Maton is an Australian
musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
s manufacturing company based in
Box Hill, Melbourne. It was founded in 1946 by Bill May and his brother Reg. The name "Maton" came from the words "May Tone" and is pronounced ''May Tonne''.
Products currently manufactured by Maton include
electric
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
and
acoustic guitars,
ukulele
The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The tone and volume of the instrumen ...
s and
guitar pickup
A pickup is a transducer that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, and converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instru ...
s.
History
The company was founded in 1946 as the "Maton Musical Instruments Company" by Bill May and his brother Reg. Reg was a wood machinist, while Bill was a
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
musician,
woodwork
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.
History
Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials ...
teacher and
luthier
A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...
who had for some years operated a custom guitar building and repair business under the name ''Maton Stringed Instruments and Repairs''.
At first the company produced high-quality
acoustic instruments for students and working professionals, aiming at providing good value for money and experimenting with the use of Australian woods. In the 1960s they expanded into electric instruments and
instrument amplifier
An instrument amplifier is an electronic device that converts the often barely audible or purely electronic signal of a musical instrument into a larger electronic signal to feed to a loudspeaker. An instrument amplifier is used with musical ins ...
s, at first under the name
Magnetone
Magnetone was a brand of Maton Guitars under which their first electric guitars and guitar amplifiers were sold.
The brand was discontinued in the 1960s, and all subsequent Maton instruments were simply branded ''Maton''.
See also
*List of ...
. The early catalogues noted that the warranties on amplifiers and loudspeakers were void if used in situations of "
overload or distortion", reflecting May's jazz background but incredible to modern electric guitarists of any style.
Maton established itself early on the Australian rock scene in the late 1950s, assisted by Australia's tariff regime, which made imported guitars far more expensive than the local equivalents. Maton guitars were used by many well-known Australian pop and rock groups including
Col Joye
Colin Frederick Jacobsen (born 13 April 1937), better known by his stage name Col Joye, is an Australian pioneer rock singer-songwriter, musician and entrepreneur with a career spanning some sixty years. Joye was the first Australian rock and r ...
& The Joy Boys. The company also made one of the first sponsorship deals in Australian rock, supplying Melbourne band
The Strangers with a full set of the distinctive 'El Toro' model guitars and basses (notable for their outlandish 'horned' body shape) while the group was working as the house band on the TV pop show ''
The Go!! Show
''The Go!! Show'' (also known simply as ''Go!!'') was an Australian popular music television series which aired on ATV (Australia), ATV-0, Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne, from August 1964 to August 1967. It was produced by DYT Productions at th ...
'' in the mid-Sixties.
Maton earned international renown for their superb acoustic and electric guitars and basses, which have been played by scores of famous performers from
The Easybeats
The Easybeats were an Australian rock band that formed in Sydney in late 1964. They enjoyed a level of success that in Australia rivalled The Beatles. They became the first Australian rock act to score an international hit, with the 1966 sing ...
to
The Wiggles
The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. The group are currently composed of Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce and Tsehay Hawkins, as well as supporting members Evie Ferris, John Pearce, Ca ...
.
George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...
owned one of their MS500 models, which were introduced in 1957 and famed British session guitarist
Big Jim Sullivan
James George Tomkins (14 February 1941 – 2 October 2012), known professionally as Big Jim Sullivan, was an English musician whose career started in 1958.
He was best known as a session guitarist. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of t ...
owned and used a Maton 'Cello' guitar for many years during the peak of his career, playing it on recordings with
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer.
Nicknamed "Sassy" and "Jazz royalty, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine ...
,
Sammy Davis, Jr.,
Johnny Keating
John Keating (10 September 1927 – 28 May 2015) was a Scottish musician, songwriter, arranger and trombonist.
Biography
Keating was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. After studying piano and trombone, he taught himself how to arrange and compose ...
and his Big Band and
Neil Finn
Neil Mullane Finn (born 27 May 1958) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and musician who is known for being a member of Crowded House, Split Enz (which he co-fronted with brother Tim), and Fleetwood Mac. Finn rose to prominence in the late ...
from
Crowded House
Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1985. Its founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn (vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter) and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass). Later ban ...
.
Australian singer
Frank Ifield
Francis Edward Ifield OAM (born 30 November 1937) is a British-Australian country music singer and guitarist who often incorporated yodelling into his music. After living in Australia, Ifield returned to the United Kingdom in November 1959 wher ...
also owned and used a Maton guitar, which he later had fitted with a custom-made scratch plate, made in the shape of a map of Australia. Frank gave this instrument to his guitarist
Ray Brett
Ray may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin
Science and mathematics
* Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point
* Ray (g ...
when he returned to Australia, and it has been featured on an episode of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''. Although these guitars are now normally worth around GB£2,000, expert
valued Ifield's guitar at between GB£10,000 and GB£15,000, because Ifield had used it in songs featured in a compilation album alongside
' first two singles.
in Sydney in 1999) was an integral part of the Easybeats' sound throughout their career, and features prominently on hit singles like "I'll Make You Happy".
Australian guitarist,
, owns many Matons and almost exclusively uses the BG808 acoustic model on his latest albums. Maton has even constructed a Tommy Emmanuel "TE series" according to Tommy's specifications. His understudy Kieran Murphy also uses Matons.
use Matons. Renowned guitar instructor
uses Maton acoustic guitars. Australian singer-songwriter
s. Some of them are:
* Maton JB6: a 1970s guitar that features a thin solid body, short scale 24 fret design, two humbucking pick-ups, two tone controls, one volume, in/out phase toggle for bridge pick-up and standard three way pick-up selector toggle switch. The body has double cutaways, set neck and heavy metal base plate supporting a stop piece and bridge for increased sustain.
* Mini Maton: Maton's small body acoustic guitar. It uses Maton's AP5 pickup system.
*Maton EBG808TE: The TE series guitars are designed in conjunction with guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel. Other models in the TE series are EBG808TEC, TE1 and the TE Personal.
*Maton SRS70C: A hollow body single cut acoustic guitar with a tortoiseshell pickguard and a rosewood neck. The SRS70C comes in both 6 and 12 string form.