin Dreadnought, or a classic Gibson Jumbo! But rather, it's an excellent means to easily get a great recorded or live acoustic guitar sound with some nice re-voicing or colorizing options built in.

Here's how they described it:

A preamp designed to restore the beautiful acoustic sound of your guitar.

The D-TAR Mama Bear Digital Acoustic Guitar Preamp is your secret weapon for capturing and reproducing all of your acoustic guitar's presence and rich tone. Even the best acoustic guitars deliver an oversimplification of true acoustic tone complexity when amplified. The D-TAR Mama Bear Digital Acoustic Preamp solves this problem using what they've named AGE technology. Mama Bear takes your guitar into the digital realm, neutralizes the pickup, and then restores the natural body resonance. The result: now the finest acoustic guitars can sound like, well—themselves. Only louder.

D-TAR - Duncan/Turner Acoustic Research

Seymour Duncan and Rick Turner are two legends who spent years working with musicians, perfecting their tone. Seymour founded his self-named company in 1978 which has become well-known for its wide variety of guitar and bass pickups used by just about every name player from Billie Joe Armstrong to Angus Young. Rick co-founded Alembic, was president of Gibson Labs West Coast R&D Division, co-founded Highlander Musical Audio making piezo acoustic guitar pickups for Lindsay Buckingham, Ry Cooder, David Lindley, and Andy Summers, and runs his own Renaissance Guitars. Now Seymour and Rick are working together to create innovative products for acoustic musicians. Their D-TAR motto: "With respect to acoustic tone."

Features:

• 16 Position Input Source Selector—Provides 16 different digital filter choices to neutralize the sound of your pickup so the AGE technology can go to work
• 16 Position Target Instrument Switch—AGE technology provides 16 amazing guitar sounds emulated from 16 amazing guitars, from parlors to super jumbos. Allows you to dial up the guitar that matches your guitar's body shape, or emulate other shapes
• "Input gain control with red Overload LED." Avoids overload distortion and allows minimization of noise when different pickups are used
• Bypass switch with LED indicator when in bypass mode. Hard-wire bypass to allow comparison of processed versus unprocessed sounds. LED alerts user when in bypass mode
• Output level control.—Gain match to next stage for best S/N performanc
• Balanced XLR output—For studio use with balanced-input mixing boards
• Hi-Z input stage—Works with Piezo pickups, great stand-alone preamp
• Chassis compatible with Equinox and Solstice.—Micro-rack system or two units in full rack mount
• +/12 volt supply for analog stages —Outstanding headroom performance
• Wet/Dry Blend Control—Allows "In Between" amounts of processing
• Ground lift switch.—For studio use with balanced-input mixing boards
• Phase switch—Allows reduction of feedback
• Mute switch.—For quiet guitar tuning or elimination of live connection noises

Specifications:

Analog Characteristics

• Nominal Input Level: 10dBu
• Input Impedance: 4.7M Ohm
• Gain, input to output: 15.5dB, bypassed
• Maximum signal level before input stage clipping: 2.0Vrms
• Nominal Output Level*: Single ended 0dBu, XLR Balanced: -20dBu
• Maximum Output Level before clipping**: Single ended: 7.2Vrms, bypassed; 3.5Vrms through processor, Balanced XLR: 1Vrms, bypassed; 0.5Vrms through processor
• Noise, 20 Hz to 20 KHz, bypass mode, referenced to input: -109 dBv, input shorted, -97.5 dBv, input open

Digital Characteristics

• Microprocessor: 32 bit, 100MHz, floating point, 600MFLOPS
• Sample Rate: 44.1KHz
• Latency: 3ms
• A/D Conversion: 24 bit
• 64x oversampling
• S/(N+D): 94dB
• Dynamic Range, S/N: 108dB
• D/A Conversion: 24 bit, 128x oversampling
• 24 bit 8 times digital filter
• Ripple: ±0.005dB, Attenuation: 75dB
• S/(N+D): 94dB
• Differential outputs
• Dynamic Range: 110dB, A weighted

Power Supply

• Power Supply: External wall mounted transformer 16 VAC/560mA
• Current Draw: 200mA @ power jack

* Nominal levels measured using pink noise generator set to 250mV rms. Input level control set to produce flickering of overload indicator; output level control set to maximum.

**Maximum output levels in bypass mode measured using 1KHz sine wave. Maximum output levels through processor measured using sine waves of various frequencies from 800Hz to 1.2KHz.

The Mama Bear uses a process of EQ which D-Tar calls Acoustic Guitar Emulation. That is, it takes the sound from a piezo or magnetic pickup, and then can impart sort of a "sonic-signature" of 16 world-class acoustic guitars, transforming a boring signal into something very different. To do this, D-Tar meticulously recorded some of the best guitars in the world for these "impressions". 

"Models"

First, you set the Mama Bear’s input source knob to the type of guitar pickup you have. There are 16 to choose from, and you don’t have to get it exact. In fact, it is fun to play around with this and see how it changes the sound. You then set the Target Instrument knob to what you want your guitar to sound like. This is where it gets fun. You have 16 to choose from:

1. Parlor
2. Small Body Fingerstyle
3. Small Body Blues
4. Mahogany Orchestra Model
5. Rosewood Orchestra Model
6. Boutique Fingerstyle
7. Slope-shouldered Dreadnought
8. Grand Auditorium
9. Slope-shouldered Jumbo
10. Mahogany Dreadnought
11. Rosewood Dreadnought
12. Super Jumbo
13. Hollow Body Archtop Jazz
14. Gypsy Jazz
15. Biscuit Blues Resonator
16. Tricone Resonator