The Pursuit Concertina’s First Report Card, from Product Specialist Andrew Swift of American Musical Supply
Sending off a newly manufactured guitar for its first third-party product review can be nerve-wracking, a little bit like watching one of your children climb the steps for his or her first day of school. Breedlove took three years to create its new Eco Collection of instruments, putting heart and soul — as well as decades of hard-won know-how — into a daunting-yet-groundbreaking venture. Ultimately more excited than nervous, we packed up an early prototype of the ECO Collection’s Pursuit Exotic S Series Concertina — smaller, short-scaled guitars crafted with stunning myrtlewood from the Oregon Coast, not far from the Breedlove workshop — and shipped it across the country for its first outside appraisal.
When considering someone to give us a critical first impression of the Pursuit Exotic S Concertina, Andrew Swift was a natural choice. A native of Australia, he was captivated by music at a young age and especially inspired by the blues, in particular Stevie Ray Vaughn. A drummer initially, Swift picked up the guitar “late” and has only been playing for about 20 years. But as a product specialist for U.S.-based online retailer AmericanMusical.com — as well as a studio musician and active performer — just about every major guitar model has rested on his lap at one time or another. His Breedlove model experience also runs deeper than with most players, given his role as a guitar reviewer. So, if this new guitar is going to match up to its Breedlove predecessors, Swift is a seasoned historian qualified to make the call.
The moment of truth came when we jumped on a call with Swift in New York. He had time not only to play the guitar in studio and record a few demos, but also to venture into a nearby park to get cozy with the small body shape and hear the new Pursuit Concertina ring out in the open air.
Breedlove: What are your first impressions of our new Concertina?
Andrew Swift: It’s really easy to play, and the body/neck shape makes the guitar very comfortable to hold. I also feel like it lives up to what Breedlove was trying to accomplish with the sound of this guitar, which is a bigger, modern sound that’s atypical for an instrument of smaller size like this. It has a very focused tone, one that recorded really well. I didn’t have to do a whole lot beyond playing to make the guitar sit in a track sonically, because what you wanted from the guitar was already right there.
BL: Has the guitar been inspiring in a certain way?
Swift: It didn’t seem to lead me down the road of just playing the traditional blues-type things that you would usually do on a guitar of this size. The sound elicits a different response from me than a typical small-body guitar. Playing chords on it is comfortable just because of the size, yet it still projects really well. With the cutaway, you can stretch out a little bit more on it as well, getting into more of a modern-type acoustic sound, if that makes sense. Not necessarily a finger tapping thing, just using it in a more of a modern way, with a contemporary sound.
BL: You record often, in the studio and for video demos. Does a guitar like this have a place in your studio lineup? If so, how would you use it?
Swift: Sometimes when I’m recording acoustic guitar, just by nature of using a cardioid mic kind of close to the instrument, there is going to be some level of proximity effect happening. On bigger-body guitars, this can be problematic, because that effect can definitely push a lot of low-frequency energy toward the mic. Then you have to do drastic EQ or some level of IQ on the way in. I felt like I didn’t have to do that with this new guitar. I used a standard high-pass filter on the preamp on the way in, and it was cool — the bass response didn’t overwhelm things.
For me, the acoustic guitar can serve a couple of different functions in recording. First, there’s a rhythmic aspect to it. Sometimes when you’re recording a track, you want to have the presence of a strumming acoustic guitar as a rhythmic element, more so than as a harmonic one. I was able to achieve that on this guitar with a minimum of external processing. I was also able to get a clearly voiced chord sound, because it’s a very focused-sounding instrument. Some guitars are really wide-sounding — the tonality being broad, with a lot of low-frequency content. But this instrument’s focused sound has enough of each frequency band in the spectrum, giving me what I wanted from an acoustic guitar.
Getting back to your question about its use for recording, I think this is a great guitar for a contemporary-sounding singer-songwriter.
BL: How about the look and feel of the guitar? The build? You’ve played Breedlove’s high-end Made in Bend models — how does this compare?
Swift: I was really impressed by the price point of this instrument. It’s an incredibly good value, from a sound point of view and how the instrument is constructed and how it feels. I’ve played a lot of similar acoustics in this price range, and I feel like the finish on this guitar was definitely a step above what you would generally find on the market.
BL: How about the electronics? Did you have a chance to try them out?
Swift: I didn’t record it using the electronics. I only used a single microphone. But I did try the electronics out while just playing the guitar — and I really liked the system. It’s very convenient, and I like having the tuner handy.
BL: And your overall judgment?
Swift: Overall, based on the character of other Breedlove instruments I’ve played, this guitar definitely has that special Breedlove character. I felt good playing it!
You can watch Swift’s full video review of the Pursuit Exotic S Series Concertina here on this spread. If you would like to stay in the loop with what he’s doing in the studio, on stage or in front of the camera, check him out on Instagram. And you can also catch all of his guitar reviews for American Musical Supply here.
