2001 Lowden S23 Custom Lefty
Serial # 4625. George Lowden's guitars have been a thing of mystery to our Left-handed clientele since opening our doors in the late 1990's. We've sold many great left-handed instruments over these years, but we've not ever had a factory lefty Lowden guitar up for the offering. Most lefties we know (including yours truly) have never had the chance to play one of these finely made acoustics, so when one was offered to us recently we jumped at the opportunity. And are we glad we did!
The S23 is George Lowden's small-body guitar. The instrument measures 14-5/8" across its lower bout, and is 4-1/4" deep at its endpin. At roughly the size of a classical guitar, one might expect the S23 to sound smallish, but this one is anything but that. It's loud and full, with robust trebles, a rich and expressive midrange response, and depth in the bass. The guitar has headroom enough to take all a heavy flatpick can push, but is really just as comfortable with a fingerstyle attack. Its response is quick, and its set-up is slinky, which makes it feel really fast under both hands. Dropped tunings are especially fun, thanks to the added bass end resonance, droning notes, and increased overtones. Suffice to say, it's a terribly difficult guitar to set down.
The guitar is built of quartered Walnut and what looks to be European spruce. It features Lowden's classic esthetics -- satin finish, wooden bindings and purflings, rosewood pinless split-saddle bridge, 5-piece neck, unadorned ebony fingerboard, and pearl logo and rosette. The neck on this custom instrument is wide, at 1-7/8" but manages to feel fairly normal thanks to its round carve and comfortably spaced nut. Scale length is 25.5", bridge string spacing is 2-1/4".
The instrument is in very fine used condition. There are no cracks or repairs, the frets show only light playwear, the neck angle is good, and the set up (done by us) is really spot on. In the right light the top finish shows some playwear where a pickguard would otherwise have been, and there are an assortment of minor dings and scratches here and there. There was previously an undersaddle pickup mounted in the instrument, which has been removed; and a new bone saddle set was installed during our set-up.
With a high quality Hiscox Liteflite Artist case
Click HERE to go to the Lowden Guitars website.
The S23 is George Lowden's small-body guitar. The instrument measures 14-5/8" across its lower bout, and is 4-1/4" deep at its endpin. At roughly the size of a classical guitar, one might expect the S23 to sound smallish, but this one is anything but that. It's loud and full, with robust trebles, a rich and expressive midrange response, and depth in the bass. The guitar has headroom enough to take all a heavy flatpick can push, but is really just as comfortable with a fingerstyle attack. Its response is quick, and its set-up is slinky, which makes it feel really fast under both hands. Dropped tunings are especially fun, thanks to the added bass end resonance, droning notes, and increased overtones. Suffice to say, it's a terribly difficult guitar to set down.
The guitar is built of quartered Walnut and what looks to be European spruce. It features Lowden's classic esthetics -- satin finish, wooden bindings and purflings, rosewood pinless split-saddle bridge, 5-piece neck, unadorned ebony fingerboard, and pearl logo and rosette. The neck on this custom instrument is wide, at 1-7/8" but manages to feel fairly normal thanks to its round carve and comfortably spaced nut. Scale length is 25.5", bridge string spacing is 2-1/4".
The instrument is in very fine used condition. There are no cracks or repairs, the frets show only light playwear, the neck angle is good, and the set up (done by us) is really spot on. In the right light the top finish shows some playwear where a pickguard would otherwise have been, and there are an assortment of minor dings and scratches here and there. There was previously an undersaddle pickup mounted in the instrument, which has been removed; and a new bone saddle set was installed during our set-up.
With a high quality Hiscox Liteflite Artist case
Click HERE to go to the Lowden Guitars website.