“To say it’s 50 years, I’ve to present myself somewhat pinch. The place have the 50 years gone? My goodness…”
It’s been a half century since George Lowden first began making guitars, and the person himself can’t appear to imagine it. Over these 5 many years, Northern Eire’s most well-known guitar maker has had his share of triumphs and setbacks – and various moments the place somebody fabricated from much less stern stuff would have given up and received themselves a correct boring job.

If he had, nonetheless, he wouldn’t be the place he’s proper now. With Lowden Guitars thriving as one of many world’s foremost boutique luthiers, his three way partnership with one of many world’s greatest pop stars goes from energy to energy down the street. “There’s an entire lot of issues which have occurred which I by no means anticipated to occur,” he admits.

However whereas there’ll be loads of time to muse on the unlikely story of how he received right here, George isn’t right here to reminisce. Right here within the opening few bars of his seventh decade, and with that aforementioned half-century of guitar constructing below his belt, the person himself has determined that now’s the proper second handy the job of Managing Director of the corporate that bares his identify to the subsequent era – although he’s definitely not going to cease making guitars any time quickly.

“I feel beginning to hand issues over is the proper time period,” he says fairly pointedly. “I do discover it exhausting to step again. I’m not the form of one that can sit at dwelling in slippers and browse the paper – my thoughts may be very energetic. However I do assume that I don’t need to depart it too late.”

The ‘it’ he’s speaking about is elevating his son Aaron to the position of managing director of Lowden, and permitting he and different son Daniel to place their very own stamp on the model whereas he’s nonetheless round to supply steerage and experience – and to make beautiful guitars after all.

“I’m very, very privileged to need to be on this place with two of my sons working within the enterprise,” Lowden beams. “That’s wonderful. Aaron, my center son, the title managing director doesn’t actually do him justice, as a result of he’s a incredible craftsman in his personal proper. And my different son, Daniel, can be an excellent craftsman. So I can stay up for them taking it on, after I dangle my boots up if I ever do – which I in all probability gained’t!

“I’m trying ahead to spending extra time with Aaron and Daniel within the workshops, once we get on to extra of the guitar design stuff, as a result of that’s one thing you need to be taught by doing. So I’m trying ahead to taking time to try this as quickly as potential.”

A Ebook And A Prayer

George can be handing over a enterprise that has turn into a family identify in guitar, with devices bought everywhere in the world and performed by a number of the world’s most well-known musicians. It’s a far cry from when he began making an attempt to make guitars in 1974 – with little or no concept of the best way to go about it.

“All I had was somewhat tiny e-book, and no coaching in woodwork or something,” he admits. “So my expectations have been nothing, actually. I simply hoped that I might have the ability to make actually, actually, actually good guitars – and I don’t know why! However I did have the little e-book by John Bailey, the English guitar maker, and that was what I used to present me an concept of what I used to be presupposed to be doing.

“Again then in Eire, there was actually solely myself and one other chap known as Nelson down in Dublin, and there have been, I feel, a few harp makers as effectively. However I used to be actually the one one mad sufficient to attempt to do it in Northern Eire.

“I labored by myself in one of many rooms in my house, and bought the primary guitars for 50 quid, which is fairly wonderful trying again on it. However I suppose the benefit with beginning that method, with none official coaching or information, is that regardless that you make an terrible lot of very primary errors that you simply wouldn’t make in any other case, the fact is that what you do is completely different and distinctive.”

Distinctive they definitely have been, however definitely within the early days, a Lowden guitar wasn’t the splendidly crafted and meticulously engineered instrument that you simply see right this moment. Removed from it.

“To be trustworthy, the workmanship on the primary ones was completely atrocious!” George chuckles. “I didn’t know the best way to sharpen instruments. I didn’t know what numerous the instruments have been for even! These first guitars have been very, very poor by way of workmanship. However the humorous factor is, they sounded good, in order that gave me sufficient encouragement to maintain on going, and in order that’s what I did.”

Sound Idea

The sound stays one thing that turns individuals into lifelong lovers of George’s guitars, and by the late 70s he was already beginning to make a reputation for himself throughout Europe – thanks in no small half to a pal in Paris who took one in all his guitars around the native outlets and drummed up orders.

