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In the summer of 1961, at the age of ten, George began what was to be a lifelong pursuit to build guitars, which would inspire players with their sound, feel and looks. "My friend Alan French and I made two guitars" with the help of his dad, who was a boat builder in Groomsport, County Down. The "guitars" had fishing line for strings, bent over nails for frets, and a square soundbox!!" - George Lowden"I learned everything the hard way. I had no one to teach me how to avoid the obvious pitfalls. I tried new shapes, bracing designs and many other ideas and gradually emerged from the 'hard school' of self taught guitar making." - George LowdenPrior to this time, George had been influenced by guitars that were beyond his financial reach, like the Gibson J 200, Gibson 335 as well as one or two Gretsch models. He knew where his tastes lay and tried to include some of these in the first Lowden guitars."Of course the three dimensional 'actuals' frequently didn't turn out like the shape in my head and so I kept re-designing for the first four years." - George LowdenThroughout these years of experimentation, George became increasingly aware of the physics involved in the production of sound in the acoustic guitar."I began to think about air movement inside the soundbox, soundwaves being generated by the energy from the bridge and strings, how to spread this energy over as large an area of the top as possible, how to discipline the top vibrations as evenly as possible taking into account the extra stiffness provided by the proximity of struts to each other, as well as the stiffness created by the guitar sides. I thought about how to reduce 'drag' inside the soundbox, about how to 'focus' the energy of the vibrating soundboard, about how to provide extra stability over and above the traditional steel string design, so that neck re-sets would be unnecessary and sustain would be increased" - George LowdenThe Lowden guitar was on its way?

County Down, Ireland

Eric Clapton, Alex de Grassi, Richard Thompson, Acoustic Alchemy, David Gray, Damien Rice, Paul Brady, Hothouse Flowers

Model O, Model S, Model F, Model D, Jazz Series