Lowden is a handmade guitar brand with a wide audience among musicians in the UK and Europe. With the use of Pierre Bensusan, more and more people have a soft spot for Lowden, and guitarists such as Eric Roche, Alex De Grassi, Jacques Stotzem, and young guitarists Andy Mckee and Thomas Leeb are all users of Lowden.
Lowden's guitar has distinct Irish national characteristics, enthusiastic and unrestrained, Lowden's timbre is also relatively outgoing, with large volume, solid sound and strong resonance. Because of its large body design and curved sound beam known as the "dolphin", the guitar top is more fully sounded, and Lowden is recognizable for its sound characteristics that combine the soft balance of a nylon-string guitar with the dynamics of a steel-string guitar.
Many people will think that the handmade violin is usually done by the luthier alone, and is handmade from beginning to end, but in fact, a considerable part of the modern handmade guitar making process is the use of electric tools, and the division of labor between the studio luthiers, Ervin Somogyi, the first contemporary luthier maker, once described the handmade piano: a guitar made based on the will of the luthier to freely use electric tools can be regarded as a handmade guitar. Lowden guitar production is mainly divided into two lines, one is made by George Lowden himself, and the specific content can be found on the official website. The other is Lowden's regular model, made by the family's studio.
Under the more and more perfect system of modern industry, although the quality of mass production piano and handmade piano is getting closer and closer, the gap is almost impossible to eliminate, the fundamental reason is that each piece of wood is different, the sound characteristics are naturally different, and the luthier needs to constantly adjust the sound beam structure in the production process to achieve the best timbre, and the mass production piano due to the machine batch cutting and assembly line operation, can not give full play to the best effect of each piece of wood through customization. However, there is a threshold for customizing a handmade guitar, it requires the guitarist to have a clear playing style and sound preference, be familiar with the acoustic characteristics of wood, and know what kind of sound he needs, so professional guitarists often choose handmade guitars, and for beginner and mid-range enthusiasts, mass production is enough to meet the needs.
There are 5 different body types in Lowden, namely O-type, F-type, S-type, Baritone, and Jazz type, and each series represents different materials and parameters, and the larger the series number, the higher the configuration. For example, the 35 series is made of 4A-grade sound wood as a whole, the fingerboard is ebony, the knob is Gotoh 510 series, the panel can be customized with Sitica spruce, Adirondack spruce, etc., and the back side is customized with sandalwood, acacia and other precious woods, which is a common practice of hand-customized guitars. The specific name is "Body Type Series", so don't be surprised to see the same model but with different configurations.
The O-type is the most classic Lowden guitar style, also known as the meta series, its body is the largest of all series, with good resonance effect and rich overtones, suitable for fingerstyle and open chord players.
The size of the F-shaped is similar to that of the D-shape, but it has a narrower waist and more curved shoulders. Its sound is more powerful and focused than that of the O-type, and not only does the pick work well, but the finger action is also outstanding. F35 is one of the classics, in the neck of the production process is particularly special, the use of different materials of sound wood pruning splicing, so that the vibration transmission of each frequency is always maintained on the same sound wood, the timbre characteristics of different sound wood are retained, it is recommended to match the cedar top and the back side of the rosewood.
The neck of the Lowden guitar is thicker, and the standard fretboard width at the first frett is 45mm, which is not easy for Asians with small hands to pick up, and if you are looking for a personalized tone and have a good budget, then Lowden is a good choice for acoustic guitar enthusiasts.
