Crafter guitars’ story began in 1972 in the basement of the family home of founder HyunKwon Park, father of current owner, Inae Park. Originally named ‘Sungeum’, meaning ‘accomplishing the sound’, HyunKwon’s hand-crafted classical models enjoyed instant success amongst local musicians. By ’78 they stretched out to a larger premises in Yangju-gun, just outside Seoul, to fulfill growing demand. In 1986 Inae Park joined his father to conquer the global market. This is when they rechristened the company to ‘Crafter’.
In 2009 they expanded again to keep up with demand to a state-of-the art guitar factory that was the result of 5 years of planning and construction. In keeping with the family spirit of the company, they built the facility where the original factory existed so they could retain their original staff. It includes leisure rooms, a gym, restaurant, and chapel, for all the staff working there.
Though utilizing cutting edge technology to craft their guitars, much hand craftwork still goes into each guitar and each instrument has a personality of its own, ‘just like the people who build them’. Now registered in more than 40 countries throughout the world, more than 60,000 instruments leaving the factory each year.
Their broad range of acoustic and semi-acoustic instruments documents the company’s program of continuous review and development. Their steady expansion in diversity of range reflects the needs of their pool of dedicated customers, seeking the Crafter tone.
