Pierre Bensusan, who is probably in the top 10 fingerstyle guitar players in the world, accepted an invitation to come to the Borders and give a concert, with a Masterclass workshop for guitarists in the afternoon.
Held in a small theatre venue, both the concert and the masterclass were a sell-out - with 15 guitarists attending the class plus another 20 or so non-participating observers, then almost 100 in the theatre. That may not sound much, but in the Scottish Borders it's as good as we can get, and people came from 150 miles away to attend, several staying overnight.
I can not recommend Pierre highly enough! His sound system requirements are exacting and he takes great care with the set up and sound check. The quality of performance sound he achieves justifies this. He tailored the performance to suit the Scottish audience, and although he had performed the previous night at the massive Celtic Connections concert in Glasgow with Tony McManus, Soig Siberil, Colin Reid and Tony Cuffe his small 'gig' in the Border country provided higher CD and music sales. This does not always happen with our local concerts, and I feel the quality of his concert sound had a great deal to do with the demand for CDs. The performance was so compelling that people HAD to have the recordings!
The next day, before Pierre set off on a scenic drive across the Border hills and the Lake District (photo above taken on a 1937 Leica IIIb with f2 Summar lens, somewhere near Hawkshead) to his next date in Kendal, he allowed me to photograph his 1978 hand built Lowden guitar. This guitar is unique - as are all Lowdens of this date - and has been modified once by George Lowden. Basically similar to a modern O-10 mahogany body, cedar topped large body Lowden, it has a multi-piece laminated neck and an attractive triple binding in wood. The modifications included widening the neck and fingerboard, extending the fingerboard to add a partial 21st fret for the treble strings, and creating a cutaway for access to the higher frets. Apart from this, Pierre says, the Lowden has never required adjustment in a very busy life.
My photograph of the guitar was taken on a Bronica ETR-Si with 75mm lens by natural light, propped up in a hotel doorway, and scanned on a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi from Fujichrome Provia 100F film. Pierre's portrait was taken at the same time. To see the guitar in more detail just click on it.
It is fitted with a Highlander coaxial piezo pickup under the twin bridge saddle, with external preamplification. Pierre uses the saddle pickup for a 'wet' mix with strong reverb, EQ and related effects but has a high quality hypercardioid condensor microphone aimed from a low position towards the bridge and the area of top immediately behind the bridge. This produces a distinctive woody sound without excessive finger and string noise. He controls the level of the 'wet' signal using a Boss stereo volume control pedal, leaving the 'dry' mike signal unchanged.
Lowden are to release a Pierre Bensusan Signature guitar, which will incorporate some of the features which Pierre prefers but will not be a 'copy' of this actual instrument, at a future date.
© David Kilpatrick Feb 2000