He’d additionally accomplished the exhausting half over these first few years, together with growing most of the designs we all know right this moment – together with his flagship O sequence devices, and gamers clearly beloved them, together with Pierre Bensusan, who nonetheless has his authentic 1979 Lowden right this moment.

The trick was truly making it a job.

“I discovered that I couldn’t truly make a dwelling,” George admits. “It’s important to keep in mind that again then, I might have been doing effectively to get £600 for a guitar. And , when you may solely make 12 or 15 a yr working by yourself, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work it out that that’s not going to work too effectively.”

The modern resolution got here from a suggestion of a Swiss retailer who beloved Lowden’s guitars, and needed to get extra of them. They recommended that George licence his designs to a Japanese luthier who had the ability and useful resource to make these guitars at a value and scale that George by no means might on his personal. It was a particularly forward-thinking concept in 1980, but it surely was one which had a significant impression on George as a builder.

“I had nice respect and an excellent relationship with the blokes within the workshop out in Japan – they have been excellent craftsmen,” George displays. “I discovered quite a bit from the viewpoint of working with Japanese instruments. These days you may get Japanese instruments simply, however again then within the UK, no one had heard of them. So for me to exit, to exit to Japan in 1980 and uncover Japanese chisels and Japanese saws and Japanese planes, was a revelation, actually, to me.

“And watching the Japanese craftsmen – they have been so expert. They usually have been in a position to do issues in a short time however very precisely. And that was a revelation to me as effectively, as a result of I had the view that it takes nonetheless lengthy it takes, so long as it’s proper and accomplished rather well. However I noticed these guys doing it rather well, but in addition doing it quick – that was one thing I needed to be taught.”

The place The Coronary heart Is

George continued to refine his craft again in Northern Eire, however by the mid-80s the underside was falling out of the acoustic guitar market, and when the manufacturing unit making Lowden guitars was closed, he determined to have one other go at making every part in Eire.

He arrange a small workshop with a dozen or so staff, and set about sharing his information and philosophy together with his new expenses. However as soon as once more, the market circumstances within the 80s, with synths and shred using excessive, have been tough to outlive in as a small maker. “I hadn’t misplaced my want to make actually good guitars,” he insists. “However world class guitars was what I needed to do – and making a dwelling out of it was proving to be very tough.”

By his personal admission he’d constructed up a “massive overdraft” and was struggling to maintain the enterprise afloat by the tip of the last decade, when a consortium of native businessmen approached him with a plan to purchase again the belongings of the corporate from the financial institution after which licence his designs and model from him. George would keep on successfully as a design guide to the Lowden Guitar Firm.

This association carried on for the subsequent 14 years however ultimately it reached some extent the place George needed to manage his personal future.

“What I used to be discovering tough was coping with the truth that there was this firm that bore my identify – the Lowden Guitar Firm – and I had no say in how that firm was managed and run,” he admits. “In order that’s why I made a decision to start out yet again.”

The corporate modified its identify to Avalon and carried on, whereas George was left again the place he began – however with the good thing about a number of many years of studying below his belt.

“I used to be 53 on the time, beginning with naked partitions and some people who I knew, who I had skilled earlier than,” George displays. “And it was liberating, as a result of I might truly management what was occurring within the workshops and with the enterprise, and managed to do it fairly effectively.

“I’ve by no means been very commercially minded. Perhaps I ought to have been, and perhaps I might have accomplished higher within the enterprise sense. However for me, the one factor that actually mattered all the time was to attempt to be taught one thing from each guitar and take heed to the gamers, after which return to the bench and attempt to work a few of these concepts into the designs.”

Participant Energy

Ah sure, the gamers. All through his 50 years of guitar making, few luthiers instil the love and loyalty that Lowden’s musician purchasers appear to do. There’s a private component to all of it that appears to transcend the usual musician endorsement deal, and Lowden agrees, “A number of the relationships that I’ve with artists have developed into friendships. The truth is, most of them began that method, ?”

