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  #31  
Old 07-29-2019, 01:13 PM
Malcolm Kindnes Malcolm Kindnes is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lowrider View Post
ES has said from the beginning that one of the reasons for going into this was to provide skilled jobs for the people of Ireland.
This is just more marketing spiel and ego massaging, FYO Ireland has a very low rate of unemployment whatever Ed Sheeran thinks!
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  #32  
Old 07-29-2019, 01:53 PM
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JayBee1404 JayBee1404 is offline
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Originally Posted by lowrider View Post
ES When you write that you were reading a FB page where the workers of the plant post, instead of coming here adn writing that nobody said it was in Ireland, why didn't you ask them where the plant is?
Because I don’t care where it is.

I wrote honestly about what I knew - that there is/will be a new facility with new staff, but that I’d not seen/heard specifically that it is/will be in Northern Ireland.

I won’t be in the market for a Sheeran - full-blood Lowdens are my interest - but, if I was, where it was built would be far less important to me than how well it was built, and the quality of the materials it was built from.

However, from the Sheeran Guitars website...

”Sheeran by Lowden are a range of newly designed guitars born out of a friendship between Ed Sheeran and George Lowden.

They offer aspiring musicians a guitar with great playability and tone using materials with high sustainability credentials, all designed and built in Ireland
.

https://sheeranguitars.com/

Hope that clarifies...
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Last edited by JayBee1404; 07-29-2019 at 02:39 PM.
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  #33  
Old 07-29-2019, 02:01 PM
CitizenAudio CitizenAudio is offline
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I am very interested in these guitars. This will be new territory for Lowden and I am kind of expecting really good value here. Upper end, really cool road/campfire guitars.
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  #34  
Old 07-29-2019, 02:57 PM
Malcolm Kindnes Malcolm Kindnes is offline
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Originally Posted by CitizenAudio View Post
I am very interested in these guitars. This will be new territory for Lowden and I am kind of expecting really good value here. Upper end, really cool road/campfire guitars.
This is the sort of comment I don't understand. Why would you expect really good value?

Ireland is a first world economy with high rents and high labour costs, all our traditional manufacturing industries have decamped to the Far East, by what miracle do you imagine we are going to be able to manufacture "good value" guitars here?
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  #35  
Old 07-29-2019, 03:20 PM
CitizenAudio CitizenAudio is offline
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Originally Posted by Malcolm Kindnes View Post
...by what miracle do you imagine we are going to be able to manufacture "good value" guitars here?
I’m an optimist. And I love the Irish! ✌️
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  #36  
Old 07-29-2019, 03:42 PM
Malcolm Kindnes Malcolm Kindnes is offline
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I’m an optimist. And I love the Irish! ✌️
Thank you, I admire your optimism, but I will be amazed if they can make it work in Ireland.
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  #37  
Old 07-29-2019, 03:49 PM
Maryc-k Maryc-k is online now
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Most of these instruments will be manufactured using fairly advanced automation. That should cut down on the labor requirements. It was my understanding that George brought in a group of experts to set up production.
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  #38  
Old 07-29-2019, 04:26 PM
Brent Hahn Brent Hahn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CitizenAudio View Post
I am very interested in these guitars. This will be new territory for Lowden and I am kind of expecting really good value here. Upper end, really cool road/campfire guitars.
I played the ones they had at Winter NAMM in Anaheim. I don't think guitar-playing grownups will like them. For that money, especially.
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  #39  
Old 07-29-2019, 07:43 PM
Tony Burns Tony Burns is offline
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Have always like lowdens -thou ive never owned one .

Thou I have never been a fan of artist models -i feel most guitarists would play
anything if it was free - ( of quality that is ) so playing a guitar should not be an endorsement .
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  #40  
Old 07-30-2019, 01:21 AM
perttime perttime is offline
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Originally Posted by Arthur Slowhand View Post
I don't know why anyone would want a guitar endorsed by Ed Sheeran - .....
I suppose many are willing to try, or even buy, a guitar - despite the fact that it has Sheeran's name on it.
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  #41  
Old 08-06-2019, 06:06 PM
Dr Tone Control Dr Tone Control is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lowrider View Post
It has never been implied that the Sheeran's would be made by the Lowden craftsman. They have said from the beginning that they would be training new workers to work in a very automated plant.

I think these are going to be nice guitars. I also think that they will cost a little more than a comparable Chinese guitar but that it will be worth paying a little more to get a Lowden designed guitar verses a copy of an American guitar. I also don't think they will appeal to me, but I'm happy the Sheeran and Lowden are doing this.

Maybe in a few years that will make a large Sheeran guitar and then I will start gassing.
My assumption is that, since the price is low, and they are being made in a new plant in Northern Ireland, that as much automation as possible will be used, and that few staff will be doing the kind of things done in the Lowden factory. I am not sure if anyone else has managed to match Chinese prices with European productions costs, it will be an impressive feat.

It sounds like some people think this will be a Lowden with a plainer finish, but it must be constructed completely differently to sell for the price.
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  #42  
Old 08-07-2019, 05:29 AM
Dr Tone Control Dr Tone Control is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brent Hahn View Post
I played the ones they had at Winter NAMM in Anaheim. I don't think guitar-playing grownups will like them. For that money, especially.
were they hand-made prototypes, or from the production line?
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  #43  
Old 08-07-2019, 06:52 AM
Rudy4 Rudy4 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by perttime View Post
I suppose many are willing to try, or even buy, a guitar - despite the fact that it has Sheeran's name on it.
...or they may purchase because it has Sheeran's name on it.

If someone isn't a member of the "You kids get off my lawn" generation then their motivations for buying an instrument may be entirely different. I think anything that motivates someone learning to play an actual instrument instead of limiting yourself to something with a display and buttons to push is a positive step forward.
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  #44  
Old 08-07-2019, 07:36 AM
mcduffnw mcduffnw is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by perttime View Post
I suppose many are willing to try, or even buy, a guitar - despite the fact that it has Sheeran's name on it.

Like it or not, Ed Sheeran is the closest thing to a Pop Music Superstar Guitar God that the guitar community has out there in the music marketplace right now.

John Mayer is considered and old man by the current younger generation, and is not the marketplace "Tour de Force" that he was 10 years ago, and Taylor Swift has gone big beat EDM Hip Hop/Dub Step influenced music, she is part of the "Party Pop" gang like Arianna Grande, Beyonce', Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and she is no longer the simple country girl playing her guitar singing forlorn tween/teen love songs.

So Ed is kinda "it" for the moment, which since he plays a 3/4 size $700 wee Lowden is not helping the guitar industry gain much ground in the "Top-O-The Charts" pop music world, right as it needs someone BIG to push it back to prominence as we boomers age out and leave the marketplace.


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  #45  
Old 08-07-2019, 07:43 AM
jgottsman11 jgottsman11 is offline
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I personally will never buy a guitar that is a artists model. Especially one that says Sheeran at the top. Nothing feels special about it to me.
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