I’ve been playing a cheap Westfield acoustic guitar, that I bought to learn on, for the last few years. I decided to buy a good quality replacement now that I’m sure I’m going to continue playing. Doing research into what are good quality acoustic guitars I came across the usual suspects like Martin, Takamine etc. I also kept hearing about a make called Lowden that are made in Northern Ireland. People kept singing their praises and saying that Lowdens were brilliant guitars. Looking into it I discovered that what was the Lowden company had split, with the former company taking the name Avalon Guitars, located in Newtownards, and a new company called Lowden Guitars formed by George Lowden located in Downpatrick. There is also at least one other Northern Ireland based guitar maker with a connection to the former Lowden company. This is McIlroy Guitars located in Antrim.
I really liked the idea of getting a guitar that was actually made here in Northern Ireland. As long as it sounded okay. I wanted an acoustic with a lightly coloured wood top and without any electrics installed. I got the chance to play an Avalon guitar in a shop in Bangor a few days ago and it sounded really nice and looked good as well. But it was from an Avalon range that was made overseas. Not that this would have stopped me buying it, but I wanted to try some of the locally made ones as well.
I went to the Belfast Guitar Emporium to see what they had in stock. Wow. This is a wonderful shop. If you are are looking for a guitar of any type then this shop should be on your list of places to visit. They have loads of guitars in stock and they are very friendly and knowledgeable. At the back of the store they have a separate acoustic room with about a dozen Lowden guitars and a big couch to sit on and try them out. I spent time in there trying out the models available. Four of the guitars fitted the criteria I had. I quickly narrowed the ones I was interested in down to two. An O-32 and a S-12c. I spent quite a bit of time A/B’ing these two. They were both bloody marvelous. One of the guys from the shop said he thought the S-12c was the best Lowden he had heard. He was excellent playing it. He is certainly a better guitarist than I am 🙂 I liked the sound from the O-32 better, though it was a close call. The O-32 had a deeper sound that I really, really liked. Ironically one of the things I told the guys in the shop was that I liked a more treble sounding guitar. The O-32 changed my mind!
So after playing both for a while I settled on the O-32. I hadn’t asked the price of the two I was thinking off as I didn’t want the price to colour my choice. I wanted to make the choice based on sound and feel. It turned out that the O-32 was the cheaper of the two so that was a bonus. So I bought the O-32. Here is is:
Click picture for larger view
I really like it. It looks beautiful and has a wonderful tone. The top is Sitka Spruce and the back and sides are Indian Rosewood. The neck is Mahogany/Rose and the fingerboard is Ebony. Other woods, in addition to those listed above, like Walnut and sycamore are used for inlay and detail. There are more pictures of he guitar here. It has a wonderful wood smell too.
Hopefully this guitar will last me for the rest of my life and that that will be a very long time.