On the Scene with Kilin Reece

Kilin Reece grew up a California skateboarder and, like many skateboarders, he became skilled at taking skateboards apart and putting them back together. When Reece got interested in string instruments he started taking them apart as well.

At 14 he apprenticed with a luthier, learned how build and repair acoustic instruments, and became a professional luthier. He specializes in instruments made before 1950.

Reece came to Hawaii in 2002 and was soon immersed in the musical instruments and the musical history of Hawaii. His work brought him into contact with the descendants of the island musicians who had toured on the mainland in the last 1800s and the early years of the 20th century. The stories they shared inspired him to start researching the history of Hawaiian music and then write about his findings.

Reece, 43, is also working with the C. F. Martin & Co. guitar company to build a replica of the custom-made jumbo guitar designed in 1916 by Hawaiian musician Mekia Kealakai and C.F. Martin III of the Martin company.

JOHN BERGER: How did you discover Kealakai’s connection to the Martin company?

KILIN REECE: I started researching a Martin guitar that came through my shop and that took me down this road. As Mekia and his contemporaries took their string-band traditions of Hawaii, and the 19th-century sound of the Hawaiian string band, around the world, they were playing to bigger and bigger audiences in bigger and bigger venues and they needed more volume.

Mekia and Martin met while the Kealakai Royal Hawaiian Sextette was touring the Midwest. The “Kealakai” model — the biggest guitar Martin had made up to that time — was their solution to the need for more volume.

JB: What else are you working on?

KR: There’s an article this month in the Fretboard Journal (Reece authored) about the four Martin guitars that were ordered for the Royal Hawaiian Band in 1934 and played by members of the band’s string ensemble at a luau for President (Franklin Delano) Roosevelt.

JB: What do you see as the larger message?

KR: There’s so much to learn about 19th-century music in Hawaii, and the role of Hawaiians in the innovation and design of music and instruments. It’s amazing.

Doing the research that I’ve been doing we have actual nuts and bolts that we can pin down — this is when it happened; this is where it happened.

Starting to put names to all these faces in these (old) black-and-white photos starts to help to tell the stories. My main focus has been Mekia but I could have picked any number of people. Their stories are just fascinating.

JB: What is the hardest thing to do when you’re working on a project?

KR: To stop gathering information and start writing.

Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.