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Maton Guitars
An Australian success story
From a small backyard workshop in 1946, Maton Guitars has grown into a truly great Australian success story. Maton currently employs around 70 people and is still 100% family owned and operated. We at session are big fans of the company and are pleased to be able to offer a large selection of high quality Maton guitars.
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Here you will find an overview of our Maton range. You can find more information about the history of Maton Guitars further down on this page. Enjoy browsing!
The story of Maton
Where does the name Maton come from?
Until the mid-1930s there was virtually no guitar industry in Australia. Quality guitars were hard to find, and at that time the best guitars came from the USA. Bill May, a Melbourne-born jazz musician, woodworking teacher and luthier, decided to change all that. In the early 1940s, Bill founded a guitar manufacturing and repair business that became known as Maton Stringed Instruments and Repairs. The name Maton is derived from the words “May” and “Tone”.
This business became so successful that Bill convinced his older brother Reg to join in as a full-time luthier, and in March 1946 the Maton Musical Instruments Company was born.
Family business with a long tradition
Because he established Maton as Australia's oldest and most successful guitar manufacturer and pioneered the use of many Australian wood species in guitar construction, Bill May is regarded by many Australian luthiers as a founding father of their industry. Bill May's significance to the history of Australian music was recently recognized at the Australian Music Association Awards, where he was posthumously honored with the association's highest honor and inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Maton is still a 100% family-owned Australian business and is now run by Linda and Neville Kitchen - Bill May's daughter and son-in-law. Bill showed great confidence in the company's potential and opened Australia's first large guitar factory in Canterbury in 1949. This factory has produced more than 300 different models over the years, an impressive testament to the creativity of the Maton team at that time.
Maton called Canterbury home for 40 years before it was time to move to a more modern and spacious facility in Bayswater in 1990.
The new factory at Box Hill
After 12 years at the Bayswater factory, it was time to move to an even larger facility in the inner Melbourne suburb of Box Hill to meet the overwhelming demand for the hand-crafted instruments. The new purpose-built facility is four times the size of the old factory in Bayswater. From this new factory, the company will be able to meet current demand and further develop international markets. The success of this Australian icon is due in large part to the inspiration and creativity that Bill May possessed and was able to convey in his instruments.
Maton Guitars today
From the initial selection and sorting of the wood to the careful dressing and polishing of the frets, every step of the guitar's construction is closely monitored by Maton 's luthiers. Maton Guitars is the place where some of the best quality guitars in the world are created, each with a unique character and sound. Each guitar embodies the passion and skill of the craftsmen who are part of our team. Each of them has years of experience necessary to make a really good instrument . Maton specializes in producing superbly crafted guitars from Australian woods such as Blackwood, Bunya, Queensland Maple, Queensland Walnut and more recently Satin Box. The Maton team is constantly looking for new materials and techniques to build the best guitars in the world.
The Maton story in moving images
If you would like to find out more about Maton , or would prefer to experience the company's history in moving images, we have another video for you here. In the second and third videos you will also learn how a real Maton guitar is made and accompany it from the felled tree to the finished instrument:
