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Check out these equipment picks from artists featured in the February 2002, No.110 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.
HABIB
KOITE |
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Habib Koité owns two Godin Multiac acoustic-electric nylon-string guitars. His main instrument has been a Multiac Nylon Duet, but he recently also acquired a Grand Concert Duet. Both guitars are equipped with custom L.R. Baggs electronics, an under-saddle transducer, and an internal condenser microphone. Koité performed and recorded with his first Godin for several years and is now playing the new one. His steel-string is a Takamine NP-18C acoustic-electric. —Danny Carnahan On his recent tour with Yes, Steve Howe used his signature model Martin 00-18SH, a Martin J12-65M 12-string, a 1992 SKD cutaway steel-string designed for use with very light-gauge strings by Dutch luthier Theo Scharpach (members.aol.com/daelken/scharpach), a 1973 Kohno No. 10 classical, and a Portuguese 12-string. The Steve Howe 00-18 and the Portuguese guitar are equipped with Fishman pickups, and Howe has been very impressed with the Scharpach’s Applied Acoustic system, which uses a finely tuned combination of piezo pickup, internal mic, and external class-A preamp. Howe currently uses a discontinued, pear-shaped Fender jazz medium flatpick. His 00-18SH and the Martin 12-string are strung with Martin Marquis, the Portuguese 12-string uses Gibson bronze, and the Scharpach is strung with Elixirs. —Tim Morse Janet Feder’s main guitar is a 1959 Martin 00-18C. She also plays a 1961 00-18C with an unusual mix of wound and unwound D’Addario Pro-Arté Composite strings strung out of the normal order. Feder uses a wound E, a wound A, two wound D’s, and two plain B’s. The E is in its "normal" spot, and they proceed up from there: E B D D B A. She uses a number of different tunings. In fact, in her entire repertoire she plays no more than two compositions in any one tuning. Other instruments include a Danelectro electric baritone guitar, an Oribe (www.oribeguitars.com) Calidad Suprema classical guitar that was used on two Speak Puppet tracks, an early-1930s round-necked resonator guitar, and a solid-body electric guitar built by Los Angeles guitarist and occasional luthier Miroslav Tadic with a body shape and fingerboard that approximate the feel of her classical guitars. She runs her Martins, each equipped with a Fishman under-saddle pickup and internal microphone, through a Fishman Acoustic Blender that allows her to mix her own on-stage sound when necessary. She plays with the flesh of her bare fingers but calls herself a "nail freak," carefully filing and sandpapering her short nails to support the flesh of her fingers. She uses a custom-made slide and takes an electric tuner with her on stage but prefers to tune by ear. —Gary Joyner
Suzanne Vega writes all of her songs on a 1940 Martin 000-45 that she plays exclusively at home. Her stage guitar is a Taylor 514-CE outfitted with a Fishman Prefix Blend pickup/mic combo. "I was so impressed with the Taylors," Vega says. "I got one by mistake. I was doing a gig with Sarah McLachlan, and the truck disappeared with all our equipment in it. So they shipped in a bunch of equipment for us to use, and a Taylor guitar happened to be there. It was so warm and beautiful. It had all this nice amplification, but it still sounded like an acoustic guitar. I bought it on the spot, and that’s become my favorite." Vega’s sound engineer, Glynn Wood, plugs the 514-CE directly into the soundboard. The guitar is equipped with a feedback-reducing soundhole cover that makes the signal from the internal mic sound hollow, so Wood sets the Fishman’s blend control to 100 percent pickup. He particularly appreciates the preamp’s notch filter and bass and treble controls, which make it easy for him to get the sound just right. Songs in Red and Gray was recorded with Vega’s other Taylor, a 514-C. "It’s identical in shape to the 514-CE," says Wood, "but its sound is quite different—richer and a little more sparkly." The guitar was recorded in the studio using a Fishman Matrix under-saddle pickup and an AKG 414 microphone. Vega also owns a Yamaha APX-10C, a Gibson Chet Atkins nylon-string electric, a Karel Blazek nylon-string, a Kay electric, and a Guild acoustic. She strings all of her acoustic guitars with D’Addario EXP medium-gauge strings. "They’re really good and long-lasting," says Wood. "We can do ten shows or more on one set, and they still sound bright." —Simone Solondz For more than 20 years, Pierre Bensusan and his Lowden S22, which features the same body style as the current O series, mahogany back and sides, and a cedar top, have seemed inseparable. However, over the past two years Bensusan has worked with George Lowden to design the Pierre Bensusan Signature Model. Most of Bensusan’s input concerned string spacing. "One of the big inspirations for the neck comes from Eric Schoenberg," he says. "The space between the strings on his guitars is so comfortable for the right hand. It’s wider, almost one centimeter between strings." Bensusan originally approached Lowden to request that he change the string spacing on his S22 (pictured at right), which would have been impossible, so they decided to include the wider string spacing on his signature model instead. An anticipated shortage of mahogany led them to try new wood combinations. After various attempts (walnut and spruce, maple and cedar), they decided on a rosewood body with a cedar top. "I never played rosewood before in my life," says Bensusan, "but I wanted to try something else. The rosewood and cedar [combination] is very different, extremely powerful." He recorded Intuite on his old S22 but has played only the PB in concert since he got it. "I discovered that guitar a few hours before the launch concert of my winter tour in America," Bensusan recalls. "I thought I would not be able to do the entire concert with it because it was so new. But it was such a pleasure to play that I did. Since then, I have done all my shows with it." Bensusan uses a Headway piezo pickup with a Fishman internal preamp. This package is available as an option on the PB Signature Model. "There will be no microphone inside," says Bensusan. "If people want to use a great mic, they should just use a great mic. The best mic will be an external microphone." Bensusan performs with a Beyer shotgun mic. On stage the balance is about 1/3 microphone and 2/3 pickup. Bensusan endorses Elixir strings and uses a clear Dobro thumbpick. His volume pedal is made by Boss, and he travels with the Eventide Orville harmonizer. "I don’t use electronics like I used to," he says. "The only thing I use on this machine is the eight-band EQ and the reverb. This reverb is absolutely beautiful, with stereo imaging in every register of the sound spectrum." —Gary Joyner
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