In the last decade there has been an increasing interest in the use of highly- and weakly- nonlinear solitary waves in engineering and physics. Nonlinear solitary waves can form and travel in nonlinear systems such as one-dimensional chains of particles, where they are conventionally generated by the mechanical impact of a striker and are measured either by using thin transducers embedded in between two half-particles or by a force sensor placed at the chain's base. These waves have a constant spatial wavelength and their speed, amplitude, and duration can be tuned by modifying the particles' material or size, or the velocity of the striker. In this paper we propose two alternative sensing configurations for the measurements of solitary waves propagating in a chain of spherical particles. One configuration uses piezo rods placed in the chain while the other exploits the magnetostrictive property of ferromagnetic materials. The accuracy of these two sensing systems on the measurement of the solitary wave's characteristics is assessed by comparing experimental data to the numerical prediction of a discrete particle model and to the experimental measurements obtained by means of a conventional transducer. The results show very good agreement and the advantages and limitations of the new sensors are discussed.