Ruined for life - Lowden content

CountryDave · February 2017

I have a couple of 'go to' guitars which have just been the ones I gravitate to and pick up the most. The rest of the herd seem to come, get played a fair bit in the 'oooh, new shiny things' period, but then I always seem to go back to the main ones. As such I have been through a fair number over the years. These include such delights as multiple Gibsons, PRS, Ibanez, Jacksons and many Fenders from all ranges, Squiers through to Custom Shop and I'm not about to start debating the relative merits of any of these against each other. In the acoustic camp I have owned Taylor, Martin, Gibson and also had a wonderful Atkin for a while. Unfortunately I am not a rich man so usually something has to go to make room for the next visitor. My long suffering wife is very tolerant of my problem and keeps telling me to enjoy it. In her eyes it's kind of like an extended trial before commiting to keep something. (I often wonder if I'm currently being judged in some kind of extended trial myself).

On a recent work visit to Belfast I stopped in the local music shop to while away a very rainy dinner hour. The staff were very accommodating, helpful and chatty and let me try out anything I so desired - a couple of Custom Shop Fenders, a Martin or two and a couple of Taylors. On the wall next to me were a number of Lowden acoustics. I recalled to one of the guys in the shop that I had tried these a good few years ago, enjoyed the sounds, but usually found the necks to be on the wide size for me and some of the body shapes uncomfortably large for my short arse stature and stubby fingers.

At this he lifted off the wall and handed me a Wee Lowden, something that at first glance looked like the Lowden version of the Taylor GS Mini/Martin D Jr.

I gave it the traditional try out of a big old E chord followed by an even bigger G.

The sounds coming from this little thing were nothing like expected (I've found many of the smaller guitars have relatively smaller voices - I currently own 2 smaller Taylors (Big Baby and GS Mini which I love), but the Lowden had so much more. It had the full Lowden tone, as big as any Martin OM/OOO, didn't have quite as much thump as a Martin Dread, but this thing is smaller than a OO. All the tone, just in a mini package. I played and looked over this one for about half an hour and can honestly say it's as good as anything I've ever owned and other friends guitars I've played costing much more.

The downside to this is the price - £3200 or thereabouts.

Here's the thing, on my flight home I was calculating how much I could sell all the 'visitor' guitars/fx for because if I had the money I'd have been travelling home with a new companion and this would have comfortably sat at home in the very small 'keeper' selection.

http://www.lowdenguitars.com/guitar-range-wee

http://www.acousticmagazine.com/reviews/the-story-of-the-wee-lowden/

pjf · February 2017

Ha - I've definitely been in the situation you mention in your last paragraph there! Most recently contemplated selling every bit of gear I own to go down the minimalist route with a Huss & Dalton braz dread that sounded incredible, but I bottled it...

I'll have to give these wee Lowdens another go, I reckon. I played one in Wunjo but it sounded a bit 'tight' - not as big a sound as you describe and not as resonant by the sounds of it, either. Perhaps it was just that one, perhaps it would be an entirely different beast after it opened up.. who knows. I really want to love the wee model because smaller guitars are easier for me to play on and easier to transport round. I'll make sure I try out the next one I see!

One thing that does bother me about Lowdens though is that the tuners are sometimes off-centre with respect to the rosewood strips on the neck.. maybe it's my OCD but it bothers me that they're often not symmetrical. For example look at the first guitar in that video on the review page you posted. On a side note I really don't rate that review either - you barely hear it played fingerstyle or in standard tuning and the reviewer has to um and ah and erm his way through not much information while reading the spec sheet.. could've been done better in my opinion!

Anyway... will you be answering the Lowden call, do you think?

Bridgehouse · February 2017

Life is too short to overthink these things. Do it.

Moe_Zambeek · February 2017

I love my Lowden O, but it's a big beast, so I tried a wee Lowden a couple of months ago. It sounded good but suffered in direct comparison to the O, so it did sound relatively small. Still sounded like a Lowden though, generally speaking. I'm waiting for my local place to get another and an S so I can try again because I do want a shorter scale / smaller body.

CountryDave · February 2017

I did this with the Atkin. Sold off loads of stuff, bought the Atkin. Played it, loved it but then got paranoid about the possibility of it getting a knock.
In the end it went to be replaced by a J45 that I played more but ultimately regretted the Atkin going.

@pjf - the links were more for info, especially the Acoustic Mag one. Unfortunately there aren't many videos out there.

@Moe_Zambeek - I didn't directly compare it against bigger Lowden models because that would show its limitations. It dI'd have the tonew of a much larger guitar though and didn't break up when I strummed it hard which can often happen with smaller boxes.

Will I do it? Yes, at some point probably but not right now.

ICBM · February 2017

Stop thinking about it and do it

.

One great guitar is better than many good ones.

I would start selling your other gear now and put a deposit on the Lowden as soon as you can - although they're very consistent, they do still vary and you need to buy *that* one. Or ask the shop if they would take any of it as a trade-in.

Don't worry about it getting a knock, guitars are made to be played and wear is just part of that.

TheBigDipper · February 2017

Buy the guitar. When an instrument calls your name, answer it. Your life regrets should be about what you DID do, not what you did not.

Good luck with the sell-off!

thomasross20 · February 2017

I agree, do it and but that one.

I listened on YouTube but I still prefer OM+ size guitars for sound. I still haven't played an acoustic, hand on heart, that beats my £800 Larrivee.

