Harana SJ-100C

I had this guitar custom made by the luthier, Efren Muana (nickname "Junks"). He is from Cebu in the Philippines, a city that has a long and rich history of guitarmaking since the Spanish arrived hundreds of years ago. Solid cedar top, solid Indian rosewood back and sides. Four piece mahogany neck. Ebony fretboard, bridge, and headplate. Maple hardwood binding and rosesette. Gloss nitro cellulose lacquer finish. I also had him install an active Fishman pickup that I provided him. Small jumbo body. The quality of the wood is really awesome, which is why I give it such a high rating here. I could have had it made with abalone or mother of pearl shell purfling (which I had done on my other Harana guitars), but I decided to go with a simple look, although the maple binding still is beautiful.

Sound is great. Clear, bright sound that really cuts through, although still balanced. Not as much bass response as a dreadnought. The balanced, clear tone is great for fingerpicking, but still good for heavy strumming. Being that sound is a very subjective thing (some people like more bass, some like more brightness), I'm giving it a 10 here because it sounds just as I wanted it to. Although I'm more of a bass guy, this definitely leans more toward the bright end, which is exactly what I wanted. I did not want another dread when I had this made and wanted a brighter sounding guitar. Spot on.

Action was setup perfectly for me. I like it nice and low for fast play. No buzzing anywhere along the fretboard. The finish is gloss, but not the thick poly stuff. Muana uses a nitrocellulose lacquer which is organic and is applied very thinly but still achieve a high gloss but warm finish. He also installed the Fishman pickup perfectly.

So far, so good. I've only had it for a couple of months. But I have three others guitars made by him, and they've all held up over the last couple of years.

Junks is available by email. Although I have not had any problems with my guitars, I know that he is very responsive and provides a lifetime guarantee with all of his guitars. But he does live in the Philippines, after all, so if any work is needed, you may need to ship it to him. All major couriers ship to Cebu (e.g., Fed Ex, UPS, DHL).

I have been playing for about ten years. I own a Takamine EAN16KOA, three other Harana guitars (the GC150, FL100, and Travel size guitar), a Washburn C104SCE, a Seagull S6, Alvarez AD60K, Takamine EG340SC. If it were stolen or lost, I would not hesitate to ask Junks to make me a new one. In fact, if I were made of money, I would ask him to make me another one today. I love to support Philippine products, and the guitarmaking industry in Cebu has a long, rich tradition and history. People pass the art of guitarmarking from one generation to the next.

This is a hand crafted (small) jumbo size guitar made in Cebu City, Philippines in December of 2004. Came with a cheap hard side case (probably because it's an odd size) 20 frets, bone nut, compensated tusq saddle, solid spruce top, rosewood back, mahogany sides, dark rosewood or ebony fredboard (not sure), rosewood bridge, maple neck. All solid wood construction. The back has a maple strip that goes down the middle and the neck has a strip of rosewood that goes up the back of the neck. Maple bidning around the neck and the body. Abalone inlays around the body, rosette, and on the slotted style headstock. Very ornate guitar! It's a head turner for sure. It's a cutaway (sharp style, not a soft venetian) Vintage style Grover sloted style head gold tuners. The neck is a little on the large side after switching from a Larrivee LV-03e and a Taylor 420 maple. The scale size is a full 4/4. The finish is gloss. This guitar didn't come with a pickup, but more on that later...

The sound is what you would expect form a jumbo size guitar. Very loud, rich sound, lots of overtones, great harmonics. Sounds very clear and distinct. That's why I chose a rosewood back. The mahogany sides I think give it some projection (based on my mahogany Larrivee that really pushed sound out). The Sitka spruce top gives it a lot of brightness and volume. I have played all the Taylors guitar center has and this guitar sounds at least as good as the 710/714, only much louder and maybe a little brighter... especially compared to the 714 (cedar top)
I play in a church, using a lot of strumming (I like to get into the music, so I strum a little harder for some songs/parts) not too much fingerstyle, but this guitar would adapt well to either style with its clarity and volume. I like a brighter sound that cuts through the mix and this guitar does it.
I installed an Ibeam active pickup from LR Baggs and it works really well with this guitar. I have to warn you though that the end block on this guitar is very deep and I used every mm of the threading available on the pickup endpin jack to get it to fit. The Ibeam makes this guitar sound wonderful and natural. Like I said before, this guitar has great overtones and sounds great unpluged, but even beter pluged into a sound system. This guitar should open up after a couple years, so I'm sure the sound will only improve. One of the advantages of an all solid wood gutar! I think I played a Santa Cruz that sounded a little better, so 9 is my rating here.

I purchased this guitar on eBay, and this guitar is basically new. The action I think settled in durring shipping, so I had the guitar professionally set up and had the nut replaced because the action was too low at the nut. There is a little bow at the first 2-3 frets, so my action I think will be limited by the outward bow here. It's not a problem for now, and the adjustment helped. Some of the frets were sharp and the set-up guy fixed those for me and polished the frets on top. The rosewood back doesn't seem to have a very thick coat of laquer on it. I can see little pockets from the grain in the wood. The top has one small area where there is some checking or maybe it was a ding from the guy that sold it to me? It's only the size of a tick... A slight intonation problem is noticed on the 5th and 6th strings. Maybe this is just the saddle though? I'm going to swich to bone or ivory here in a couple months. Over all the inlay work and appearance is excellent for a HAND MADE guitar. This isn't a cookie cutter Taylor here. Sweat and blood went into making this.

Seems to be very well built. Not too heavy, or too light. Based on my inspection of the guts of the guitar I see no reason why this wouldn't last for my kids some day. I keep it humidified and in its case, so should last a long long time. :o) I should mention the Grover tuners this has (18:1 rato) gold vintage style tuners probably aren't the best, because of of them stripped out on my. Grover is a good company though and is sending me a replacement for free. Very dependable so far. I would gig with it w/o a backup. I use medium strings. Wouldn't gig w/o medium strings though. Thin, light gage strings break too easily.

Efren Mauna is the luthier that made this gutar. Don't know how to contact, so I'm going to put N/A If I tried hard, I could probably find a way to contact him. Who would want to send a good guitar back to the Philippines though!? ...probably would get lost or stolen in the mail!

I've been playing for 14+ years, playing in a worship band for 2+ years and can say this is a nice guitar for the money. I couldn't afford a new Taylor, so opted for this custom built kind. I wish I would have asked about the action before buying, but the seller was slow to respond on my other questions.
I sold my Taylor 420 maple and Larrivee LV-03e to get this one and I think it was worth it. I think if it was lost, I would buy another custom made guitar either from eBay, or buy a custom built Lazy River Guitar from Rance. He makes really good stuff for the price.