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Lowden

O-25

George Lowden refused to copy an American guitar. Twenty years on, David Gray bought one and made White Ladder.

Bangor, County Down, 1974. George Lowden has basic tools, a booklet on guitar making, and no intention of building a Martin. He spends two years working out his own shapes and his own bracing. One of them, a jumbo, gets the letter O, for original.

Introduced
1977
Type
Acoustic flat-top
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 1974

    Bangor

    George Lowden starts building with basic tools and a how-to booklet.

  2. 1976

    His own brace

    The first guitars with his A-frame bracing, and the big O body.

  3. 1977

    The L-25

    Cedar and Indian rosewood on the O body. It’ll be renamed the O-25.

  4. 1980

    Made in Japan

    Lowden licenses production to S. Yairi, near Nagoya.

  5. 1988

    Receivership

    The Bangor factory runs out of money. Another company builds his designs under licence.

  6. 2004

    Downpatrick

    George gets his guitars back and starts again as a family shop.

  7. 2019

    Forty-five years

    A run of 45 anniversary O-25s, dressed like the early L-25.

Side A

A1

Not a copy

Almost every steel-string you’ve ever played is a variation on something American. Martin drew most of the shapes. Everybody else adjusts them.

George Lowden didn’t want to. He started in Bangor in 1974 with basic tools and a booklet, and spent two years drawing his own bodies and working out his own bracing. He still explains it the same way:

The Lowden guitar is not a near copy of an already existing guitar — it can’t be if it is to inspire new music.

That’s a big claim for a man in County Down with a booklet. He meant it.

A2

A-frames and dolphins

By 1976 he had it. Instead of the standard X, his tops used what he called A-frame bracing, with the struts carved in a “dolphin” profile. And he had a big body he called the O, for original. It’s a jumbo: about 16½ inches across and 5 inches deep.

In 1977 the guitar that became the O-25 turned up, then called the L-25, alongside three other models with similar shapes and bracing and simple cosmetics. The 25 is the wood recipe, a red cedar top on Indian rosewood. In the late ’70s, as George tells it, the 25 was regarded as the Lowden.

To my ear, cedar on rosewood in a box that size is big and warm, and the cedar wakes up even when you play lightly. The cosmetics are quiet: wood binding, a wood rosette, no inlays on the fingerboard, a pinless bridge with a split bone saddle. It looks like a guitar made by someone who cared more about the inside.

A3

Paris, then Japan, then trouble

The first break came from Paris. A friend, Alastair Burke, showed one of George’s guitars to a shop there. They ordered six right away, and then four a month. George set up a little shop on the High Street in Bangor with four trainees. They made about a hundred guitars in those years, with small blue labels inside.

Then it got complicated. From 1980, Lowdens were built under licence by S. Yairi in Japan, and by the mid-’80s up to 1,000 Lowdens were being made there. George brought production home to Bangor in 1985. By November 1988 the money was gone, the factory went into receivership, and another company in Newtownards built his designs under licence for the next fifteen years. He kept the name.

In 2004 the licence was over, and George started again in Downpatrick with his family: George Lowden Guitars. The original dolphin carving came back.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 16½″

    Across the lower bout, give or take. Big. A Martin OM is 15.

  • 5″

    Inches of body depth. There’s a lot of air in there.

  • 6

    Guitars in the first order from a Paris shop. Then four a month.

  • 26,000

    Roughly how many Lowdens of every model had been made by 2023.

Side B

B1

A shop in Manchester, 1994

In 1994, David Gray walked into A1 Music in Manchester and bought a Lowden O-25. He still has it. He described it on camera in 2025: “Jumbo… massive.” And then the part that matters:

the one that I did the White Ladder record with. Had it since 1994.

Underneath the drum machines and the late-night keyboards on White Ladder, there’s a big acoustic guitar from County Down. It doesn’t sound like a Martin. It isn’t one.

Gray has a Martin signature now, a smaller guitar. The O-25 is the one he made the record on.

B2

Still the original

You can still order an O-25 from Downpatrick: cedar, Indian rosewood, the O body, the A-frame. In 2019, for the company’s forty-fifth year, Lowden made 45 of them dressed like the early L-25s.

In 1974 George could have copied a Martin like everybody else. He built something that wasn’t a copy of anything, because he figured that was the only way to leave room for music that hadn’t been made yet. Twenty years later a songwriter walked into a shop in Manchester, bought one, and made a record that didn’t sound like anybody else’s.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. David Gray · 1998

    White Ladder

    Gray says his Lowden O-25, bought in Manchester in 1994, is “the one that I did the White Ladder record with.” Listen for a big acoustic under all that programming.

    Find it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1977

    George Lowden

    Designer and builder

    Drew the O body and the A-frame bracing himself, and got his company back in 2004.

  • Alastair Burke

    The friend with a guitar

    Showed one of George’s guitars to a Paris shop. It ordered six on the spot.

  • 1994

    David Gray

    O-25, bought 1994

    Bought it at A1 Music in Manchester and made White Ladder with it. “Jumbo… massive,” in his words.

