TRIBUTES were paid last night to the seminal Scottish guitarist Bert Jansch, an influence to a generation of musicians, who has died at the age of 67.

The Glasgow-born musician was a founding member of the group Pentangle, with whom he gave his last public performance in August.

Jansch, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009 and cancelled recent shows due to illness, passed away yesterday in a north London hospice.

The guitarist, who Canadian rock star Neil Young has compared to Jimi Hendrix, was a key figure in the folk revival of the 1960s.

Young said: “As much of a great guitar player as Jimi was, Bert Jansch is the same thing for acoustic guitar -- and my favourite.”

Jansch’s reputation as a virtuoso guitarist extended beyond the world of folk, however, and he has been described as an inspiration by musicians such as Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler.

Marr called Jansch “a leader of his generation”.

“He really was the king of the beatnik troubadours and no-one ever tried to usurp that,” the former Smiths guitarist said. “As a person he exuded a secret wisdom. Getting to play with him was an absolute privilege.”

Jansch had been in hospital for a number of weeks after his health deteriorated shortly after his August 1 gig with Pentangle at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

The guitarist’s spokesman, Mick Houghton, who first saw Jansch perform in the late-1960s, said: “I don’t know anyone who had less of a sense of celebrity. He was always very self-effacing and critical adulation was completely irrelevant to him.”

The musician lived in north London with his wife, Loren.

Born in Glasgow on November 3, 1943, he released 23 solo albums, the last, The Black Swan, featured collaborations with Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart.

Blur guitarist Graham Coxon said: “Bert Jansch was a flawless guitar player and from my experience a ‘what you see is what you get’, no frills, staunch fellow with nothing to prove to anyone.

“He was top of the pile whether he thought so or not.”

Jansch hitched to London in the early-1960s to make a career and his debut self-titled album in 1965 was recorded on loaned instruments using a reel-to-reel tape deck. He released further albums before forming Pentangle in 1967 with John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox.

Following the group’s split in 1973, he continued as a solo performer as well as forming another group Conundrum and forming a duo with Martin Jenkins.

Jansch also performed with various line-ups of the reformed Pentangle over the years, and briefly ran his own guitar shop.

Radio 2 folk show presenter Mike Harding was among those who paid tribute to Jansch yesterday.

He said: “Bert Jansch was one of the greats of the folk world, and easily one of the most influential musicians of his generation.

“In person he was a quiet and gentle man, but when he picked up his guitar he was the centre of everyone’s attention. He was a true original.”

Singer Eddi Reader called him “a gentle, gentle gentleman”. In a message on Twitter she said: “God speed, darlin’ Bert -- get us on the guest list.”

Booking agent John Barrow, who put on various Jansch shows over the years, described him as a “hard-working musician” and “a great man”.

“He was very quietly spoken. People used to say to me, ‘he doesn’t talk much, does he?’ But when he could play the guitar like that, why should he be talking?”

In 2007, Jansch was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by Edinburgh Napier University “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the UK music industry”.