Official Luthiers Forum!

Some of you may remember that I got married in N. Ireland back in February. I got to tour the Lowden shop in Downpatrick, I posted pics of the shop tour here: link

While I was there, I ordered a new guitar and Fedex just delivered it on Thursday after a six month wait. It's EI Rosewood back and sides, and the top is an LS redwood top. This is sort of our honeymoon keepsake to remember our trip, one to pass on to a grandkid someday.

It's one of the less blingish models, so it doesn't have any abalone trim or fancier stuff. It's basically an S25 with redwood instead of cedar. I ordered it with Gotoh 510 (310 is standard on this model), and they are the nicest tuners I've ever used. It came with a Fishman Ellipse Blend system, undersaddle Matrix pickup and an internal condensor mic with controls just inside the soundhole.

Anyway, I'm having a blast with it and wanted to share some pics. I'll bring to the OKC gathering if I can make it to that.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

How cool!

Mmmmmmm....yummy.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Jon, your a lucky man. That guitar doesn't need any abalone trim distracting from that LS top.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Beautiful guitar!

I see that it is a pinless bridge but I dont see the ball ends of the strings or how they are so well hidden. Could I trouble you for one more closeup of the bridge?  They did a GREAT job on hiding the balls!

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Reguards,

Ken H

The string ball-ends are just in a little recess in the end of the bridge. I found this pic on another site.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Thanks Jon!

That gives me all kinds of new ideas

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Reguards,

Ken H

That is a real beauty Jon!!Congrats That top
is so nice. Also ,love how the neck heel laminate looks!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

This is great Jon, thanks for the great pics.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Jon, out of curiosity, what kind of camera did you use? I've been thinking
about the recent digital camera thread and your shots are super clean for
being taken indoors.

Wow, nice guitar, Jon.  What a great keepsake!  

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

That's awesome Jon!! Is that 'slash' in the heel of the neck an added lamination or just some colour in the wood? What is the neckwood?

Cool addition to what appears an impressive collection of strings on the go!

Shane

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Canada

Shane, you are seeing a 5 lam neck from heel to headstock.

Jon: I love Lowden's guitars. I had a chance to play a significant number of them this year for the first time ever, and the F35 and S25 are the best to my ears. Congratulations, WELL worth the wait- and long may you strum!!

Can we have a sound clip, please?

Who needs bling when you have Goerge and beautiful wood?

Lovely guitar, hope your Grandkids enjoy it as much as you will!!

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

Congrats! That is a keeper.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Thanks guys! I'm really enjoying playing it, the sound has opened up a lot just since Thursday, it's been fun to hear the changes. I'm leading music with it at church this morning.

The neck lam is mahogany, rosewood, walnut, rosewood and mahogany. The binding/purfling and rosette are made of mahogany, sycamore, walnut and rosewood.

James, my camera's a Fuji S5200. I bought it right before my trip to Ireland, and I've been very pleased with it. It works great as a point and shoot, but you can use it fully manually as well. It doesn't have a removable lens, but you can attach filters and wide angle lenses to it.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Wow ! That guitar is so beautiful Jon . Man, what a class act .

An absolute classic and a treasure to hand down.

What a Luthier .......

Congratulations !

regards Craig

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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Jon, could you give us a shot of the front, straight on with no angle please? And, oh for the heck of it, maybe throw a ruler next to it, just for kicks. You could rest the ruler right on the top of the bridge, running the width of the bout. Centered on the bridge might look nice too....

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Jon,

That's a lovely guitar that will bring you lots of pleasure!!

I have a couple of Lowdens that I bought back in 1994 - an F32C in sitka/EIR and an S25 in cedar/EIR. I love small guitars and the S25 just wouldn't put me down in the shop The sound is still very sweet today.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

jon,
what a stunning instrument!! i love the beauty in the simplicity. which only leads me to wonder why, when lowdens are so highly esteemed by nearly all builders, more are not imitating them. beautiful satin finish. beautiful, spare, rosette.
any theories on why lowdens are so widely reveared but so seldom copied?
jon, what a great gift for the grandkids. just don't baby it for them. looks like a real musicians instrument and deserves to be played a lot.
phil

[QUOTE=phil c-e]any theories on why lowdens are so widely reveared but so seldom copied?
phil[/QUOTE]


Jon, could you give us a shot of the front, straight on with no angle please? And, oh for the heck of it, maybe throw a ruler next to it, just for kicks. You could rest the ruler right on the top of the bridge, running the width of the bout. Centered on the bridge might look nice too....
Maybe, if you don't mind, perhaps you would give us some idea what the size of it is.
Maybe...the upper bout, lower bout, waist, and perhaps the length of the body...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Ha, I'll see if I can do it sometime soon, Don. I actually plan on taking tracings and measurements and seeing if I can build one similar to it someday.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR