George Lowden

George Lowden is a luthier based in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. He constructs steel and nylon string acoustic guitars by hand without any UV finishing as well as solid-body electric guitars. He made his first guitar at the age of 10.

Lowden used A-frame bracing on his first guitars, but from 1976 he used his own modified A-bracing system with a dolphin voicing profile which in many ways established the Lowden guitar's unique sound.

His first Irish studio/workshop, in 6a High Street, Bangor employed four trainee guitar makers, Colin ‘Dusty’ Miller, Frank Kernaghan, Sam Irwin and Michael Hull. Approximately 100 guitars were produced during this period, and can be identified by their small blue rectangular labels.

Beginning in 1980, Lowden licensed manufacturing of his guitars to a small group of master luthiers in Japan, near Nagoya. Initially four models were soon being produced within a few years this had risen up to 15 and by the mid 1980s up to 1,000 Lowdens were being produced in Japan.

25th anniversary In November 1998, a visitor arrived at the factory with the Lowden guitar serial No. 1, the very first guitar Lowden designed and built. Inspired by this, and as a celebration of how far he had come, Lowden designed the 25th-anniversary limited-edition model. "My aim with the design and build details was to make available in reasonable numbers, a guitar which was as close as possible to the guitars which I am only able to build personally for a very few players each year under my full name. I therefore included as many as I could of the construction, voicing and cosmetic details, found in my own guitars in this limited edition of 101 instruments."

Notable users of Lowden guitars Among the artists who have played Lowden guitars have been Damien Rice, Jan Akkerman, Pierre Bensusan, David Gray, Michael Hedges, Jacques Stotzem, Richard Thompson, Luka Bloom, Dermot Kennedy, Niall Horan, Gary Lightbody and Ed Sheeran.