Lowden Guitars Buyers Guide

Lowden guitars are, without doubt, some of the finest guitars we have ever played at Reidys. The guitars have a unique, complex, harmonically rich tone with sustain that goes on for ages. The guitars are extremely responsive and this, coupled with the superb set up makes them a complete joy to play. Lowden guitars are finished with a hand rubbed satin laquer that feels silky smooth and contributes to the amazing tone.

The sound of Lowden guitars is crystal clear and glassy with rich and complex overtones. They record superbly, with an even, wide range frequency response. George Lowden’s unique hand carved ‘dolphin’ bracing allows the top on the guitar to respond accurately to a player’s touch meaning that the expression you put into the guitar is represented by the sound that comes out of it.

Lowden guitars are made with four different body shapes, each with a unique voice, plus some slightly tweaked signature models. Materials used, bracing methods and the physical shape of the instrument all come together to form the sound of the instrument. Here’s a quick guide to how each Lowden guitar shape sounds.

Lowden Body Shapes – How Do They Sound?

O

This is the original Lowden body shape that George created in 1977 and to this day, is like nothing else on the market. It’s got a huge sound and a deep bass response, as you might expect for a guitar of this size. However, it’s also sweet sounding, balanced and complex. Unlike some other big-bodied guitars it’s a great fingerpicking guitar, just as much as it is ideal for flatpicking or strumming. Because of Lowden’s unique construction methods, you know it’s going to react to your every touch. The Lowden O body shapes make a big statement – visually and sonically.

Lowden O22

Mahogany/Cedar

F

The F body shape is Lowden’s most popular. Size-wise it sits in the middle of the O and the S. As such, it’s probably the best all-rounder so can handle flatpicking, fingerpicking, strumming – the lot. The F has a focused projection and a balanced and lush complex tone present in the entire range.

Lowden F25

Indian Rosewood/
Cedar

Lowden F32C

Indian Rosewood/
Sitka Spruce

Lowden F35

Indian Rosewood/
Sitka Spruce

Lowden F35

Madagasgar Rosewood/Alpine Spruce

Lowden F50

African Blackwood/
Sinker Redwood

S

The Lowden S body shape sounds a lot bigger than it looks. They’re balanced, sweet sounding and often have a lovely sparkly top end. The Lowden S guitars are perfect for fingerpickers. However, for players that are more comfortable with a smaller-bodied guitar, they can handle strumming and flatpicking too.

Lowden S23

Walnut/Red Cedar

Lowden S25J

Indian Rosewood/
Red Cedar

Lowden S35M

Fiddleback Mahogany

Lowden S50

Ziricote/Sinker Redwood

Wee Lowden

The most recent addition to Lowden’s body shapes. The Wee Lowden came about after Gary Lightbody (songwriter and frontman of Snow Patrol) spoke to George about designing a guitar that he could gift to Ed Sheeran. As you probably know, small acoustic guitars can sound ‘boxy’ with little projection. To combat this, Lowden have carefully designed the internal bracing and chosen the right woods so that the Wee Lowden has an impressive bass response – much more so than any other small acoustic around.

Wee Lowden WL25

Indian Rosewood/Red Cedar

Wee Lowden WL35

Indian Rosewood/Redwood

Signature Models

Lowden Richard Thompson

Figured Ziricote/
AAAA Cedar

What Dale thinks…“Before I’d ever picked up a Lowden I knew of their status with acoustic guitar enthusiasts as one of the holy-grail ’boutique’ acoustic guitar brands, but it never did quite prepare me. After the first strum I was blown away. There’s a lot of hype for new products in this industry, but this was genuinely a mind-blowing experience for me. When you pick up one of these guitars, you might think – “It can’t be that good, it’s just another acoustic guitar after all.”, but you can really feel the heart and soul that’s gone in to these guitars.

My first strum was on an O22 which is at the cheaper end of the spectrum, but I’ve tried a whole bunch of different shapes and models and they all share one same feature regardless – a rich, crisp and deep tone that almost sounds like a studio recording, right in your hands. Now who doesn’t want that?”

Dale Gardner, Reidys Home of Music

Custom Build Your Own Lowden

Of course, the standard Lowden models are stunning, but if you’re looking for something extra special, we’ve got you covered. How about spec’ing your own custom Lowden model? We have a limited number of free build slots per year at the Lowden workshop which we’re opening up to you, to craft your dream guitar.

One of our custom Lowden models being checked over before leaving us

The choice is yours, you can go simple, with a tried and tested spec. or you can get creative with custom options such as –

• Exotic Woods (inc. high grade classification)
• Cutaway
• Soundbox bevel
• Extended fingerboard
• Fan fret
• Figured maple neck
• Bevel arm rest
• Soundboard inlays
• Fingerboard inlays
• Rosette
• 12-string model
• Neck e.g. more narrow 43.5mm at nut / 56mm at 14th fret and/or Shallow Neck Carve (hand carved lower profile neck) or increased string spacing. 45mm at nut, 60mm at 14th fret with compensated neck profile
• Tuners & tuner buttons
• Pickups