Beautiful acoustic guitars "from down under": the Australian Maton!
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A humble start with a great future
Maton was founded by Bill May, an Australian jazz guitarist, woodworker and luthier. In the early 1940's he founded his first company called “Maton Stringed Instruments and Repairs”. The name Maton came about because Bill put the words "May" and "Tone" together and corrupted them into Maton. At first he therefore focused on repairing guitars and building instruments in small editions. The latter turned out to be a success and because there was actually no real Australian guitar brand in this period, Bill May decided in 1946, together with his brother Reg, to rename the company “Maton Musical Instruments Company”. It all started in a small workshop in Bill May's backyard, and over the years the company has grown into an Australian success story. Maton now employs more than 70 people (fun fact: every employee actually plays the guitar). One thing hasn't changed, and that's that the May family still rules the roost.
The best known and most loved guitar brand from Australia.
Maton has now become a big name in the guitar world, and we can now safely say that Maton is the most successful Australian guitar brand at the moment. These guitars can be found on more and more stages and that is not surprising. Maton guitars are praised for their great quality, beautiful finish and beautiful sound. For the builders at Maton, the formula for success is actually very simple: they just follow the vision that Bill May once had, which was to build the highest quality, handcrafted guitars at the most affordable price possible. As they themselves say: “If you make a good guitar, the right guitar, people will want it.” The craftsmanship of the builders at Maton is outstanding, and every step in the building process is taken with the utmost attention and love.
Acoustically excellent, amplified unparalleled!
It should be clear by now that Maton's acoustic guitars sound good. But Maton is perhaps even more famous for its great pickup systems. Maton designs and manufactures its own elements with the aim of amplifying the acoustic sound as honestly and purely as possible. After a lot of research and testing, the first AP4 pickup system came on the market, after which Maton and Tommy Emmanuel joined forces to take it one step further. This led to the APMic system. The basis of this pickup is the combination of a high-quality piezo system with a microphone in the body of the guitar, which produces an incredibly realistic reproduction of the original acoustic sound, along with a sound that is easy to place in the mix. The successor to the APMic system is the AP5-Pro element, and this is the system that we find in the latest Maton models. The AP5-Pro is the improved sibling of the older systems in every way, and we think this is one of the very best pickup systems ever. And if you don't take our word for it, we've got this quote that might change your mind:
The AP5 pro is my most favorite amplifying system for acoustic guitar. It is very realistic and usable at higher levels onstage.” Eric Johnson.
We are very happy with Maton in our range!
