The Lowden guitar reflects the very personal approach and philosophy of its designer, George Lowden. In this series, George comments on the aspects that contribute to the Lowden voice. He explains it like this - "Designing and building guitars is a matter of the wood choice first, the design second and the workmanship third. All woods give slightly different tonal responses and I will often advise players which might suit them best according to their playing style."
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MusicTranscript
00:00So this is actually a Honduras rosewood back in the making and the first thing,
00:21you know, as a maker you can kind of tell what the tone is going to be when you're touching it
00:28because there's a certain tonality as your fingers touch the wood that give you an idea
00:36of the promise. Sometimes there's a very high frequency clarity about it that gives great
00:46promise. Other times the sound can be a little bit lower and dull as your fingers touch it.
00:51This really helps, you know, as a maker because you have to know how to thickness it, what thickness
00:58to make it to get the best out of it and it just comes with experience but as you touch it and tap
01:05it as well, you know, you get an idea. I'm not listening for a note, what I'm listening for is
01:14the tonality of it and I'm looking for bell-like clear tones which help quite a bit. This is
01:22Honduras rosewood, very powerful, very warm, very clear at the same time. The next one that I have
01:29here is actually what's going to be a Cocobolo back for an F model. First thing you notice when
01:39you lift it up is it's quite heavy so the guitar, a Cocobolo guitar, is a heavy guitar in
01:45general and you'll get plenty of power again rather like Honduras rosewood but maybe a little
01:51bit fuller but not quite as clear so you can hear the tap tone is not quite as clear but very full
02:05so much duller than the Honduras rosewood. I think that between Honduras rosewood and Cocobolo
02:14if you want to be able to play hard and play aggressively at times then Honduras rosewood
02:25or Cocobolo would be a very good choice. The Cocobolo is arguably slightly heavier in sound,
02:33slightly meatier whereas the Honduras rosewood maybe has a touch more
02:39touch more clarity without having the meat to quite the same extent. It's difficult to use
02:45words but in the end of the day when you go into a shop and you pick up various Loudon guitars and
02:53try them out the one that speaks to you most as you play it is the one that you should choose
03:00but I'm trying to give you a head start in that choice by understanding what different woods do.
03:07The next wood that I discovered as I went along on my journey was this rather beautiful
03:15Azuricote which comes from Central America. Again quite a heavy wood very similar in tone
03:26to Honduras rosewood again. It is a heavy rosewood but it's beautiful to look at.
03:34Tone wise especially if you put it with a cedar top as in the Richard Thompson model
03:41you get incredible volume, incredible power with a cedar top so if you want fantastic looks
03:52but also a very strong powerful sound think about Azuricote with cedar, great choice.
03:58This is another example of a Honduras rosewood back you can see it's a little bit red in color
04:07but again hard dense.
04:14From my perspective when you're close up you can hear the high overtones coming through
04:18so that gives good promise for clarity as well and this is an African Blackwood back
04:26even heavier still. This one has some sapwood in the middle and some people really like that
04:35from the visual point of view. Very meaty but very clear maybe the best combination of clarity
04:49and fullness that you can get from African Blackwood. It's rather rare so it is very expensive
04:59but exceptional. One of my all-time favorites this is Hawaiian Koa. Hawaiian Koa is much lighter in
05:10weight so that means that if you want to play sensitively if you like to play gently as well
05:17and so if you like to finger pick a lot Koa is a very good choice especially if you put it with a
05:24cedar top or a redwood top or an alpine spruce top you get that it gives you the ability to
05:33express yourself and have lots of different nuances of tone maybe not quite as strong
05:41as say some of the other heavier woods like Cocobolo, Honduras Rosewood, African Blackwood,
05:47Zirakote but looks visually beautiful but will give you the ability to be very
05:55sensitive and it will still respond just touch the guitar it'll still respond.
06:05So here I have an alpine spruce top. Alpine spruce has been used for centuries
06:13for violin making and for even for guitar making and it's usually the best pieces are grown usually
06:221200 meters 1400 meters up in the Alps where the growth rate is quite slow and the growth season
06:31is quite short and this tends to produce wood which is lightweight and stiff which means
06:38the guitar is liable to stand the test of time but at the same time be very responsive
06:46so if I use tap tone is a little bit fuller not quite so vibrant and fast as with the cedar
06:58but it means that you can play lots of different you can have lots of different nuances of tone
07:06and the way a classical player likes to use his or her right hand a lot to produce different tones
07:13this is really the ideal wood for a steel string or a classical player for that purpose someone
07:20who really wants to be expressive and the guitar will answer fat tones warm tones bright tones
07:28all of those you can get with alpine spruce one of my favorite woods even for steel strings
07:36so the next soundboard wood is of course the old favorite Sitka spruce
07:42maybe the most used of all soundboard woods for steel string guitars it has you know Sitka spruce
07:49is used or was used quite a lot in building aircraft because of its light weight and its
07:56ratio of weight to strength and stiffness so that also means that it's almost certainly going
08:02to be good for tone and therefore it's no surprise that it was used and still is used
08:08the most today for steel string guitars so Sitka spruce gives you clarity and brightness
08:16it's maybe not as exciting a wood from the tone point of view as some of the others
08:23but it gives you the ability to play in so many different styles and it will still respond it
08:28won't overdrive the way cedar can sometimes if you play it too hard very stiff
08:37very good from from that point of view in recent times i came across Adirondack
08:44and started to use it Adirondack even stiffer than Sitka spruce
08:49but it has even when you're touching it it has this kind of
08:56it's very loud when you touch it you can feel the the friction in your fingers
09:03which i always listen for and you can hear right away you can hear the deep lows you can hear the
09:10the highs and the mids all coming through
09:13of course your ear would have to be where mine is but still this is
09:19Adirondack is one of those woods that takes some time to come out in an acoustic guitar
09:24but again you can do whatever you want on it and it will respond not as sensitive as cedar
09:32not as good and as quick a response as cedar has for playing delicately but if you're going to play
09:39for playing delicately but if you're going to play a variety of styles you want to be able to
09:44finger pick you want to be able to flat pick you want to be able to strum then it's very hard to
09:50get past Adirondack. Last but not least there's Californian Redwood my favorite perhaps of all
09:59looks beautiful quite light very very stiff which which is one of the reasons why it sustains so
10:07well it has everything warmth clarity and depth and really what you've got to do after i've
10:16explained about all those wonderful tonewoods is just go into a shop try and find as many as you
10:22can pick them up and play them and you will know because of your playing style very quickly
10:29which one really speaks to you and you'll also know which ones don't speak to you as much
10:35so really the proof of the pudding is in the playing in this case