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George Lowden is a
luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers of ...
based in
Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be the b ...
, County Down, Northern Ireland. He constructs
steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...
and
nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pet ...
string acoustic guitars by hand without any UV finishing as well as
solid-body thumb , Sound sample of solid-body electric guitar. A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect th ...
electric guitars.


Early life

George Lowden was born in Bangor,
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...
in 1952. He made his first guitar at the age of 10.


Company

Lowden founded George Lowden Guitars in 1974 at the age of 22 and soon completed Lowden guitar serial No.1. Lowden used A-frame bracing on his first guitars, but from 1976 he used his own modified A-bracing system with a dolphin voicing profile which in many ways established the Lowden guitar's unique sound. His first Irish studio/workshop, in 6a High Street, Bangor employed four trainee guitar makers, Colin ‘Dusty’ Miller, Frank Kernaghan, Sam Irwin and Michael Hull. Approximately 100 guitars were produced during this period, and can be identified by their small blue rectangular labels. Beginning in 1980, Lowden licensed manufacturing of his guitars to a small group of master luthiers in Japan, near
Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...
. Initially four models were soon being produced within a few years this had risen up to 15 and by the mid 1980s up to 1,000 Lowdens were being produced in Japan. In 1985, as a result of the rise in interest for all electronic instruments in music, sales of acoustic instruments slumped worldwide and the owners of the Japanese factory decided to close it and move production of Lowden guitars to a larger factory where other rival brands were made. Lowden was concerned about this outcome, and decided to try setting up a new factory in Ireland. With little capital and through the help of an investor (David Jebb), he rented a building in the Balloo Industrial Estate in Bangor, County Down and began to employ and train new craftsmen.


Change of ownership

The acoustic guitar market had begun to flourish again during the 1990s, but the company, significantly hampered by under-investment, had not been able to achieve its potential. In November 1998, keen to participate in a progressive plan to develop the business further, George Lowden, along with Steve McIlwrath and Alastair McIlveen, set up a new holding company to buy a controlling interest in the Lowden Guitar Company. Lowden's vision was, "...that the company should become as good as the guitars themselves…"


25th anniversary

In November 1998, a visitor to the factory showed up, guitar case in hand, with the Lowden guitar serial No. 1, the very first guitar Lowden designed and built. This was an excellent reminder of how far the Lowden Guitar had come. As a celebration of this long journey, Lowden designed the 25th anniversary limited edition model. "My aim with the design and build details was to make available in reasonable numbers, a guitar which was as close as possible to the guitars which I am only able to build personally for a very few players each year under my full name. I therefore included as many as I could of the construction, voicing and cosmetic details, found in my own guitars in this limited edition of 101 instruments."


Millennium Twins

By this time, the community of Lowden enthusiasts had grown considerably. Players were attracted by Lowden's tone and quality, and by the fact that they were not mass-produced. To fulfill requests for ‘special edition’ Lowdens, Lowden designed the Millennium Twins. "As a luthier, I find that designing a few ‘special’ guitars does stretch my creative abilities and I enjoy that challenge. I believe this does help to develop the art of guitar making in a much wider sense as well. I introduced the limited edition Millennium twins with their matching sets of figured walnut back and sides and adjacent sets of redwood tops sourced from trees, which had fallen naturally." In 2002 the company introduced the more affordable Avalon range. In 2003, the licence with the Lowden Guitar Co ended and production of Lowden guitars at the Newtownards factory ceased at the end of December 2003.


George Lowden Guitars Ltd.

Since 2004, Lowden guitars have been manufactured by a family-run company in Downpatrick, Co. Down.


Notable users of Lowden guitars

Among the artists who have played Lowden guitars have been
Jan Akkerman Jan Akkerman (born 24 December 1946) is a Dutch guitarist. He first found international commercial success with the band Focus, which he co-founded with Thijs van Leer. After leaving Focus, he continued as a solo musician, adding jazz fusion infl ...
,
Pierre Bensusan Pierre Bensusan (born 30 October 1957) is a French-Algerian acoustic guitarist. As Sephardic Jews, his family came from Spain, Spanish Morocco, and French Algeria. His music has been characterized as Celtic, folk, world music, New-age, and cha ...
, David Gray,
Michael Hedges Michael Alden Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter. Early years The son of Thayne Alden Hedges and Ruth Evelyn Hedges Ipsen, Michael Hedges was born in Sacramento, California. His l ...
,
Jacques Stotzem Jacques Stotzem (born 1959 in Verviers, Belgium) is an acoustic fingerstyle guitar player. He has recorded 3 vinyl albums and 17 CDs, and collaborated with numerous musical projects and other artists. After having seen, at the age of 16, the Amer ...
, Richard Thompson, Luka Bloom,
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,
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and
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.


References


External links


Official site

George Lowden, Building Guitars His Own Way for 43 Years
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowden, George Guitar manufacturing companies 1951 births Guitar makers British luthiers People educated at Sullivan Upper School Living people Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom People from Downpatrick