Uni partnership boosts Lowden production

A partnership with a local university has enabled Northern Ireland-based acoustic specialist, Lowden Guitars, to invest in new technolgy which it says could boost production by as much as 50 per cent. 

The firm has traditionally hand-made all of its guitars, but has now invested in CNC machinery which will allow parts of the guitars (specifically the bridge and fingerboard) to be machine-made, while the rest will continue to be hand-crafted. Its ‘knowledge transfer partnership’ with Queens University Belfast has enabled the firm to take on a graduate to manage the mechanised manufacturing process

William Imrie is a Queen’s University mechanical engineering graduate who’s been tasked with developing and implementing the new manufacturing processes using new technologies, such as computer-aided design (CAD).

He said: “My role is about coming up with new ways to make the guitars, specifically looking at reducing repetitive, laborious and low-skill jobs to allow the craftsmen and women to focus on the more highly skilled aspects of guitar building. One example is guitar bridges. Previously they were made using jigs and templates at manual machines. By using CAD software and a CNC machine I have been able to replicate the process, but in one tenth of the time. I am currently applying a similar process to the production of the fingerboards.”

Lowden’s eponymous product specialist, Johnny Lowden (pictured), told MMR: “We benefit from William’s knowledge of new technology and he gains experience in the field. We have been considering CNC machinery for quite a while and we knew we needed someone to program it. We got some support for it and it is probably the biggest change to the way in which we do things that we have ever made. We want to improve the quality but not necessarily lose the handcrafted part of the process.”

The firm currently has a waiting list for its guitars of around 12-months, but hopes that the new investment will help reduce that and significantly increase production levels.

“We’ve never really wanted to be big,” continued Lowden, “but the the plan is to get to a level where we can exceed that demand. I think we could look at a rise in production of around 50 per cent. We’re also looking at some other aspects of the production process as well.”