Dowina guitars are exquisite the build quality is excellent
The set up completed by Richards Guitars is lovely
A guitar with such a wonderful tone and resonance, absolutely stunning major brands would be selling this product at possibly three times the price.
Thank you to Richards Guitars for the attention to detail when setting this guitar up and the help the staff provide when visiting the store.

Stunning guitar on every level

Incredible craftsmanship, delightful tone and a joy to play.

I picked up my Dowina solid Cedar top and solid Cocobolo back and sides from Richards Guitars this weekend and what can I say other than it’s amazing. In fact, it's insane just how much guitar you are getting for the price.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the guitar is just beautiful, the attention to detail in the craftsmanship and how the team at Dowina ‘hero’ the natural charm of Cocobolo makes every one of these guitars truly unique.

I then played my first few arpeggio chords and it just brought back those goosebump feelings I had when I tried the guitar out in the store a couple of weeks ago. This guitar really has a voice but the biggest win is the warm tone and the clarity you get from each note and a sustain that rings for a long, long time after you’ve played a note. Even simple chord progressions just sound wonderful, the guitar is very rewarding like that.

My playing style is 50/50 finger-picking/strumming so I was looking for a guitar that would enable me to do both, this beautiful instrument does that. The action is very low so barre chords are easy and there is something about the neck that enables you to effortlessly move up and down the fretboard. Fingerpicking is just taken into a whole new dimension, the ease of playability and the warm, clear tone just makes me want to play more and more.

If you are thinking about getting an all solid wood, hand-crafted guitar then you won’t be disappointed with a Dowina.

FInally, the team at Richards Guitars are brilliant and I can’t recommend them enough. They stock a comprehensive range of quality guitars for every price level and for every stage that you may be at in your playing journey.

Finally, finally, the whole sales experience at Richard Guitars is genuinely unique and should not be overlooked when you are considering where to buy your next guitar from. My experience from initial enquiry over the phone, to the awesome visit to the showroom, to the setting up and after sales service, every part was just great and enjoyable. Not only are all the team super-knowledgeable about the guitars they have, they are super-passionate about finding you your perfect instrument. And that after all is what it should be about.

Before I get into the review a little background.
I have on several occasions previously tried to buy a Cedar topped guitar as all my purchases have always been spruce rosewood.
I have owned many quality guitars including a Taylor L7 Ltd with Englemann spruce over Brazilian Rosewood.
My various try outs of Cedar topped guitars have covered included a visit to a well stocked local music shop where I tried a lot of guitars including thier entire collection of L'Arivee and Lowden guitars, one of these being not Cedar but a £7500 Lowden Bensusan. I walked away because none of these spoke to me. The Bensusan was lovely but it wasn't what I was looking for.
I bought my first guitar from Richard over 20 years ago and this one is my seventh off him. I have owned the guitar for a month before writing this review.

My Dowina guitar arrived on my Birthday, thank you Richards Guitars, perfect timing.

The guitar is absolutely perfectly built, it is flawless and I am unable to see any even minor fault with the build. I love the look with the flamed maple binding outlining the extremely figured Cocobolo and the guitar has a shallow Vee neck which is just unbelievably comfortable to play. The finish on the neck has an almost unfinished feel and this makes it very fast to play.
The Cedar top is of very high quality and the almost invisible scratch plate is a great feature to protect it. The frets are perfectly finished and the edges rolled as on many top level guitars and the action arrived nice and low making fretting even barre chords very easy. I also noticed that the fretboard is bound though it is very hard to see because it is so skilfully done and the binding is ebony and carefully selected to match the ebony of the board.
The guitar also came with a very nice Dowina case with 5 gold catches and was very well protected, also included was a properly designed truss rod Allen key.

Playing this guitar is a dream the low action makes it very easy to play and the tone is out of this world. I got it out of the case and and finger picked an arpeggiated D chord and I was immediately in love. The fundamental is chorused by seemingly never ending waves of overtones, no doubt from the Cocobolo which just roll on and on aided by the absolutely stunning sustain that this guitar possesses. E chord is mindblowing. The guitar is so alive you can feel it inside you as you play. This guitar is so responsive to light touches that dynamically it is amazing and yet you can really dig in strumming with a pick and it still sounds sweet.

This guitar is very special indeed and the best acoustic guitar that I have ever experienced and I am so lucky to own it. I can't believe It's only £1749, it could easily sell for double that and more.

The guitar came set up to E flat as I requested and as usual the R guitars team did a brilliant job, If you are in the market for a guitar I highly recommend you buy from Richard, having a properly set up guitar is so important. If you are considering a Dowina guitar just order one you wont be disappointed .