Striking out for sanity...

Jon, the key to Lowden naming is the letter and number. The letter gives the body shape, the number gives the wood type.

Letters:-

O: Largest body, "standard" Lowden. Very rich and loud sound, but large body is harder for small people to play.

F: Small body, with almost the same sound but less depth and volume.

S: Similar size to F, but set up for jazz with nylon strings.

D: Dreadnaught.

Numbers:-

10: Mahogany back, cedar top

12: Mahogany back, spruce top

23: Walnut back, spruce top

25: Rosewood back, cedar top

32: Rosewood back, spruce top

There are then numbers 35 upwards for rare and expensive woods.

I've got an O32. My experience was that the mahogany and walnut didn't have the same depth as the rosewoods. I A/B'd an O25 and O32 for ages, but the O32 just edged it out. The O25 is effortlessly gorgeous; the O32 takes more time to get used to (you do have to practise regularly), but seems to reward with better sound when you've got the feel of it.

Before I bought my Lowden, I played almost every decent guitar in Denmark Street (London), every decent guitar in Coda Music (Stevenage) and the Acoustic Centre (London), and at least one of every type of decent guitar in Elderly Instruments (Michigan). So Fylde, Collings, Martin, Guild, Gibson, Huss & Dalton, Santa Cruz, Larrivee, Seagull, Taylor, etc, etc... But not one sounded better than the Lowdens. The only one I almost considered was an old Guild in Coda which had a beautiful rich bass but was sadly lacking in any treble presence (the right strings might have revitalised it, but I didn't/don't have the money to risk it).

FWIW, I hit London with a couple of friends, one of whom is a rather good blues guitarist who has lusted after a Martin or Gibson just about all his life. He was amazed to find: that they were none of them as good as he had imagined; that in fact that many were worse than the old Yamaha he plays; and that he liked Lowdens more.

There may well be smaller instrument makers like McIlroy (an ex-student of George Lowden IIRC) who make better instruments, but they're hard to find. I'd considered it, but at the time I wasn't confident in the risk of getting a guitar built for me (and it likely would have cost much more). As production instruments go, a Lowden is about the best you'll find.

Graham.