#61
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I think part of the reason guys resent Sheeran is because he makes it all look so easy. Money for nothin' and your chicks for free. For starters, get yourself a looper pedal and see if your time is good enough to do even rudimentary loop work.
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#62
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As a Lowden owner I have worried about Sheeran by Lowden watering down the brand, but I love my F35 so much I joke that when I die I want my cremated ashes buried in it, so I'll obviously never sell it.
In all seriousness, no one should care how well Ed plays; we should just be happy he's promoting the joy of guitars in an era of computer music.
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Current: Lowden F35, Sitka / Cocobolo. Maestro Victoria, Sitka / EIR. Maestro Singa, Adirondak / EIR. Maestro Singa, Sinker Redwood / Wenge (incoming) Gone but not forgotten: Martins, Gibsons, Taylors, sundry others. |
#63
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were they hand-made prototypes?
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#64
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Didn't occur to me to wonder or ask.
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#65
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I agree with this.
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#66
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I hope it will all be a great success, but as I have said before I just don't see how it can be done, time will tell.
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#67
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They had to be. At the time, they were still talking about how they would be setting up an automated assembly line.
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#68
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At NAMM they were actually selling the opposite idea - "these would be made at the same place by the same folks"... I'd love to hear more about this "automated assembly line" you've heard about. |
#69
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What are they like? Surely they can't be as good as hand-made prototypes? (unless the widely-accepted ideas about production line vs hand-made are wrong) |
#70
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I only had the videos to go by. Were you at namm? Did someone from Lowden tell you "these would be made at the same place by the same folks"? If so, I guess you're right, but it appears that they are doing it the way I heard it. |
#71
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#72
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I don't think these guitars are being sold at South-east Asian prices. As far as I know they will retail for around £700. The equivalent no-frills style guitar would be something like £200 if made in China and £450 if made in Mexico (like the small laminate Martin and Taylor guitars). With a high degree of automated production, most of the unit cost will be in materials, distribution, dealer margin and tax. The higher Irish wages and other costs compared with China and Mexico will be absorbed in the higher retail price.
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#73
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Yes, Martin and Taylor and others are already automated. It's not like we're talking about a conveyor belt going along with robots doing the work.
It was said here recently that when you take the Martin tour, you hear machinery everywhere and the shop is nice and clean where 30 years ago it was quiet with people using hand tools. Perhaps Lowden is taking it another step forward. This is one way they get more consistency, but people want to think that their new guitar was made by one guy working away at it, so it will be a while before the robots completely take over. |
#74
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Lowden's most likely move (and delay) was to create all the jigs, tooling and workstations to pump these guitars out quicker. They've already designed them to be much cheaper to build because they have virtually no embellishments, have much simpler materials/production techniques and the actual assembly methods are far less labor-intensive. The woods are cheaper, but the materials represent little of the cost of a guitar (unless you're working with "the tree" etc). To make them cheaper, you simply have to be able to make a whole lot more of them in a whole lot less time. That's more an exercise in Lean Manufacturing than anything. When I played a Sheeran this winter, I was blown away with how good it was built, despite the obvious corners cut compared to Lowdens. It wasn't a Lowden, but it was still sorta a Lowden and on par with lots of the really high quality instruments it will inevitably compete against in the price point. I believe making them in the same factory by the same people is purely marketing and maybe even a nod to the low output they knew they'd be able to have. They could make them cheaper, faster, as good or better and in exponentially higher volume if they made them in asia or mexico. They could probably still command as much or more for them simply by virtue of their relationship to both George and Ed. I actually wonder if they'll eventually do that because the demand could be high and they could hurt themselves a lot by long waits or quality issues from hurrying to get a bunch out. |
#75
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Yes, Thomann sell £200 Chinese acoustics. However, the cheapest mid brand solid wood acoustics start at £500-£600 (Takamine, Gretsch, Cort, Yamaha) I'm asking why I haven't seen this done before: building guitars which I assume must retain a significant part of the Lowden DNA and sound, but in the UK for that price |