I bought Elixir strings (custom) for my Lowden three times (in Dublin). The second and third time the G string broke when I was putting them on the guitar! I never broke a string before in my life when stringing a guitar, and it happened twice with Elixir. I mentioned this at the shop where I bought them and was told that the strings were actually made by D'Addario. I thought they sounded good (but then almost any strings sound good on the Lowden) but after a month or so of playing they began to look a bit ragged, so I went back to Martin.