Ed Sheeran has made a rare public appearance after taking a break from music to promote a guitar giveaway.
The musician and new dad, 29, has marked two years of his partnership with Northern Irish guitar brand Lowden to give away two guitars he's signed.
Both of the instruments were played by Ed during recording sessions and one appears in the video for his track Afterglow, which was released in December.
In a YouTube chat with the brand's founder George Lowden, he explained why he loves the instruments they produce.
Ed, who has stepped out of the limelight, since wife Cherry Seaborn gave birth to their daughter in September, said: "I’ve actually got a Lowden guitar in every single room of the house… they’re scattered around, because it’s just nice to walk into a room and have a beautiful instrument there that you can pick up and play."
"It was important for the 13-year-old in me being able to get the quality of a Lowden guitar but also it not be an unachievable feat.
"I personally think it’s better than anything else in its price bracket."
Lowden Guitars began in 1961 after George Lowden began making the instruments with his boat builder father.
Initially he used fishing line for strings, before opening his first workshop in Bangor, Co Down, in 1977.
Lowden guitars are played by stars including Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol and Eric Clapton.
Ed has teamed up with the brand to produce Sheeran by Lowden guitars - and four models in the range have recently been upgraded to include Indian rosewood.
George explained: "The guitars still feature hand touches, though.
"We still carve the internal struts with Japanese chisels, for example, so there’s a kind of mix of high tech and traditional skills.
"For me to try to set up a new workshop to make the guitars here (in Northern Ireland) was a big challenge. But we're two years down the line now and everything is going very well.
"We’ve got a really good team now who have been trained from scratch and have developed high-tech ways of making the Sheeran by Lowden. It’s a whole different ball game."
