 Dowd's instruments have long provided the benchmark for reliability in terms of tuning and general stability, cleanliness of construction, and for the influence that they have had on succeeding generations of builders.He was the first builder to seriously consider the eighteenth-century German instruments of Michael Mietke (in contrast to his colleague Hubbard).His instruments were used in performance and recording by such artists as Gustav Leonhardt, Isolde Ahlgrimm, Ralph Kirkpatrick, Igor Kipnis, Bob van Asperen, and many others.