Equipment review: Lowden Clear

“There’s this great Guitar Emporium in Belfast and I popped in there to try out the Lowden 050 Cutaway. I’m a big fan of George Lowden. I currently use a Lowden S10, and it’s streets ahead of any other guitar I’ve ever used. But the Lowden 050 Cutaway is in a higher league still.

For a start it looks magnificent. It’s really a piece of art, made by hand. You could hang it on your wall and just admire it. It looks like somebody spent a lot of time lovingly crafting it, into even the smallest detail. Even the smell is beautiful. Although the sound is the main concern with any instrument, look is important. A lot of us are initially drawn to our guitar heroes by how they look with their guitars. Guitars are iconic in that sense. But the sound of the Lowden 050 Cutaway is equally phenomenal. I tried it in the open D tuning I use and it was perfect for me, with its wide neck, the pearl inlay on the board and the beautiful weight of the body. It gave me exactly the sound I have in my head. I play a lot of bottleneck, so the cutaway gave me easy access right up along the neck. The tuning right up the board was impeccable. As anyone who plays guitar will know, that’s not always true!
It costs about £5,000 compared to my F10 which cost me £2,000, but it’s worth every pound. Lowden guitars have a terrific name anyway. I grew up watching players like Paul Brady playing one. That converted me, and as soon as I could afford it I bought one and it’s been my work horse. When you pick up a Lowden it’s all there in your hands. I’ve tried a lot of guitars and they’ve not been a patch on my Lowden F10 which sound engineers all over the world have marvelled at during sound checks. The Lowdens are all pretty durable too. My F10 once got smashed on a plane journey and had nasty gashes in the front and sides. So I brought it back to the Lowden factory, and not only is it virtually impossible now to see any of the scars, but I reckon it sounded even better after it was smashed than it had before!
The Lowden 050 Cutaway, I reckon, would be as good for recording as it would be for live work. I’d probably put it through an AER Domino Amplifier, which would bring out the true acoustic sound of it. I might also use a little bit of delay and reverb, nothing too much. As far as I’m concerned, the sound is already there in the guitar itself. It’s a real beauty!”

Paul Casey’s album Blow Away The Clouds is out now. He plays the Menegerie, Belfast on March 5.