Sheeran by lowden
Easily NAMM’S biggest product launch, and a genuine surprise, was the appearance of Ed Sheeran and his eight-model range of compact travel-sized acoustics with Lowden. His previous models with Martin were the company’s best-sellers, encouraging many young players to pick up the guitar for the first time, so to say this is big news for the Irish family business would be an understatement. But these are notable guitars for other reasons too.
With early street prices surfacing between £595 and £965 it’s a new market for a company known for high-end, high-quality builds. And true to its passion for quality control, it’s keeping all the production in George Lowden’s home country of Ireland.
“When I was younger Lowden was always the Holy Grail of guitars”, said Sheeran when asked about his motivation behind the new partnership. “You could never find them and when you did they were a lot of money, and because they’re such good quality they had to be that amount of money. I wanted to make a guitar with George that was as good quality as that so it became an achievable task for someone to save up and buy one of those guitars.”
Indeed, Sheeran revealed that he’d always used a Wee Lowden for recording in the studio. He plays three different Lowden models on the road and aims to add these new launches to his armoury as well. But we had to ask, why is Sheeran the lead name on the headstock, rather than Lowden?
“We talked about having an ES series, or something like that”, says George Lowden. “But in the end this has to signal more than just a signature model, it’s a real collaboration because we both have the same dream, of making guitars that are affordable for young people and made in Ireland with really, really great tone. Therefore, it seemed better to have both names on the headstock. So that’s why it’s Sheeran By Lowden.”
The range of W and S series models encompasses sustainable woods – including walnut, reclaimed Alaskan spruce and naturally fallen cedar – electric models featuring LR Baggs’ superb Element VTS preamp, and all include a high-quality gig bag. Unusually for acoustics with these 24 and 244/ 5" sizes, there are also cutaway models with the S03 and S04. We sat down to play a number of them at the show and George’s expertise shows; they sound organic and deeper than many shorter-scale acoustics we’ve played. We’re looking forward to hearing more in spring.