Barbera Soloist Guitar Pickups
Ultra High Performance Pickups for Acoustic Guitar

Barbera Soloist Series guitar pickups are a new type of boutique pickup for acoustic guitar (nylon and steel string). They are a new pickup technology based on concepts evolved out of more than twenty five years of experience producing high end multi transducer bridges for violin family stringed instruments. 

A guitar strings' vibrational response to an instruments top is shaped by the resonant characteristics of the top.  The tonal personality of the guitar is reflected in the vibrating strings. Soloist pickups are designed to efficiently harvest these tonally rich string vibrations and generate a strong and clear reproduction of the guitars' voice for amplification.  The pickup rejects microphonic body noise, (string noise squeeks, bumps, thumps etc.) the elimination of this noise in the amplified signal provides a high level of clarity and tonal purity in the amplified sound. It also greatly decreases feedback sensitivity.  This  enhances and extends the possibilities for the use of an amplified acoustic guitar in a wide range of musical settings. 

The Soloist pickup is an engineered saddle, containing micro electro acoustic structures within the saddle. The saddle itself is the pickup, it is not an under saddle transducer.

The micro structures within the saddle are highly responsive to each string's vibrational energies independently.  This selective sensitivity yields  a focused clarity and accuracy of tone,  reproducing the guitars' sound clearly and transparently. String outputs are individually voiced for a well balanced string to string output. This allows for very effective amplification and tonal projection when playing with other instruments. 

Unlike under-saddle pickups, string balances do not depend on the flatness of the saddle slot or the compression of a transducer beneath the saddle. Because the sensors within the Soloist saddle are not being  compressed between the saddle and the bridge as in an under saddle pickup, the amplified tone is very open and natural sounding. Soloist pickups are highly responsive to playing dynamics, enabling the effective use of a wide range of expressive playing techniques.

 The saddles do not alter or detract from the guitar's acoustic sound.  The pickups function passively and installation is simple  and non-invasive to the guitar. A passive installation allows for a wide range of external preamps to also be used or for  preamp free usage when plugging into a guitar amplifier or an instrument level input stage device.