Lowden - what’s the Craic?

[R J Luther]

Morning Guys and Gals, it’s a Sunday morning (here), perfect rainy summers day in London, ideal for grabbing the Lowden, mash it into DADGAD and make a ham fisted effort at a Celtic ditty

Cos that’s what the Lowden is for, right?

Or not

So this is my latest musing and I’d love to get some thoughts from you all out there. What gives with Lowden?

They’re gorgeous guitars for sure. But what do you like playing on them?
Are they really only suited for folk songs and such? Can you belt out Wonderwall and not end up wishing you hadn’t sold the D18 back in the day?

I often hear that they just won’t do for to over pop classics we all know and love to get the family singing after dinner, but is that true? Are they much more versatile than that?

Once I was looking at a few in a local guitar store and the assistant proudly informed me they were ‘the best guitars in the world bar none, don’t you know!’
Well I didn’t know. But they are very fine instruments that’s for sure


Please send me your thoughts, feelings, experiences and the obligatory Guitar Porn shots of your favourite Lowdens

Over to you!

R J

[foxo]

I've got a Lowden F32 which is the guitar I now use almost exclusively for everything. It really is a solid all-rounder with a beautiful tone both strummed and fingerpicked. I'm currently learning flat picking too and it seems up to the job.

I occasionally venture into DADGAD as it does sound excellent but mine tends to live in standard tuning for my own singer-songwriter and folk stuff. It's surprisingly good for blues too!

[R J Luther]

Thank you
And I forgot to add to the list; at first glance the naming system seems to be all BMW - esque . What with the 8 series (50) 6 series (35) 3 series (32) but then gets a bit opaque

And I’ve seen a 32 be priced much higher than an F50

So what gives here?

Anybody care to elaborate what it all means and how to decode it to Sucre buying and selling price wise makes some kind of sense?

Grazie

R J

[philjs]

My O23c lives in DADGAD but I play anything and everything with it.

I've played Celtic with it, both solo and as 1/3 of a world/celtic trio (Papilio, flute/violin/guitar), but it did just as well with every other kind of traditional and contemporary music that I/we threw at it. Solo, I play many different styles but my own pieces, with partial capos over DADGAD, never get anywhere near "Celtic" or what too many folk think DADGAD is "supposed to" sound like.

Check out "The Walking Fly," "Hillary Got Trumped," or "Oot 'n Aboot" from my solo recording (link below)...or some of the pieces from the two Papilio CDs.

Phil

[foxo]

Originally Posted by R J Luther

Thank you
And I forgot to add to the list; at first glance the naming system seems to be all BMW - esque . What with the 8 series (50) 6 series (35) 3 series (32) but then gets a bit opaque

And I’ve seen a 32 be priced much higher than an F50

So what gives here?

Anybody care to elaborate what it all means and how to decode it to Sucre buying and selling price wise makes some kind of sense?

Grazie

R J

The original series is the entry level Lowden and includes all numbers up to 32. These should all be priced very similarly and have an understated design - no abalone etc. For the original series the numbers denote wood combination and the letters the size - O being the largest and WL (Wee Lowden) being the smallest. An F50 should never be cheaper than an F32 really, unless it's in poor condition. I paid £2200 for my F32 second-hand at Guitar Guitar.

It gets a bit more complex with the 35 and 50 series. These are both available in a number of more exotic or unusual wood combinations with a bit more bling and as such command a higher price.

The Lowden website has a handy guide to what's available, e.g. for the 35 series here are the wood combinations: https://www.lowdenguitars.com/guitar-spec-35

[SkipII]

Originally Posted by foxo

I've got a Lowden F32 which is the guitar I now use almost exclusively for everything. It really is a solid all-rounder with a beautiful tone both strummed and fingerpicked. I'm currently learning flat picking too and it seems up to the job.

I occasionally venture into DADGAD as it does sound excellent but mine tends to live in standard tuning for my own singer-songwriter and folk stuff. It's surprisingly good for blues too!

Nice job blowing out the brighter parts of the photo! Really shows off the Lowden.

[foxo]

Originally Posted by SkipII

Nice job blowing out the brighter parts of the photo! Really shows off the Lowden.

All credit goes to my iPhone camera.

