George Bowden

[pekka]

A friend of mine has a classical guitar made by George Bowden 1971 in
Mallorca. Does anybody have any information about Bowden and the guitars
he made?
P.

[Al Carruth]

I have a guitar made in his shop in '69 by Jose Ferrar. I used to hang out at
George's shop when the carrier I was on was in port there, and he was, in
part, responsible for my getting into the lutherie business.

He had started the guitar shop some time before, and originally just sold
instruments made by a couple of other builders. When he decided to try to make
them himself hs luthiers 'instructed' him on how, but they told him to do
everything backwards, so the guitar turned out sounding lousy. They were, of
course, trying to discourage him. Instead he started to wathch more closely
what they were doing, realized the deception, and fired them both.

He began keeping pretty good records of what he had done on his instruments
when one got sold to a tourist who took it to the South Pacific. Six months or
so later he started getting letters asking for one just like it, and, of
course, he had no idea what he had done that was special.

I mentioned his name several years ago to Jose Romanillos, and got the
impression that George is not considered one of the top luthiers of Spain.
Whether his is becase he is an outsider (British by birth, I believe, or
possibly Canadian) or that his shop went in the direction of producing guitars
for the tourist trade in Majorca, I don't know.

The last I heard (about 6 months ago) he was still alive, but I don't think he
is building any more. He must be well up in his '90s by now. The guitar I
bought from him was a real inspiration to me, and he himself a pleasant,
capable, interesting and encouraging person.

Alan Carruth / Luthier

[pekka]

Thank You for the information. Any idea of the value of these guitars today? It
needs some repair but the sound is good.
Pekka