Dave Dunwoodie, Winner of the 2022 VIGF Luthier Industry Builder Award
In recognition of his Lifetime Achievement in the Guitar Industry
Graphtech Guitar Labs: 40 years of Innovation!
Saturday, September 24, 12:40 - 1:40 pm
Graphtech Guitar Labs
40 years of Innovation!
From $19.87 in sales to $7,000,000… How I brought my products to the world stage and how you can too!
About Dave Dunwoodie
In the early 80's, Dave Dunwoodie, Graph Tech's President, was mid-performance at a gig in his hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Hitting the tremolo bar on his first Fender® Strat (he was a Gibson® man) during a guitar solo, he was immediately introduced to the problem of string binding on traditional guitar nuts.
"I went to do my first "wang" and went totally out of tune"
"I couldn't use the guitar for stage work at all. Back then, it was a lot harder to get information on fixing this, but I was pretty determined."
Spurred by the resurgence in popularity of tremolo guitars, the need for pencil lead in the nut slots for lubrication, and his own frustration, Dave began experimenting with a variety of composite guitar nuts designed to eliminate string binding. He engineered the world's first self-lubricating nut, a formula 500% more slippery than graphite. Almost thirty years later Graph Tech Guitar Labs has become an institution, producing some of the industries most innovative and reliable nuts, saddles bridge pins, bridges and pickup systems. Through patented methods and proprietary techniques, Graph Tech has designed specific tone and performance enhancements that were once impossible to achieve.
The result is an outstanding reputation for quality and rapid acceptance by guitar players. Dave's commitment has never waned: "products that really do what they say they will do." The successful introduction of totally new concepts (as opposed to "copy cat" products) into the guitar market have led to Graph Tech's booming success.
What is the reaction from players around the world? Week after week, customers write us unsolicited letters and emails letting us know these are the first products that they've ever bought that actually do what they promise to do. Imagine that!