Lowden guitars are handcrafted in Ireland. With current MSRPs starting around $4500 and reaching into the five figures for models made out of reclaimed Brazilian Rosewood, these boutique guitars are for the professional or avid connoisseur of fine guitars. One of my guitar heros Pierre Bensusan plays his own signature model Lowden guitar.
English guitarist Jon Gomm bought his used 1990 Lowden O12C acoustic guitar "Wilma"in 2000. He has since put thousands of shows and miles on it while touring the world. His original playing style integrates percussion and rythmic scratching (inspired by his early experience with Flamenco guitar) giving his instrument the visible wear and tear of a touring musician's life. The guitar is admittedly beat up, but boy does it still respond on stage. Here is Jon's hit "Passionflower" that went viral last year after several well-known personalities tweeted this YouTube clip (currently at 4.5M views).
Jon plays the piece above with his Lowden tuned to Eb G Bb F G Bb. He's installed banjo tuning pegs for the bottom two strings so he can tune these strings up a whole step and back during the piece. Those are hand-made Newtone strings, which can be ordered with a larger diameter core that will tune down without losing the tension of a standard tuning string. The guitar's electronics are a Fishman Rare Earth humbucker and microphone system and a Fishman Acoustic Matrix transducer. Each pickup goes through one of Jon's three Boss PQ3B parametric EQ pedals and he uses a Tech 21 Blonde overdrive pedal, a Boss OC3 octave pedal, and Line 6's Echo Park delay and Verbzilla reverb pedals for effects.
Once you've experienced the music that Jon and his Lowden O12C guitar make together, you will have some insight into the intimate relationship between performer and instrument that Jon shares with his beloved Wilma! Enjoy.
I used to covet owning a Lowden, very different from my usual Gibson tone world.
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