TheBigDipper · February 2017

thomasross20 said:

I agree, do it and but that one.

I listened on YouTube but I still prefer OM+ size guitars for sound. I still haven't played an acoustic, hand on heart, that beats my £800 Larrivee.

Then I'm jealous of a happy man!

Sassafras · February 2017

Just get the damn thing, or else!
As ICBM says, it's better to have one great guitar that you really love than several mediocre ones that will seem wanting now that you've had the Lowden to compare them to.

thomasross20 · February 2017

TheBigDipper said:

thomasross20 said:

I agree, do it and but that one.

I listened on YouTube but I still prefer OM+ size guitars for sound. I still haven't played an acoustic, hand on heart, that beats my £800 Larrivee.

Then I'm jealous of a happy man!

Let's see if I'm still saying that after the guitar show this February

AustrianJohn · February 2017

@CountryDave OK, it's not a Wee Lowden, but it is a Lowden, and it's much less than £3,200.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/92921/for-sale-1997-lowden-o25-1-900

I feel it calling to you!

CountryDave · February 2017

That's very nice but the O models are just too big for me.

Moe_Zambeek · February 2017

Guitarguitar have a used Wee Lowden on their site for around 2k today.

AliGorie · February 2017

In ’88 IIRC I hadn’t played for 15 yrs or so and was given an O10 to do a minor repair on, a singer songwriter had picked up on a tour of Ireland. I repaired it and couldn’t put the bloody thing down. Had it for a couple of weeks and had to give it back. long story short, I phoned GL and we talked ‘guitars’, we got on well. A few weeks later a courier van appeared at my door with a big cardboard box and inside a green case and inside that was an L25 (now O25) GL phoned and said if I liked it just send him a cheque which I did - gladly, it was £740.
Some how ‘the music’ had left me and these guitars sparked (and set fire) something in me. I spent the next decade trying to do justice to having this guitar and it made me develop as a player - solo fingerpicking.
I always thought it was saying to me - “comon big boy, is that all ya got” !, it sure dragged it outa me. So be prepared to be challenged and put in a lot of work if you find the right guitar and be it a Lowdie or what ever.

Misty · February 2017

pjf said:

One thing that does bother me about Lowdens though is that the tuners are sometimes off-centre with respect to the rosewood strips on the neck.. maybe it's my OCD but it bothers me that they're often not symmetrical.

Interesting. I recently traded two Martins for a Lowden F32C Anniversary which was just sublime in every way. I totally fell in love with it, and did the deal. When I got it home and looked it over in detail I noticed just that, the tuners were fitted off centre. It was so bad that they were nearer one side of the headstock by 2 or 3 mm. Lord knows why I didn't notice it in the shop, especially having learned my lessons over the years, but I guess I was too smitten by the sound and playability of the thing. Lowden did offer to rebuild the headstock for me, but in the end I couldn't live with it, and back it went. Luckily the shop understood, but the down side for me was that in the meantime someone there had tried to set up my Martin OM, which it didn't need, and basically butchered it. Of course it was theirs at the time to do what they liked with, but it was rendered virtually unplayable and I ended up forking out for a new nut, saddle, and a fret dress; luckily a well respected and capable luthier is based locally, and now that guitar is back to how it should be. It was a big disappointment, and no names mentioned, but yet another lesson learned.

AliGorie · February 2017

Misty, is yours a 25th or a 40th Anniversary - whats the serial number ?.

Misty · February 2017

AliGorie said:

Misty, is yours a 25th or a 40th Anniversary - whats the serial number ?.

It was a 40th but, as I said above, I don't have it any more, and I believe the shop sent it back to Lowden. I don't remember the serial number.

mellowsun · February 2017

Were the tuners off centre or were the laminated stripes in the neck not symmetrical? The tuners are likely to be in the right place in relation to the break angle for the nut and at the same distance from the edge of the headstock but they may not always align with the stripes in the 5 piece neck.

Is this a similar issue to how on some guitars the fingerboard dots look asymmetrical to the string spacing?

Misty · February 2017

The tuners we're off centre. I spoke with someone at Lowden who agreed it was a fault.

AliGorie · February 2017

Misty v unusual cant imagine how that got past the QC. I know a couple of guys who have worked in the workshop and production standards are meticulous.
On the point of the Lowdie neck, the (main) reason for doing a two or three piece neck + lamination 'strips'- excluding the contrasting laminate strips, is because the availability of quarter sawn South American mahogany has all but dried up or you'll pay dearly for it.
By orienting the grain ( wood fibers) of the two or three pieces in opposing directions you get a structure that's not going to warp in any direction and it adds strength. That and the way the neck is incorporated into the body makes it one of the most rock solid going.
The reason I asked for the serial No, was that during the 'Under License' period things were not quite as under GL's control.
Theres stuff on the Yahoo Lowden forum bout that but it's real queit over there these days.

Misty · February 2017

I couldn't understand it either, the guitar was superb in every other way. But, when I was in the process of deciding whether or not to keep it, I looked at loads of photos of Lowdens and most of them were fine, but a few of them also had their tuners off centre, though most of those weren't as bad as the one I had, and it was a £4k guitar.

Stevepage · February 2017

Having had a little strum on a Wee Lowden fan fret I can understand your predicament. Lowdens to me are something you keep for the rest of your life or pass on to your family. Amazing

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