Rafal Turkowiak was born on 9 January 1966 in Golanice near Leszno, Poland. His father, a carpenter, and grandfather, a wheel-wright, had great influence on the boy in the field of carpentry and wood technology. At the age of 15, he graduated from a primary musical school having successfully completed a 3-year-course in less than half a year in classical guitar. Two years later, inspired by dismantling of an old guitar, he made his first classical instrument with a soundhole and unique soundboard construction with suspended bracing, which was innovative at the time.
His passion for the guitar encouraged him to play this amazing intruments even more eagerly. In 1983, singing and playing his own guitar among 5000 other contestants, he qualified for the semis of the National Young Talent Show in Poznan, Poland. The jury including Aleksander Maliszewski, a well-known composer and conductor, and Urszula Sipinska, a popular singer at that time, hailed him the Polish Paul McCartney.
Almost the twenty-year-long experience and experiments in guitar making have resulted in successful solution of soundboard called ‘WAVE’ type resonator. He applies the ‘WAVE’ structure in his classical, flamenco, acoustic and jazz guitars.
He is also creator of first in the world guitars with ‘Acoustic Tubes’ inside the guitar neck (patent no. P.419826), first in the world back&sides made at ‘High-Tech Press’ and first in the world bridge with drilled holes in acoustic and jazz guitars.