What guitar does Ed Sheeran use?

Ed Sheeran has primarily two signature acoustic guitars that he developed with Lowden guitars. George Lowden founded the company in 1974 and has since built guitars for the likes of Eric Clapton, Gary Lightbody, and Foy Vance.

Lowden can now add Ed Sheeran to his list of clients.

Lowden Acoustic Guitars

Sheeran's two acoustic guitars are both branded with his own name, titled "Sheeran by Lowden" and are named after two of his albums:

• Subtract (-)
• Equals (=)

These albums are titled simply "-" and "=" and he has played each guitar with their corresponding album tours. At the time of publishing this piece, the Lowden Subtract model was his primary guitar.

These guitars are easily identified by the headstock and the "Subtract" signage on the fretboard.

The Subtract signature model was very limited. Only 100 were produced, selling out quickly after being released.

However, there's a "Tour Edition" we've seen with all four mathematical operators on the fretboard.

These seem to be widely available, even on the Ed Sheeran Amazon store. The "=" model is also available there, though it's unclear to me whether it's a true replica of the original, since only 3000 of those were released.

If you scroll down, you can see the "Equals" edition for sale.

If you managed to snag one of the "Subtract" models, you're very lucky. But the Equals and Tour Editions seem like they're easy enough to get a hold of.

What about his Martin acoustics?

I'm not sure if Sheeran has completely broken off from Martin guitars, but his "X" signature model is listed as discontinued.

For a long time, these are the guitars that Sheeran would most often be seen playing at his live shows.

I would assume (and I'm emphasizing assume) this means that Martin and Sheeran have officially parted ways. This does not necessarily mean he won't play their guitars from time to time, but it does mean that the signature models are discontinued and that the two parties have no longer have an agreement with one another.

These breakups happens from time to time, the most notorious of which might be John Mayer's departure from Fender and moving to PRS.

This was due to disagreements over the direction and evolution of his signature model, where Fender ultimately refused to make the changes he wanted.

That's how we ended up with the PRS Silver Sky.

I don't get the vibe that Sheeran's relationship with Martin was tumultuous, but he seems to have moved on nonetheless.

Conclusion

Ed Sheeran has done a great job of making his signature guitars both exclusive and very accessible to the average consumer.

If he changes brand loyalty in the future, we'll do our best to keep this page updated.

In the same vein, if you have any information or corrections you'd like to add to this page, feel free to drop it in the comments section below.

Thanks for hanging out with us.

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