O-32

Newtone Heritage on Lowden — British boutique PB on Irish boutique acoustic. UK/Irish Celtic craftsmanship pairing.

MA540 Custom Light on Lowden — easier tension for Lowden O-body fingerstyle, less wrist fatigue.

Unconventional: John Pearse strings on a Lowden. Lowden guitars are built in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland by George Lowden — the factory ships every O-32 with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze, and Elixir is what every Lowden dealer stocks. But the UK and Irish Celtic-fingerstyle tradition — Pierre Bensusan (French but deeply integrated in the UK folk circuit), Tony McManus (Scottish Celtic fingerstyle master), and the wider DADGAD and open-tuning fingerstyle community documented in Acoustic Guitar UK magazine archives — specifically rejects Elixir in favor of John Pearse 600L. John Pearse was an American luthier-string-maker who spent years working with UK/Irish folk players to develop a string specifically voiced for mahogany-and-cedar small-bodied acoustics like the Lowden O and S series.

The 600L's phosphor-bronze wrap over hex-core construction produces a brighter top with more harmonic separation than Elixir, without coating to mute the response. What you get: the authentic UK Celtic fingerstyle voice Bensusan and McManus built their careers on, genuine string-to-string separation in DADGAD and modal tunings, unamplified acoustic projection for session playing. What you sacrifice: Elixir's coating-based longevity (600L dies in 2-3 weeks of hard playing), availability outside UK/Ireland, and the 'modern Lowden' bright-and-consistent factory voice.

Best for Celtic fingerstyle, DADGAD work, and players in the UK/Irish traditional-music scene; skip it for strummed modern folk or stage work needing consistent tone across sets.