Rey Anthony Chiu
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 29, 2012 (PIA) – By the deep sound it makes, not a few people with an ear for music are fooled: what they thought as a Yamaha or Gibson turns out to be home-crafted guitar: Reputana.
A name almost synonymous to handcrafted acoustic guitars in Bohol, the Reputana’s repute started in very humble beginnings.
From its shop in their house in sitio Tubig-Dako in Manga District, Cornelio strung an industry that would soon make a name in music circles in Bohol as a trusted wood worker and guitar maker famous for their dreadnought acoustic guitars.
“My father used to vend textiles and in Candijay town, his usual resting spot is a guitar maker’s shop. That was where he got interested in handcrafting guitars,” reveals Samuel, youngest of a brood of 7: five boys and two girls.
Living in Manga, where skillful artisans like woodcarvers and customized boat makers live, the Reputanas started a niche industry of guitar making after the war.
After learning the trade, my father worked at a guitar shop in Boholand and in undue diligence, makes more guitars when he gets home, said Samuel.
After decades of honing the talent, Reputana’s guitars are hand made by Cornelio Sr., Manuel, Cornelio Jr., Promencio, Romy (sister’s husband who has assimilated the music making industry and Samuel.
While the girls in the family decided to carve a way away from making music, most of the boys learned the trade, first by assisting their father Cornelio Sr. in manually hand sawing the jackfruit trunk into thin planks.
Why jackfruit and not any other wood?
“A jackfruit produces a rare sound: deep bass, fine treble and creates a sound that approximates the guitars from spruce which are basically what Continental guitars are made of,” Samuel said.
“In fact, my father invented a bamboo plank guitar, it was not wood, it was basically grass,” he quips.
Talking of inventions, who would say this family is short of one or two?
Reputanas worked from scratch, crafting their bass strings from bronze wires, stripping plastic for the guitar body trim, fashioning pick guards from broken records, treating wood planks to make them pliant and adopt deep tones as well as fashioning ingenious nuts to produce a string bridge.
If you think improvising sacrifices the tonal quality, think again. A Reputana guitar nearly occupies the basic tool for a local musician, sometimes they carry one in their Bohol gigs.
Reputanas also create guitars from other choice wood like balsa wood but their choice is jackfruit, whose yellowish color can be treated to create a deeply burnt brown or any of its color hues.
One brother died, the other went to Manila as a pastor. That leaves the family about four guitar makers, including the father who still whips up incredible skill in the fine art of music making.
“It’s really an art for the fine skilled,” Samuel admits while slowly measuring out the fretboards.
“Every ribbing has to be glued right, the sound hole so precisely cut and the fret guides so spaced or the guitar produces an off-note. One miscalculation often gives you a guitar that is out of tune,” he said.
But even with the technology, Reputanas still handsaw one eight inch thick wood planks which they glue together to create a whole board that will the guitar’s face and back.
For the guitar’s arm, readily available gmelina comes, carved to fit in a steel truss cord from deformed iron bar.
There is a constant tension when you put in the strings and to stop the wooden arm from bending, putting in s metal truss cord provides the necessary protection, Samuel stressed.
Strumming out 2.5 dreadnoughts or cut-away acoustic guitars a week for each, it would be safe to assume that the family can easily equip an acoustic band of any kind of guitar: the proper guitar or technically the Dreadnought acoustic, the 12-string dreadnought, Cutaway dreadnought, parlor guitar, classic and the jumbo acoustic, a ukulee or even an acoustic bass or the famed bajo de arco.
Learning the design from scratch, the family’s skill improved when their father availed of a soft loan in the 1970’s where they equipped themselves with power tools to make the job faster.
Few years later, the family started accepting guitar repairs, that was when they got a first hand view of the interior of a classical guitar and adopted their framework from it, he said.
Since then, with the craftsmanship and skill, a Reputana guitar can be strummed at P2,500.
At that rate, you do not pay for the craft, you paid for the materials that go into your new toy. In fact at that rate, many wonder why artists see themselves so lowly they think being one is just so ordinary.
Sadly, earning a reputable skill is just enough. They should not think so. (30)