Tags: Cottage Industries, Handicrafts
By KC Santos
LAPU-LAPU CITY, CEBU – Guitars have always been a staple part of my childhood. I grew up exactly where the backyard industry of guitar-making started and where it later flourished into one of the most appreciated industries in the world.
Guitar-making in Cebu dates as far back as the time of the Spaniards. It’s known that Cebu, then called Zubu, was one of the first few islands Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan wanted to establish trade. It would also be where he would find his demise.
It is believed that the first guitar was handcrafted in the small fishing town of Maribago in Lapu-Lapu where Spanish conquistadors would commission townsfolk to fix their broken guitars.
From there, prominent Cebuano families like the Malingins and Alegres dominated the production and trade of hand-made guitars in Lapu-Lapu, also called the city of Mactan, which was later hailed as the seat of guitar-making in the Philippines.
It was through the American military forces deployed in the Mactan Air Base during the Vietnam War of the 1960s that Cebu-made guitars found their way not just outside Cebu but to the rest of the world.
It didn’t matter whether craftsmen used low-end plywood or the classiest langka or spruce wood as raw material. What sets them apart was how meticulously they crafted the guitars to produce that high quality and clean acoustic sound often unmatched by other guitar-makers.
A signature design of Cebuano craftsmen is that their guitars don’t have truss rods unlike imported counterparts. Also, shell works are inlaid on the guitar’s body to give it an extra polished look.
Back in the day, these guitars would be sold side by side along main city highways for low prices. However, as competition grew, merchants from other parts of the city capitalized on the existing industry and prices also went up.
Tourists have to trail down to Mactan to find the remaining few original makers of quality guitars not just to close a better bargain but to see how, until now, the methods used are just as traditional as they were centuries ago.
If you’re determined enough to look for these guitar factories, you can avail of quality guitars from 700 to 1,500 pesos. This isn’t bad considering that the ones sold in the city or in other parts of the region would cost thrice as much.
When you visit Cebu, make an effort to see traditional guitar-making in Mactan and see for yourself why even non-Cebuanos have fallen in love with the works of local craftsmen.
(Photos used with permission from Arby Laraño)
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