  • 1993

    Kyle Alden

    1993 O-25c

    A cutaway from the Newtownards years, played in DADGAD for Irish backup.

  • 1978

    Pierre Bensusan

    Not this one

    His “Old Lady” is a 1978 S22, a model that would be called an O-22 today. Different wood.

  • Eric Clapton

    Not this one

    Clapton’s Lowden is an O-38, not an O-25.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Cedar, Indian rosewood, and a 16½-inch O-body — Lowden’s original jumbo, not a Martin OM.

Body
O (Original) jumbo, 14-fret; red cedar top; East Indian rosewood back and sides; mahogany binding; wood rosette (rosewood, sycamore, walnut, mahogany). Factory soundbox 420 mm wide, 125 mm deep. Down Home: 16½" lower bout, 12⅞" upper, 5" deep. Mix flagged.
Neck
5-piece mahogany/rosewood; dovetail; GL Standard. Factory width at 14th 2¼" (57 mm)
Fingerboard
Ebony, typically no position inlays (side dots); 16" (406 mm) radius; join at 14th. Fret count mix: Guitar.com 45th Anniversary copy 21; Guitar Rebellion O-25C and Elderly c. 1995 20. Don’t average.
Scale
25½" (650 mm). Mix flagged. Dealers also print 25.6" / 25.59" for the same 650 mm. Don’t average.
Pickups
None on this table. Options: LR Baggs Anthem, Highlander IP1/IP2
Hardware
Rosewood pinless bridge; split bone saddle; Gotoh SG381 gold with ebony buttons; rosewood headstock overlay; clear pickguard
Electronics
None (standard O-25). O-25c and optioned examples may carry a factory or aftermarket pickup
Finish
Satin / light polyurethane typical. Guitars Rebellion: light polyurethane. Wikipedia: no UV. Not nitro on the live factory card
Nut
Bone, 1¾" (45 mm). Mix flagged. 45 mm is ~1.77" on some dealer sheets. Width at 14th 2¼" (57 mm)
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current typical = Original Series Model 25 in O body (lowdenguitars.com, fetched 10 September 2026). Factory inches and millimetres together — mix flagged; no extra millimetres invented. O-25c is the cutaway sibling on this plate, not a second slug. F-25 / S-25 / WL-25 are the same 25 wood recipe on other boxes. 35 Series and 50 Series are other cards. Pierre Bensusan Signature is F-size. Not a Martin OM.

Construction

The job was a steel-string George Lowden could make in County Down that was not a copy of an American guitar. His own design page still puts it that way: “The Lowden guitar is not a near copy of an already existing guitar — it can’t be if it is to inspire new music.”

1974. Bangor. Basic tools and a John Bailley booklet. Two years of shapes and braces. 1976: first guitars with A-frame bracing and “dolphin” strut profiles. MusicRadar: the O body (O for original) that year; second-largest Lowden box behind the baritone. Down Home still calls O the largest jumbo. Keep both. 1977: Lowden’s history page — the O-25, then called the L-25, “had emerged, alongside three other models sharing similar shapes, bracing, and simple cosmetics.” This plate starts in 1977. 1976 is the body and the brace. Not a winner picked.

It is not a Martin OM (martin-om-28). Nazareth’s Orchestra Model is a 14-fret 000 / auditorium: 15" wide, 25.4" long-scale on current Standard. Lowden’s O is a jumbo he drew himself. Factory card: 420 mm across, 125 mm deep, 650 mm scale. Dealers convert that to about 16½" × 5" and 25½". Same conversation at the counter. Different outline, different factory, different brace. Do not nest this guitar under the OM family.

The 25 is the wood, not the size. Original Series numbering: Indian rosewood back and sides, red cedar top. Factory copy still treats that mix as “the” Lowden of the late seventies. 22 is mahogany/cedar. 23 walnut/cedar. 32 rosewood/Sitka. O-25 is the jumbo 25. F-25 is the mid box on the same woods — factory: louder, more focused. S-25 and WL-25 are smaller. Cutaway is a c. None of those are this table.

What you get is a 14-fret flat-top with A-frame and dolphin voicing, a five-piece mahogany/rosewood neck in a dovetail, a pinless rosewood bridge, and a split bone saddle. Projectmusic (George’s own account): two structural struts either side of the soundhole, through the transverse brace, under the fingerboard, butt-jointed to the neck wood inside the dovetail — extra stability so a reset would not be the usual American story. Cosmetics stay quiet: wood binding, a multi-piece wood rosette, no board inlays, a clear guard. Gotoh SG381 gold with ebony buttons on the current card.

Paris is how the guitar left the room. Friend Alastair Burke showed one to Folk Quincampoix. Immediate order: six, then four a month (Lowden history; Projectmusic). First Bangor shop at 6a High Street. Wikipedia: four trainees; about 100 guitars that period, small blue rectangular labels. That 100 is all models, not an O-25 census.

