Living My Best Life: Building a Custom Guitar with a Galaxy Tablet & Creative Vision

Samsung employees are the innovators, creators, trailblazers, doers, problem solvers, and changemakers of our organization. They inevitably touch some point in our products’ journey, whether it’s conception, design, development, creation, marketing, customer care, sales, or recycling. If you’re like us, you’re probably wondering what Samsung products are they actually adding to their carts. And, among those, what are the products that they love the most?

For the latest installment of our “Living My Best Life” series, we sat down with Marc Kuffler, Mobile Systems Engineer for Samsung Electronic America’s MX (Mobile eXperience) business. His passion for guitars began more than 50 years ago and he sees these instruments as an extension of himself. While traditional shops often cater to the masses, Marc wanted something truly personal—crafted to his specs and built for a lifetime. Determined to create the perfect guitar, he began his journey by hand, starting with a block of wood—a process that took him several years to complete.

Today, Marc has elevated his craft with the help of his Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and the PENUP app, a vibrant community for creatives. Using the tablet, Marc designs intricate, high-quality sketches of his dream guitars, which he sends to a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) team for precise cutting. This modern approach blends art, science, and craftsmanship, making the guitar-building process faster and more accurate while still rooted in Marc’s creative vision.

The advanced AI in PENUP transformed his sketches into precise blueprints, even though he’s not a graphic artist, making it possible for someone to use his drawings as detailed plans for crafting a custom guitar body. He also leveraged Google Gemini to compare various guitar body styles and explore the best design paths. The Gemini-powered AI experience on his Galaxy Tab functioned as a creative sounding board, helping him visualize and refine his ideas.

The AI-powered tools on Marc’s Galaxy Tab S9 FE didn’t just speed up the process—they revolutionized it. Features like “Circle to Search” let him select a specific paint color and instantly browse options to find accurate matches and purchase locations. This alone cut his painting time from eight months on his first guitar to just two weeks for his second. “The S9 FE is such an extremely powerful device—it does so much in such a small package. And the AI just took it to the next level—I find it to be indispensable,” he reflected. Basically, Marc has struck the perfect chord between technology and craftsmanship, using the Galaxy Tab S9 FE to bring his custom guitars to life.