tragic :(

[rickoshea]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/guitar-maker-goes-into-liquidation-16163933.html

[Neal]

Sad news indeed.

[Terry Allan Hall]

Bummer...guessing the prices will go through the roof!

[Samilyn]

Sad news indeed.

 

I've heard of Avalon/Lowden guitars, but never had the opportunty to play one. Now I don't guess I ever will.

[TESmith]

That sucks!

Saddens me seeing any business go down, especially something like this.

[rickoshea]

its desperately bad news. When I visited they were so helpful, nice and incredibly enthusiastic about what they do. All of the luthiery (in the real sense of the word) was done by hand, sides bent on hot pipes by one specialist guy etc. The factory was just like one big workshop full of true craftsmen. The guitars I played were sublime (find one and play one Sammi ... you just have to). The news has put a real downer on my day.

 

I dunno - competition from the Far East, recession, marketing failure ... or refusal to fall into the "production line" mentality? Its all very sad, hopefully the luthiers there will carry on producing simply stunning guitars and not vanish into obscurity. Balazs Prohaszka is one to keep an eye out for ....

[katopp]

But this is only Avalon. George Lowden and Lowden Guitars are still in business.

But I guess the market for high-priced guitars pretty much dried up in this recession...

[Greymuzzle]

Could you elaborate somewhat on what you mean by "But this is only Avalon"?

 

I can't really understand the "only" part

[Seorie]

 

But I guess the market for high-priced guitars pretty much dried up in this recession...

- so there may be more go this way.

You need to hear it said - written language is, like english or music is only the 'bare bones' of whats intended.

[rickoshea]

 

A dour thought, I think we will be the witnesses of the loss of these private craftsmen to the mass producers. The latter have, in all fairness, responded appropriately to the consumer's call for better quality. Add to this the frequent occurrence - daft though it may well be - of holding up apples as replacements for oranges (the cost argument of price versus quality versus mass producer versus private builder) and the indoctrination of the ignorant masses by the ignorant masses for the (same) will ultimately be the death nell of the private builder. So, they had better get steady, paying work and entertain their craft as a second job.

 

 

I agree completely, its all about supply and demand and moving appropriately with the market. Big concerns can do this, small businesses just can't compete and sadly as you say the consumer is less concerned with quality and more with price. We just have to keep our fingers crossed for the other specialist luthiers like Lowden, Bourgeois etc.

[katopp]

I have to clarify here: Thank God only Avalon Guitars went into liquidation, the other Lowden brands as George Lowden and Lowden Guitars are still in business.

In regards to the problems of small-scale builders... we are in a recession and this benefits those, who can use the scale effects to cut down costs and raise profits. Add the advantages of CNC manufacturing, which now allows you to produce customized guitars on the same equipment that you use for your "mass products" and you see the predicament that Avalon was in. Probably they were too big to be as lean as a smal-scale boutique shop, but not big enough to warrant investments into expensive CNC machinery and so they were between a rock and a hard place.

 

What amazes me is, that currently we see a lot of people investing into "real value" like Gold, precios metals, even vintage cars, wines .. they all see tremendous increase in demand and rising prices. But with guitars, it's quite the other way around. Vintage guitars have dropped significantly from the prices that were called for 5-8 years ago and there seems to be no interest in "new" guitars either. Or at least not enough to warrant investments into capacity increases other than in the low- to mid-market. See Martin. Most of their new models are more or less in the "affordable" bracket, not in the high-price band.

 

But there still we be demand for custom guitars, maybe not enough for all the smaller builders to survive, but small-scale production will always be there.

[Greymuzzle]

Avalon were not an 'other' Lowden brand. Indeed Avalon came into being following a schism between George Lowden and his business partners. Complicated and essentially boring to most.

 

Avalon retained much of the workforce, which had until then been producing Lowdens. They used the opportunity to introduce their own ideas designs and practises and Avalon eventually became a distinct bespoke brand, and Dee McIroy is another incredibly gifted splinter off the same branch.

 

Avalon were, at most, producing 4-500 guitars a year in Newtownards. I never did get a D300A built, but for all the others I did get I give thanks.

 

( As does my guitar playing son!)

 

For info. purposes only .