Magical Box

MAGICAL BOX
by
Carl Kuntze

The guitar is a remarkable instrument. Unlike complicated musical instruments which detach an audience from performers by the percieved difficulty of operation, the guitar has a folk image that implies simplicity, a resonant intimacy that involves the listener with the guitarist, the vibrations fusing both emotionally into one. Of course, it requires  no less skill  to strum beautiful sounds out of the concave box, but it is an impression left, one reason country western and rock singers chose them for accompaniment.

One region strongly associated with guitars is Spain, where the Moors introduced it from North Africa when they conquered its southern reaches. Frenzied movements of Fla-
menco dancers to the soul shattering strings evoke the image of guitarists manipulating them like marionettes, but it has long shifted to Madrid, where five men dominate the craft: Manuel Contreras, Paulino Bernabe, Vicente Camacho, Felix Manzanero, and Jose Ramirez III. They can only craft twenty guitars a year, and their signed pieces command premium prices. Apprentices in their tallers (studios) can carve instruments of comparable quality, but although the carry the brand of their masters, they are unsigned, deemed worthy only for students or amateurs. The guitar was elevated to a concert instrument by Spanish master guitarist, Andres Segovia after World War II. Since then, many virtuosos have spawned all over the world, even in locations as unlikely as The Philippines and Japan. Manuel Silos was one world class composer and guitarist.

Cebu has become famous for its luthiers. It seems appropriate for it is here, Portu-
guese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, kept his date with destiny. , claiming the islands for
Spain, then ultimately meeting his death at the hand of the first Asian nationalist, Lapulapu. Magellan might well have had a guitarist aboard one of his ships, for minstrels were once not only entertainers, but historians of sorts.


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I’ve heard that guitars cannot be manufactured in a factory assembly line, but Cebu contradicts this. At Lilang’s Studio in Mactan, diligent woodworkers carve out components to be assembled later into complete units, but most of these are meant to be decorative pieces, rather than performance. Cebu does have a few luthiers who can craft  together concert quality instruments at prices a fraction of what they would cost in Europe orThe US. 

Because most Cebu guitars are manufactured as souvenirs, statistics are guarded as industrial secrets. Even the type of wood harvested from the great variety of trees in Philippine forests used in its composition is concealed. Western luthiers, however, are quite open, secure in the knowledge of limited quantities that could be accomplished by hand. For each concert guitar is crafted by a single luthier, which make each aberration unique, lending an individual quality to its sound.

Observing the shaping of guitars instruct a spectator about the versatility of wood. While it cannot be proveln that selection depends on the luthiers’ quirks, one discovers that
they do not originate from a single source, but from forests as distant from each other as Europe, Asia, North, and South America. Brazilian Rosewood may be preferred for the
rear and the sides, but either German Spruce, or Canadian Cedar would constitute the face. Most luthiers believe German Spruce matures better, but Canadian Cedar arrives at its peak sooner, for it is the aging of the wood that influences the mellow sound. Early strings were made of bronze or steel. Nylon was introduced later. It were The Moors who imported guitars into Spain from North Africa in 717 AD. The Ancient Egyptians were believed to have invented a like instrument. The modern guitar as we know it today was modified by Antonio De Torres Jurado, but the technique of playing accepted contemporarily was devised by composer, Francisco Tarraga.

Unlike many other musical instruments, the violin, for instance, the guitar’s inherent design and application denies it longevity. They rarely last beyond fifty years. Performance exert a stress on its body not unlike the metal fatigue a jet engine places on an airplane.
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Concert guitarists may cling to an instrument out of sentimental reasons, but eventually have to relinquish the beloved box for a newer one made to his specifications once fine fissures and cracks begin to distort the sound it produces.

So, if you’re ever in Cebu, and pass a stall vending guitars in Mactan, pause and
examine the diversity suspened from their ceiling. If you can strum modestly, check out a few, you might find one that deserves more attention, and be tempted to buy it. You can’t go wrong.