VGUK:
When you speak of changes to your instruments internally are
you talking about changes other than the bracing the return to dolphin
profile bracing?
George Lowden: No, I am referring to the fact that I have been
able to make sure that the bracing is voiced the way it should be, to
fit in with the overall design of guitars because the problem with guitar
design is if you change one fundamental thing you have to bear in mind
it has a knock on effect and the rest of the design may well not work
as well, therefore if you change one fundamental issue you may have to
change some other things in order to make the guitar work quite well.
If you want to make it work really well the key point is to make sure
that as many of the aspects of design as possible work together rather
than work against each other. So for example, if I was to change if I
was to use a pin bridge instead of a pinless bridge I would almost certainly
have to change the bracing and I would certainly have to change the neck
angle to make it work, that’s just one simple answer but a rather
topical and fundamental one.
The big thing about [the workshop] here with the new guitars is that
because I’m here everyday, and because the people that are working
here building the guitars are having to put up with my attention to detail
that’s probably the big difference between here and the former licensing
arrangement
VGUK: Right but obviously from a customer’s point
of view its not doesn’t translate as putting up with your attention
to detail…
George Lowden: Well I hope so, but there is no doubt that what
I’m trying to do here in a limited production situation is not normal.
It would be more normal for the way a really good individual luthier would
work.
The attention to detail and the refusal to compromise is not usual and
not easy to accomplish either, but it can be done - that’s for sure,
it can be done
VGUK: You're acheiving this with your low production
at the minute...
George Lowden: I don’t anticipate it growing too much bigger
than the way it is at the moment , slightly bigger because we are at that
sort of in between size at the moment where it is difficult to facilitate
all of the ancillary work that needs to be done: purchasing, selling,
shipping, administration, financial control - the management jobs that
needs to be done, that’s difficult to facilitate those when you’ve
got a production capability which is at the size it's at.
In other words, when your importing and exporting as we are there's a
lot of work involved - not only that of building guitars, financial control
and the general management of the whole thing.
The difficulty is that in order for all of that work to be done other
than actual guitar making, the guitar making needs to be at a level that
supports it, so if yo'rer trying to do all that and sell your work and
if you have only 5 people doing all that then it doesn’t work.
We want to get... we need to get to about 15 guitars a week, within the
next year to 2 years, we are currently at 10 or 11.
VGUK: That presumable considerably less to what was
being made previously
George Lowden: Yes they were making more than that, about 20 or
25
VGUK: Obviously from my point of view demand hasn’t
even remained the same - it probably has increased, whereas your production
has decreased!
George Lowden: Well I think that in a sort of way it's wrong to
talk about the size the company is going to become: It's better to say
that the company will become whatever the natural size is and that’s
determined by market demand, which in my book is determined by the quality
of the guitars and the quality of the design , and that not determined
by hype and marketing and all that.
Let's just say that the market demands 40 guitars per week without significant
advertising and promotion. Then what we would do under those circumstances
is lets say make 35 guitars a week or so
VGUK: But you would still be bounded by quality constraints?
George Lowden: That the number one the unbendable rule and that
aint gonna change - its just not just not on my screen.
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