I was born September 14th 1942 in Berlin Germany
My formative years of technical experience were kindled there with apprenticeships in steel yacht shipbuilding and as an electrician before finally working towards a degree as an electronic engineer.
Afterwards I went on to work at the prestigious Heinrich Herz Research Institute where I developed and invented equipment for research. While there I used my spare time to start racing stock cars in slalom and hill climb events and this culminated in 1967, in my first private business endeavor - a stock car performance tuning company. Some of the the cars I tuned went on to win several national championships.
In 1978, I sold this company to my employees and immigrated to Canada with the intention to live a self-sufficient life. I learned to milk a cow, raise a lamb and grow a carrot. I also studied passive solar house design and designed and build a 6200 sq. ft. passive solar house. The house was featured in several magazines and newspapers. This inaugurated a new career as a designer and builder of super energy efficient houses.
Since the building of these houses took me for long times away from my young family I decided to discontinue and started an agency for technology transfer, whereby I would scan the German speaking European countries for promising technologies and bring them to North America in form of licensing agreements. In that capacity I became aware of a serious problem of evacuation capability in hospitals and nursing home where these facilities where essentially incapable of evacuating bed-ridden patients in case of an emergency like fires or bomb-threads.
I invented the Evacu-Sled, a device that enables a single rescuer to remove a patient from the bed, down the hall and downstairs in very short time. The device set a new standard in evacuation technology and is now widely used the world over.
Sadly, instead of reaping the benefits, my licensee did not fulfill its obligations under the contract, and as a consequence, I had to file for bankruptcy. After losing literally everything including my house I had to come up with a new way to make a living.
My brother Oskar Graf, a renown guitar builder suggested I look into making a decent classical guitar tuner. The tuner I developed has many unique technical features making it the most precise and smooth tuner on the market.
The rest is history…
In 2002 I set out to develop a classical guitar tuning machine that would make tuning truly a pleasure, giving performers the confidence that they could quickly and precisely adjust the tuning, even in mid performance. After carefully analysing methods of construction developed in the days of Torres and still widely used today, I concluded a fresh approach was needed. The invention of the "Independent Floating Gear Housing" was the answer. Together with high-tech manufacturing technologies Graf Tuners provide the unmatched precision and smoothness that they are noted for today. After more than 1,000 sets, many in the hands of the worlds top guitarists, I can state with confidence that I succeded in providing the classical guitarist with the Ultimate Tuning Machine, setting a new standard for "the best tuning machine in the world."
Lately, with the technical development largely completed, I enjoy developing my artistic side.