1980–85. Licensed to S. Yairi near Nagoya. Wikipedia: “up to 1,000 Lowdens were being produced in Japan” by the mid-1980s — all models, not an O-25 count. Acoustic slump; Japan wanted a bigger mixed factory. George brought it home. 1985 Bangor, Balloo. 1986: 500–600 a year for the first three years, then about 1,000 (Projectmusic). November 1988: funds gone; receivership; The Lowden Guitar Company at Newtownards, George licensing the designs. He kept the trademark. 2003: licence ends; Newtownards stops in December. 2004: George Lowden Guitars Ltd., family shop in Downpatrick. Original dolphin carving back on the line. New rectangular label, signed.

35 Series (Premier Range in the 1990s; factory dates the upgrade 2004) is extra appointments and better tuners, not this 25. 50 Series custom shop 2006. 2019 45th Anniversary O-25: 45 instruments, L-25 cosmetics, £3,595 street (MusicRadar / Guitar.com) — a limited, not the current typical SKU. Wee Lowden is 2014, Ed Sheeran, another size.

Current production is still the Downpatrick Original Series 25 on the O box. Cedar and Indian rosewood. A-frame. Pinless split saddle. Same jumbo that is not a 15-inch OM.

Players

Do not hang a Martin OM-28 on this plate. Do not recruit Pierre Bensusan’s guitar as if it were an O-25.

David Gray — Lowden 025, A1 Music, Manchester, 1994. His own camera (February 2025): “the one that I did the White Ladder record with. Had it since 1994.” Bought at A1 Music. “Jumbo… massive.” Lowden’s discography lists him on O-25. He later has a Martin 000C signature. That is a 15 3/16-inch short-scale 000. Not this guitar.

Not this guitar. Pierre Bensusan’s “Old Lady” is a 1978 S22 — Peghead Nation: a model that would be called an O-22 today. Cutaway and a wider neck: Peghead 1989; Lowden’s player page 1999. Keep both. Then a 2009 F-size signature with a soundbox bevel. Clapton is O-38. Paul Brady O-38 / O-32. Alex de Grassi O-32 and a signature. Richard Thompson a signature and a GL10. Ed Sheeran the Wee. Damien Rice an early O that Lowden equates to today’s O-10. Wikipedia’s notable-users list is Lowden in general. It is not an O-25 session log.

Also known to play stays short. Peghead Nation (Teja Gerken, 2017): Kyle Alden’s 1993 O-25c, Newtownards, DADGAD, Irish backup — a named living example, not a chart credit.

Rarity

You can order a new O-25. Original Series, Downpatrick, regular production. Cutaway, lefty, Fan Fret, and a pickup are options. They are not a 1977 L-25.

Lowden did not publish O-25 unit totals. None invented. Serials date a guitar. They don’t count a year. Company-wide figures are not this model: Wikipedia’s Bangor High Street ~100 (blue labels, all models); Japan “up to 1,000” by the mid-1980s (all Lowden); Projectmusic 500–600 then ~1,000 a year in the Bangor factory years; Acoustic Guitar (2018) the 20,000th guitar (Genesis); News Letter (2023) “some 26,000.” Keep them labeled as house totals.

What is actually thinner: first-shop L-25s with the small blue label; Yairi-period examples; Newtownards 1988–2003 before the Downpatrick restart. The 2019 45th Anniversary run is 45 by design. Gray’s 1994 guitar is one object. It is not a vintage O-25.

Value

Informal estimate, 10 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold labeled. Celebrity lots are not-comps. No invented medians or factory counts. Period £3,595 (MusicRadar / Guitar.com, 2019 45th Anniversary) is 2019 limited-edition money, not 2026 street.

New street. Factory configurator on the Model 25 page is P.O.A. this pass (fetched 10 September 2026). Named dealer, not a factory MSRP: Down Home $5,575 list / $5,020 (out of stock); Organic Sounds regular $5,295, NOS $4,302; Session.de €4,599 with LR Baggs Anthem. Sibling Original Series “from” prices on the same Lowden collection (Model 20 / 22 $4,516) are other woods. Don’t paste them onto the 25.

Used modern. Reverb Price Guide isolated this pass on 025C 1996 Natural: $2,446–$3,987 (68 orders, Good to Mint). That widget is the cutaway 1996 SKU, not every O-25. Named asks, not a series: Acoustic Guitar Forum, September 2025, 2000s O-25 Reverb $3,549 / forum $3,299; Elderly c. 1995 consignment $3,000; guitar-list 2006 O-25C $4,500. Do not average those asks.

Vintage / collectible. Early L-25 / blue-label Bangor is the scarce end of the same idea. Japan Yairi and Newtownards sit under modern Downpatrick, not beside a pre-war OM. No clean Heritage/Christie’s 2024–26 hammers isolated. Named ask, not a hammer: RetroFret 1992 O-25 Custom, serial 003581, listed $3,950 (guitar-list); measured 16⅝" × 5", 25½" scale. Sold status on RetroFret’s own page this pass; dollar not printed there. Gray’s 1994 guitar is one object. Not a comp.

See also

  • martin-om-28 — 15" 000/auditorium, 25.4" long-scale; the Nazareth guitar this Irish jumbo is not
  • taylor-814ce — another current production acoustic flagship; Grand Auditorium, not an O-body
  • collings-d2h — shop-built rosewood dreadnought; different box, different factory

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.