Regardless of the non-public bond that he likes to forge together with his purchasers, the standard of Lowden’s devices implies that there’s the occasional scenario the place he spots an artist taking part in one in all his guitars with out him even understanding they owned it – the form of public endorsement of the inspirational high quality of his devices that he nonetheless will get a kick out of.

“Oh, completely. Particularly if I don’t know that they find out about Lowden.” he exclaims. “It truly occurred a number of years again with Bruce Springsteen, funnily sufficient. His guitar tech despatched me an e mail asking if I might ship him a guitar bridge, as a result of the bridge had popped off his guitar in the course of winter or one thing. I didn’t even know that he had one!

Ed Telephones

No doubt nonetheless, probably the most notable artist relationship that Lowden has struck up in the previous few years has been with Ed Sheeran, who had been turned onto Lowden guitars by one other of George’s artist mates, Snow Patrol guitarist Gary Lightbody.

“When Ed got here all the way down to the workshop, about seven years in the past, he simply purchased an entire stack of guitars!” he chuckles. “They usually have been already bought to different individuals, by the way! However when Ed Sheeran desires to purchase your guitars… we requested other people to simply wait somewhat bit longer.”

The pair struck up a rapport, however no one fairly anticipated what would occur subsequent. On the 2019 NAMM Present, one of many world’s greatest pop stars flew in to disclose that not solely was he collaborating with Lowden, he was investing within the firm to create an inexpensive sub-brand – Sheeran By Lowden was born.

“I met him in Texas – he was doing a gig over there, and I used to be over shopping for wooden, I feel. And we met up at his gig,” George recollects when requested to assume again to when the concept for Sheeran By Lowden was first floated. “I discussed to him afterwards that sometime I would really like to have the ability to construct guitars that have been inexpensive for younger individuals. And he stated, ‘Properly, in case you do need to do this, let me know, and I’ll make investments.’

“So I then promptly forgot about it, as a result of I used to be so busy with different stuff. And a few years later, he received again in contact and stated, ‘George, bear in mind you stated that? How about we do one thing?’ And that’s the way it happened.”

Whereas most makers trying to create inexpensive devices will flip their consideration to mass-production factories in China and Korea, Lowden needed to attempt one thing completely different – and much more bold. He needed to make the guitars in Eire.

“I knew that if we have been going to make guitars right here, fairly than within the Far East, at that form of retail value, then we have been going to need to develop some very excessive tech methods of creating them,” he admits. “As a result of, there’s no method you might make them by hand right here at that form of value. So I did develop a totally new method of creating guitars, and predictably, it price about double what I assumed it was going to price to develop it!

“’Nevertheless it’s been excellent, and I’m happy with these guitars for the worth. I feel it’s going the proper method. I don’t need to make hundreds and hundreds of them, however I do need to make them out there to younger musicians.”

Good Not Massive

The truth that Ed and George have been comfortable to maintain the manufacturing numbers comparatively small whereas holding the devices inexpensive speaks to a sure ethos. Lowden is just not making an attempt to rule the world and unseat the huge megabrands who dominate the market. The problem of innovating, of creating one thing new and making one thing that conjures up musicians is clearly on the core of who George Lowden is as a maker.

It additionally explains why he’s undoubtedly not retiring but – clearly he nonetheless has the identical hearth to create world class devices that he had again within the 80s, and there’s all the time one thing new to do in case you’re curious…

“I’ve received plenty of new fashions coming by means of,” he smiles. “The electrics are thrilling me proper now, and I’ve received new acoustics as effectively. So there’s some issues within the pipeline!”

George Lowden has come a great distance since he was sat in a flat making an attempt to work out the best way to make a guitar, and regardless of all of the twists and turns he’s skilled alongside the best way, the Lowden model has by no means been stronger.

“Once I began, I had no concept the place it could lead, none in any respect,” he displays. “And I had no ambition besides to make good guitars. I’m an unintended entrepreneur. If there’s such a factor, that’s me. I definitely had no intention! However now that I’m right here, I simply need to make it possible for the corporate goes from energy to energy. As a result of good is best than large. And that’s all.”