diff --git a/app/models/search_builder.rb b/app/models/search_builder.rb
index 1851854ce..dcc2a2391 100644
--- a/app/models/search_builder.rb
+++ b/app/models/search_builder.rb
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ def process_is(value, op)
   end
 
   def substitute_special_chars(value, _)
-    value.gsub(/[:?]/, " ") rescue value
+    value.gsub(/([:?]|\(\))/, " ") rescue value
   end
 
   def no_journals(solr_parameters)
diff --git a/spec/models/search_builder_spec.rb b/spec/models/search_builder_spec.rb
index 9123bfcbf..2eceb7a6c 100644
--- a/spec/models/search_builder_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/search_builder_spec.rb
@@ -183,6 +183,14 @@
       # @see BL-1301 for ref.  Basically Solr treats ? as a special character.
       expect(subject.substitute_special_chars("foo bar?", nil)).to eq("foo bar ")
     end
+
+    it "substitutes empty parens '()' " do
+      expect(subject.substitute_special_chars("foo () bar", nil)).to eq("foo   bar")
+    end
+
+    it "does not substitutes parens containing values " do
+      expect(subject.substitute_special_chars("foo (bar) baz", nil)).to eq("foo (bar) baz")
+    end
   end
 
   describe "#blacklight_params" do