News

D-TAR™ stands for duncan | turner acoustic research, and marks the union of Seymour Duncan Pickups with noted luthier and acoustic amplification expert, Rick Turner. D-TAR has a full line-up of products, including pickups and both on-board and off-board electronics. All are geared toward the tone-minded acoustic musician.

Guitar Player Magazine’s Senior Editor, Andy Ellis, got his hands on a D-TAR Solstice™ and put it through the paces.

His full review appears in the August 2003 issue of GP, but here are a few excerpts: "When the likes of Seymour Duncan and Rick Turner join forces to design gear for amplifying acoustic instruments, the odds are good they'll create some toneful gizmos. One of the company's first offerings is the D-TAR Solstice... a two-channel mixer/stereo preamp designed to blend signals from a variety of acoustic pickups, transducers, and mics, and integrate seamlessly with stage and studio rigs...

The Solstice looks cool: With its sturdy, cream-colored metal top and "cinnamon rainbow" front panel, the box looks like it was yanked from a '60s speedboat. Each channel sports two inputs with individual volume knobs. One input is an ultra-high impedance 1/4" jack for instrument pickups, the other a standard XLR jack for mics. The XLR jacks have tiny buttons to engage 15 volts of phantom power, as well as a 20dB pad. If you plug a TRS stereo cable into either instrument jack, the Solstice automatically assigns each signal to a separate channel. Slick--no Y-cord required...

"The unit's EQ sections deserve special mention. With only three knobs per channel, the system is designed for gentle shaping, rather than sonic surgery. That said, the EQ yielded immediate and musical results whenever I touched it. Smoothing the sound of piezo transducers was as simple as backing off the treble slightly and goosing the mids a tad... The Solstice is an outstanding piece of gear. While there's no shortage of excellent, single-channel blender preamps...[available,] the stereo Solstice offers twice the features of such boxes for a remarkably affordable price. Because it can accept up to four simultaneous signals, you'll really appreciate the Solstice if your ax combines an internal mic or soundhole pickup with under-saddle or soundboard transducers. Onstage or in the studio, the Solstice makes it easy to wring righteous tones from your acoustic."

In addition to presenting Solstice with an Editor's Pick Award, Guitar Player named it one of the top "50 Guitars, Amps, Effects, and Accessories You'll Be Lusting After This Year." (May 2003).