Lowden Guitars

George Lowden's story begins in 1970s Northern Ireland, in a place where the daily news made guitar-building seem like a strange thing to commit a life to. He committed anyway. The earliest Lowdens came out of a small workshop in Bangor; over the next five decades the operation moved, the team grew, and the voice deepened — but the basic premise stayed the same: build acoustics that don't sound like Martin's golden era because you're not trying to.

George Lowden's story begins in 1970s Northern Ireland, in a place where the daily news made guitar-building seem like a strange thing to commit a life to. He committed anyway. The earliest Lowdens came out of a small workshop in Bangor; over the next five decades the operation moved, the team grew, and the voice deepened — but the basic premise stayed the same: build acoustics that don't sound like Martin's golden era because you're not trying to. Pierre Bensusan was the first major adopter. He found a Lowden in the late 1970s, and the pairing of his fingerstyle compositions with Lowden's harmonic richness became one of those player-instrument identifications that defined an era of acoustic music. Eric Roche, Alex de Grassi, Tony McManus, and a generation of fingerstylists followed him.