matonguitars

MATON GUITARS
PROUDLY AUSTRALIAN MADE SINCE 1946
COMPANY BACKGROUND
Maton was founded in Melbourne in 1946 by Bill May, the name Maton is derived from a combination of “May” and “Tone”, It is still a 100% family owned Australian company now operated by Linda & Neville Kitchen (Bill May’s daughter and son in law).
Bill was a jazz musician, woodwork teacher, and luthier when he decided to build his first guitar in the early 1940’s. Shortly afterwards, Bill established a custom guitar manufacturing and repair business know as “Maton Stringed Instruments and Repairs”. This enterprise was so successful that Bill was able to convince his older brother, Reg, to join him as a full time guitar maker and in March 1946 the “Maton Musical Instruments Company” was born.
The success of this Australian icon is largely due to the inspiration and creativity Bill May possessed and was able to reproduce in his instruments. Having established Maton as Australia’s longest running and most successful guitar manufacturer pioneering the use of many Australian wood species in guitar construction, Bill May is regarded by many Australian luthiers as the founding father of their industry and his contribution has been recognized with his induction into the Australian Music hall of fame.
Maton specialise in creating superb guitars from Australian timbers such as Blackwood, Bunya, Satin Box, Queensland Maple and Queensland Walnut. Although still making instruments to strict quality guidelines set out 60 years ago, the company now utilises the latest CNC Technology to manufacture with greater accuracy and consistency to take this uniquely Australian brand to the world. But do not be fooled, the majority of work to create every guitar is still done by hand, making every guitar original in its own right.
Maton manufactures it’s own pick-ups as it is considered essential to have control over the sound of both the acoustic instrument and it’s internal amplification system. After much research and development the Maton pick-up system was developed in the mid 90’s. A further innovation occurred when in conjunction with Tommy Emmanuel; the APMic system was developed. This system utilises both the piezo based system and a microphone which is located within the guitar body to deliver the natural acoustic sounds within the guitar body. The APMic is found in Maton’s high-end models and custom orders.
The Maton logo is easily identified wherever you look whether it is television or live performances, with the most respected artists choosing to play the instrument for no other reason than that it is amongst the finest in the world.