[JayBee1404]

I’ve owned three Lowdens - an O-10, an O-25, and my current F-23. Ive used them all to play anything and everything in my personal repertoire (mostly Folk and Folk-influenced, with an occasional ‘pop’ classic) and also with the band (Folk/Country influenced, and Americana), both finger-picking and playing with a flat-pick. No problems whatsoever.

Sure, like any guitar, they have excelled with certain types of material, but I’ve never felt they lacked anything, no matter what I played. Great, loud, all-rounder instruments.

[Rosewood99]

I have a Lowden 0–32 and I don’t play any alternate tunings on it. I play all kinds of styles.

[Rudy4]

I purchased an O23C new many years ago and sold it a few years back. It was fully capable of playing any type of music and my lack of playing it was due to the size of the body. I had to eventually come to terms that I just found it uncomfortable.

[jklotz]

I recently aquired an FM35, which is a bit of an interesting beast. The body depth is thinner than a normal F, George's answer to an OM. It's spruce over mahogany. It's clearly a Lowden, but more versatile IMHO. It's a great stummer, great for fingerstyle and great for alt tunings. Plenty of volume, I can do just about anything with it. I use it for mostly fingerstyle because that's what I play, but I dabble in a little bluegrass and americana, and it sounds great with that stuff as well. I've also got an O25C, cedar over rosewood. That guitar is much more like a traditional Lowden and is more of a fingerstyle instrument. I can strum it, but it's more compressed than the FM and has a lot more overtones and a cavernous bass.

Point being, I guess it depends on what model and wood combo you are talking about.

[pukematrix]

Like Paul, I play a variety of styles and never dabble with alternative tunings. My cedar/rosewood F-25 does it all with aplomb.

I've not taken a photo of it since I've had it, but here's a photo of it from when Eddie's Guitars had it for sale (credit to their photo folks).

Austin

[R J Luther]

Originally Posted by jklotz

I recently aquired an FM35, which is a bit of an interesting beast. The body depth is thinner than a normal F, George's answer to an OM. It's spruce over mahogany. It's clearly a Lowden, but more versatile IMHO. It's a great stummer, great for fingerstyle and great for alt tunings. Plenty of volume, I can do just about anything with it. I use it for mostly fingerstyle because that's what I play, but I dabble in a little bluegrass and americana, and it sounds great with that stuff as well. I've also got an O25C, cedar over rosewood. That guitar is much more like a traditional Lowden and is more of a fingerstyle instrument. I can strum it, but it's more compressed than the FM and has a lot more overtones and a cavernous bass.

Point being, I guess it depends on what model and wood combo you are talking about.

I was seriously considering an FM50, look ideal to me, I think they even have slightly things necks but come with the volume of a OM or more

Do they otherwise stack up against the ‘50 models in terms of price, quality and subsequently prestige?

I’m super tempted right now

R J

[cmac]

Here are my F23 and O25. The O has been mostly strummed, while the F has been almost exclusively fingerpicked.

I don't believe in the idea that a guitar is 'meant for' folk, or DADGAD, or one thing or another. The defining characteristic of Lowdens is a sound that is rich in overtones, resonance, and harmonics. If that's what you like then you should like a Lowden.

[morebass]

Originally Posted by R J Luther

Morning Guys and Gals, it’s a Sunday morning (here), perfect rainy summers day in London, ideal for grabbing the Lowden, mash it into DADGAD and make a ham fisted effort at a Celtic ditty

Cos that’s what the Lowden is for, right?

Or not

So this is my latest musing and I’d love to get some thoughts from you all out there. What gives with Lowden?

They’re gorgeous guitars for sure. But what do you like playing on them?
Are they really only suited for folk songs and such? Can you belt out Wonderwall and not end up wishing you hadn’t sold the D18 back in the day?

I often hear that they just won’t do for to over pop classics we all know and love to get the family singing after dinner, but is that true? Are they much more versatile than that?

Once I was looking at a few in a local guitar store and the assistant proudly informed me they were ‘the best guitars in the world bar none, don’t you know!’
Well I didn’t know. But they are very fine instruments that’s for sure


Please send me your thoughts, feelings, experiences and the obligatory Guitar Porn shots of your favourite Lowdens

Over to you!

R J

always been the aim for me to own an F series. As a side not, are there any factory made production guitars based on the Lowdens? Say like the Avalon Gold and Silver series.