Reputana Guitars

Overview

Reputana Guitars is a guitar-making workshop in Barangay Manga, Tagbilaran City, listed by the BPTO under Industrial Tourism / Arts and Craft. It represents Bohol’s small but established tradition of handcrafted musical instrument production — a cottage industry most closely associated with Cebu (particularly Mactan), but also present in Tagbilaran.

The workshop was founded by Cornelio Reputana Sr., who developed an interest in guitar-making after observing a craftsman’s shop in the Bohol town of Candijay while working as a textile vendor. He later worked at a guitar shop before establishing his own family business after World War II; a soft loan in the 1970s allowed the family to upgrade its equipment. The craft passed down to his sons — Manuel, Cornelio Jr., Promencio, and Samuel (the youngest of seven children) — plus son-in-law Romy. The family workshop operates from their home in Sitio Tubig-Dako, within Manga district.

Reputana guitars are built mainly from jackfruit wood, prized for its “deep bass, fine treble” tone, with balsa wood used as an alternative body material and gmelina wood for necks. Bass strings are wound with bronze wire, truss rods are fashioned from deformed steel reinforcing bars, and finishing touches recycle materials such as plastic trim and old vinyl records for pickguards. The range produced has included dreadnought acoustic, 12-string dreadnought, cutaway dreadnought, parlor, classical, and jumbo acoustic guitars, plus ukuleles, acoustic bass, and bajo de arco. A 2012 feature reported output of roughly 2.5 guitars per maker per week, priced around ₱2,500 per instrument at that time — this price point is over a decade old and should not be treated as current.

Whether the family currently offers workshop visits or tours to travelers, and what a guitar costs today, aren’t confirmed in the sources checked — worth asking locally in Manga or reaching out via Tagbilaran’s tourism office before planning a special trip around it.

Location

Barangay Manga, Tagbilaran City, Bohol. Manga is a barangay in the northern part of Tagbilaran, adjacent to the Manga Public Market. Victory Belano (Boat Making) is a nearby industrial tourism site in the same area.

Getting There

From the Tagbilaran City centre, Manga barangay is accessible by tricycle. The Manga Public Market serves as a local landmark. The workshop itself operates from Sitio Tubig-Dako within Manga district; a precise street address wasn’t available, so locals in the sitio are the best source for turn-by-turn directions.

Practical Info

• Type: Guitar-making workshop / artisan industrial tourism, family-operated (Reputana family, founded by Cornelio Reputana Sr.)
• Guitars made from jackfruit and balsa wood bodies with gmelina necks
• Whether formal tours are offered, current opening hours, and current instrument prices aren’t documented — best confirmed directly with the workshop or through the Tagbilaran tourism office before visiting.

What to Expect

A family-run handcraft workshop producing acoustic guitars, ukuleles, and related stringed instruments, using local jackfruit wood and recycled materials (e.g., truss rods from deformed steel bars, pickguards from old vinyl records). Industrial tourism visits in this category typically involve observing artisans at work through the stages of instrument construction — from wood shaping and fretting to finishing and stringing. Whether Reputana currently welcomes drop-in visitors or operates mainly as a production facility isn’t confirmed, so it’s worth calling ahead or checking with a local guide rather than showing up unannounced.

Notes

• Founded by Cornelio Reputana Sr. after World War II; now run by his sons Manuel, Cornelio Jr., Promencio, and Samuel, and son-in-law Romy.
• Nearby: Victory Belano (Boat Making) — another industrial tourism site in the Manga area
• Cebu’s guitar-making industry (centred on Mactan) is the dominant regional cluster; Bohol workshops are smaller-scale producers

FEATURE STORIES: Reputana’s reputable guitars, Honoring a tradition of music, accessed 2026-07-17.