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| Joo Myung-geen, 39, shapes a guitar frame at his workshop in the basement of his parents' house in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. / Courtesy of Samsung SDI |
A salary man finds work-life balance with unusual hobby
By Lee Suh-yoon
Joo Myung-geen, a father of two and a packaging engineer at Samsung SDI, no longer has time to play the guitar.
In fact, he's too busy making them.
"The most thrilling part is joining the separate pieces together perfectly," Joo said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. "If it doesn't fit, I just pick up the sandpaper again."
Crafting guitars from scratch is an unusual hobby in Korea, especially for a 39-year-old salary man who works at Samsung SDI, the battery-making affiliate of Samsung — the nation's biggest conglomerate.
At work, Joo's job involves testing and tweaking designs for corrugated cardboard trays to safely transport lithium ion batteries. He is one of just 50 certified industrial packaging experts in the country.
Joo started his unusual hobby in 2012, a year before he started working at Samsung SDI. He says the craft helped him get over an early mid-life crisis that made him quit his first job at another firm as a packaging engineer for flat screen TVs.
"As with everyone at their first job, my enthusiasm made me a 'yes man' at work. And other people took advantage of that to pile all the work on me," Joo said with a sigh. "I was working 13 hours a day and it was also mentally strenuous to work in the same room with such colleagues."
The new hobby gave him time to reflect and set his life in order again.
"Sanding wood is a long process, it gives you time to imagine possible solutions to your life's troubles," he said.
Now, shaping wood helps Joo wind down after work. He usually takes up the sandpaper again at night, after bathing his two children and passing them on to their mother. On Saturdays, he devotes the entire day to honing his craft in the basement under his parent's home, near his own place in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul.
"In my favorite American drama series NCIS, the main character Gibbs, exhausted after a full day of chasing down criminals, opens a bottle of beer in his basement and starts sanding wood for a boat," Joo said.
"It's an ironic scene because he can't take the boat out of the basement, and it reminds you of the perks you get from the process, rather than the product. Sanding wood is simple and boring, and sometimes that boredom is what you need. There's nothing like sanding to relax you after a busy and stressful day."
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| Joo Myung-geen fits guitar pieces together at his workshop. / Courtesy of Samsung SDI |
Joo says his engineering background is a plus when handcrafting guitars.
"I use the same 3D software tool that I use for developing package designs to draw up a blueprint for different guitar parts," he said. "It helps me check in advance to make sure the finished parts will fit well with each other."
Joo's family background also played a part in his decision to take up this unique hobby. His grandfather was a carpenter who built the stage sets for a leading broadcasting station. His uncles, on the other hand, all played the guitar.
Traveling back and forth from Suwon and a teaching studio at Ilsan every weekend, it took Joo three years to make his first guitar. But almost as soon as he finished it, he intentionally cracked its front side and broke off its neck.
"I wanted to see which glue worked well, and which one left behind a mark," he said.
After this first piece, Joo made two more, taking about a year to finish each. He gave them to his friends at a local guitar ensemble.
"I'm actually worried these early pieces, with their amateurish finish and shape, might reach the secondhand market later," he said with a slight frown, "because I don't want it to bring shame to my name when I later launch my own professional guitar brand."
Joo now also runs an online blog, titled "Building a guitar from your desk," to share his know-how with others interested in the same craft here.
Though it is still a hobby, Joo is eager to become the best in the field and continues to develop his skills with tips he learns from YouTube clips.
"My dream is to make something like Eric Clapton's signature 000-28ec acoustic guitar from Martin one day," Joo said. "It's the guitar I always benchmark for its design and shape."
In fact, crafting guitars is more than just a self-realizing pastime for Joo. It also gives him a sense of security.
"The age of retirement for salaried men in Korea is decreasing every day," Joo said. "Having a technical skill means I have another option to turn to. My dream is to open my own guitar-making studio and sit in front of its blue door listening to '2 p.m. date' on the radio."
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