“A fully fledged Lowden that will relish everything from sofa noodling to professional gigs, once the pickup of your choice is installed”: Lowden F12 review

What is it?

Having said “a new model from Lowden,” there were actually two fresh acoustic guitar releases from the Northern Irish company at this year’s Winter NAMM Show, our F12 being the spruce-topped stablemate to the otherwise identical cedar-fronted F10.

We didn’t want to use the term ‘entry level’ for this guitar as it’s a fully grown-up instrument. That said, it’s made more simply than even the simpler models in Lowden’s roster.

So we spoke to company founder George Lowden in order to put the instrument into context within his extensive catalogue.

“My aim with this guitar was to provide a ‘real’ Lowden but at a more affordable price,” he tells us. “Also, I’ve been itching to design a bolt-on neck at a lighter weight for several years, so this seemed like the ideal opportunity.”

Featuring satin-finished rosewood back and sides, a three-piece mahogany neck (not Lowden’s usual five-piece mahogany and rosewood construction), ebony fingerboard, cherry wood binding, and rosewood and maple soundhole rosette, as with all Lowdens the F12’s beauty lies in its visual simplicity.

However, beneath the surface lies the interesting development that George alludes to, one that’s already employed by US manufacturers such as Taylor and Collings, plus Alister Atkin on these shores, and many others.

“I have used a dovetail neck joint system for 50 years,” George affirms, “but I always wanted to bring a lightweight bolt-on design to the party alongside our traditional dovetailed instruments.

“Dovetails are great as long as they are fitted correctly, without gaps that can allow the neck angle to come up over time, necessitating a reset. The new bolt-on system has maximum surface-to-surface contact for transference of sound between neck and soundbox – but also for structural stability.”

The F-style is Lowden’s mid-sized body shape, sitting neatly between the O-style jumbo and the smaller-bodied S-style.

However, rather than instantly presume this makes the F12 and F10 ‘fingerstyle’ guitars (Lowden players include legendary pickers such as Pierre Bensusan, Alex De Grassi, and Richard Thompson), Lowden wanted the new F models to be suitable for any playing approach.

“I adjusted the bracing a little in both the F10 and F12, stiffening it up slightly because I wanted these guitars to be maybe the most versatile in terms of flat-picking, strumming, or fingerpicking. So it’s voiced somewhere between all of these styles.”

Lowden instruments feature a beautiful satin sheen finish achieved by using, again according to George, “multiple coats of lacquer, rubbed down between each one with fine abrasives, so that the final film thickness is very low – 70 to 150 microns depending on which part of the guitar. Then the final coat is rubbed down using 2000 Abralon silicon carbide paper.”

Along with the all-natural bindings and purflings, the straight-grained spruce top, rosewood body, and laminated mahogany neck, the F12 is both impeccably constructed and reeking of understated elegance. And not for a moment is there any suggestion of ‘junior’ or ‘beginner level’ instrument here.

Specs

• PRICE: £3,400 (approx. $4,409, inc case)
• ORIGIN: Northern Ireland
• TYPE: Mid-sized flat-top acoustic
• TOP: Sitka spruce
• BACK/SIDES: Indian rosewood
• MAX RIM DEPTH: 120mm
• MAX BODY WIDTH: 405mm
• NECK: 3-piece mahogany
• SCALE LENGTH: 650mm (25.6”)
• TUNERS: Gold Gotoh with ebony buttons
• NUT/WIDTH: Bone/45mm
• FINGERBOARD: Ebony
• FRETS: 20, medium
• BRIDGE/SPACING: 2-piece bone/55mm
• ELECTRICS: None
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.88/4.15
• OPTIONS: None at the time of launch
• RANGE OPTIONS: F10 (£3,400), as above but with cedar top
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISH: Hand-rubbed satin lacquer
• CONTACT: Lowden Guitars

Playability and sounds

Lowden guitars’ popularity among fingerstyle guitarists is in part due to their generous nut width. The extra fretboard expanse it provides helps with the dextrous fretting-hand moves often employed by such players, which narrower necks might otherwise curtail.

At 45mm here and 57mm where the neck meets the body, there’s plenty of real estate on the ebony ’board and its 20 medium frets for even the most adventurous of players.

However, although quite a wide neck, it’s not overly deep. The gentle C-section profile increases from around 20mm to 23mm from the 1st fret to the 10th, where it begins to flare out into the heel.

We don’t know for certain whether a cutaway option is in the pipeline to further enhance playability for the more adventurous among us, but we wouldn’t be at all surprised.

At 405mm, or just under 16 inches wide, and with a maximum depth of around 120mm (4.25 inches), the F body size is ideal for playing either sitting down or standing. And that wide and medium‑profile neck mated to Lowden’s renowned buttery action makes a player feel very at home. Even if you’re used to a 43mm nut, it takes virtually no adjustment to feel comfortable.

So taking Mr. Lowden at his word and grabbing a trusty red Dunlop Jazz III pick, we bashed out all those Eagles and Beatles strummers, and our F12 delivered the goods with aplomb. It’s warm-toned and with no brash treble, but the bass doesn’t boom and there are no ‘honky’ middle tones, either. Mustering up this reviewer’s finest James Taylor and Ralph McTell impressions, the F12 spoke back in the most musical manner.

String-to-string separation is fantastic, and again the balance across the tonal spectrum makes for an extremely musical set of voices. The guitar is very dynamic, too, so responds equally well to anything from gentle folk songs to the dirtiest Delta blues.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★★

Price-wise, and even given its understated nature, we feel this is a lot of guitar for the money. There’s been no skimping where it counts, and that’s in the hand craftsmanship, the quality of materials (the nut and bridge saddles are real bone, all the bindings are genuine wood, the tuners are gold Gotohs with ebony buttons, and so on), and, of course, in playability and sound.

The F12 is in all respects a fully fledged Lowden that will relish everything from sofa noodling to professional gigs, once the pickup of your choice is installed.

George Lowden contextualized the model’s position for us perfectly.

“The rest of our models range from just over £4,000 to around £10,000, and then there’s the very limited-edition Master Series, of which we can only make around 20 each year; these are all £20,000-plus.

“We really love pushing the boat out on our guitars at all price points, and just want to provide ‘our’ sound and make our instruments available to as many players as possible. But we don’t want to be a large company: good is better than big!”

Apparently, the F10 and F12 were the stars of Lowden’s 2025 NAMM Show, and for good reason we reckon.

Guitar World verdict: There’s nothing about the guitar that’s not to like, and while Lowden is indeed a comparatively small guitar company we feel the F12 and its cedar sibling deserve big success.

Hands-on videos

The Fretted Buffalo

Lowden F12 Sitka Spruce / Indian Rosewood - YouTube

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