The Mama Bear is a specialized digital preamp and direct box for acoustic guitar using a process of EQ that takes the sound from a piezo or magnetic pickup and imparts 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’. Will it make your $100 cheapie sound like a 1930’s Martin? Well, no, but it makes good guitars sound great through a PA system. 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 From the Mama Bear manual: Mama Bear is a unique digital signal processor preamp/effects unit featuring AGETM (Acoustic Guitar Emulation) technology that improves the character of amplified acoustic guitars by adding the spatial dimension that no pickup system or analog effects can produce alone. It is designed to work with all acoustic guitars outfitted with magnetic pickups, under-saddle acoustic transducers and electric guitars with piezo bridge saddles. It is not designed to work with microphones, soundboard transducers or accelerometers. Mama Bear provides you with the means to give your acoustic guitar the sonic qualities of a broad range of great-sounding acoustic guitars, both vintage and modern. Mama Bear can be used as a stand-alone preamp or placed in the channel insert loop of a mixing console. In addition, Mama Bear has a balanced direct output to interface with recording consoles or PA systems.Therefore, it’s not only perfect for the solo guitarist or player in a group, but it’s also a great tool for anyone running a sound system in which acoustic instruments are being amplified.You can quickly bypass the AGETM sonic shaping to hear what your guitar sounds like unprocessed, plus you can blend the straight sound of your guitar with the processed signal, allowing an incredible range of new acoustic tones. With Mama Bear, it’s possible to make a fine-quality acoustic guitar sounds its best; plus, it smooths out and improves the tone of lower-quality guitars or those with lower-quality pickup systems. Mama Bear works equally well with steel-string and nylon-string acoustic guitars, providing a wide range of tone-shaping options. The sonic qualities of hybrid instruments that employ magnetic and under-saddle transducers can also be improved, smoothed, or altered. Despite giving you unprecedented control in sonic shaping of your acoustic tone, Mama Bear is simple to use. With just two controls—Input Source and Target Instrument—you can: 1. Alter or smooth out the response of your guitar’s pickup. Surprisingly, even the best acoustic guitars with the best pickups often need fine-tuning due to the sonic inconsisten- cies of amplifiers or speakers, or the way pickups and speakers interact with your instru- ment. Rather than spend hours experimenting with graphic and parametric equalizers (or replacing a low-quality pickup), you can put Mama Bear’s advanced signal processing to work balancing the tonal range from low to high. You’ll find that placing Mama Bear between even the best pickup/guitar combina- tion and amplifier will improve the tone. 2. Overlay 16 “sonic signatures,” the sound that comes from the interaction of wood and air in a guitar, onto the sound produced by your strings, fingers, and guitar. These “sonic signatures” are based on some of the greatest guitars ever built. Key features: *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. *Balanced XLR output *Hi-Z input *Wet/Dry Blend Control-Allows "In Between" amounts of processing  *Ground lift switch *Phase switch *Mute switch This unit is used, fully functional and in good condition.