So what do we think of Matons?

bermudianbrit

Hi all,

Not abrand I see too much chat about in these parts. My two favourite players (Joe Robinson and Tommy Emmanuel) both use them though.
What's the collective view?

octatonic

I have one, a version of the EM325 called the Barossa.

It is an excellent guitar with a great pickup.
Good value on the used market, if you can find one.

Tannin

In a way, there is not much point in me commenting on them as I grew up with them. To my ear, the Maton sound defines what an acoustic guitar should sound like. Growing up I heard Matons on the radio, saw them on stages, and hoped one day to buy one - which I eventually did, of course. It was my first acoustic guitar of quality and it was head and shoulders above anything else I'd every played until then. It was stolen some years later, but I bought another one broadly similar a few years ago (a custom SRS-80C dreadnought in Queensland Maple with a cedar top) and then about this time last year, another one, a Messiah 808. I have other guitars - two Cole Clarks, a Tacoma, a Guild, and a hand made single-luthier one - but the two Matons get played as often as any and more often than some. I'll buy a third one day, something in Blackwood would be nice.

The Maton sound is distinctive. If you aren't familiar with it, it's probably more akin to Guild than anything else you have probably played or heard. It is tight and controlled, well balanced, with a trademark clear, glassy top end. 

To my way of thinking, the Maton guitars fall into four classes:

1: SRS and similar. These are good quality basic guitars. They are not cheapies like Epiphones or the lower-end Martins and Taylors, they are the real thing: all-solid, no laminate, no shortcuts, and made entirely in Maton's Melbourne factory. Here in Australia they typically sell for $1500-$2000 AUD - i.e., about £1000 or the same price as a plywood Martin out of Mexico, or a 2-series Taylor. They are very popular.

2: Mid-range Matons are to my mind the heart and soul of the company: the EBGs, the Blackwood series, and especially the Tommy Emmanuel models. These generally go for between $2400 and $3000 AUD, often around $2700 (that would be about £1400). I think they are outstanding both for value and for quality. Sadly, in the UK they are typically around £2200. Would I pay that much for a Maton 808 TE when I could get a D-18 or a D-28 for about the same? Well yes I would, they are a great guitar - but it's not the no-brain question it is here in Oz where a D-18 is $4000 AUD and a TE is $2700.

3: The Messiah range. I love mine but they aren't *different*, they are simply a beautifully made version of a classic recipe: spruce top, rosewood back and sides, mahogany neck. Great guitars with a rich bass and a lovely glassy, shimmering treble, but there are lots and lots of makers who do very nice traditional spruce and rosewood instruments. (I've played, for example, a Messiah 808 and a Taylor 714ce back-to-back. They are are quite similar: I thought the Messiah was better balanced and more playable, but the next person might say the Taylor had more bass response. Matter of taste.) Just the same, at the price of a Messiah in New York or London, I'd probably buy Taylor, Furch, Takamine, or whatever.

4: The custom shop models. These come and go depending on what the head luthier feels like building, and they are every bit as good as you would expect. Even in Australia the custom shop Matons are quite expensive. I don't know if they get exported to the UK or not, but if they are you'd be looking at prices where you'd also look at Santa Cruz, Collings, fancy low-volume models from Gibson, Martin and Taylor, and fine instruments hand made in the UK.

Where does that leave us? In the UK, I don't really see the cheaper Matons in the first group as serious competitors to the likes of Furch. Very nice guitars, and way better than anything made from laminate, but you'd have to really want an SRS-60 to pay £1300-odd for it. Similar reasoning applies to the Messiahs and the custom shop models. Yes, wonderful instruments - but so expensive outside Australia that you'd probably get equal or better from companies like Brook or Atkin or Furch or Taylor or Martin.

The mid-range Maton models are the ones to look at. OK, they are not cheap, but they offer (a) excellent quality, (b) real character,  and (c) something different to the guitars you probably already own. Somebody who already has two nice Taylors and a Martin (for example) could buy an 808 TE and have something of similar quality but a very different nature. But will you like the sound? That is such a personal thing. The only way to find out is try a few and see for yourself.

oldhorsemurphy

I had a a Maton SRS 12 String which was fantastic. Sadly the neck was like a baseball bat but the build quality was brilliant and the standard electronics were top class too. 

Compared to my Martin D18 (and bearing in mind that they use very different woods and finishes) it was a very high quality guitar and I don't think you'd be disappointed. 

WindmillGuitars

Top class acoustics - also worth checking out Cole Clarkes model range - they (as @Tannin pointed out below!) used to work at Maton!

Tannin

Cole Clark guitars are indeed worth checking out; very different to Matons and none the worse for that. I'm happy to have a couple of each. BTW, there is no such person as "Cole Clark". In 2001 two of the company founders were ex-Maton workers Adam Cole and Brad Clark. Cole left the company in 2003, Clark in 2010. Cole Clark has expanded significantly since then and now had about 60 staff. Maton, which started in 1946, has 80-odd people. 

Creed_Clicks

Most Australian/NZ artists seem to use them. I went to a music shop years ago when I was in Aus just to try them out. Lovely acoustics, and their electrics aren't bad either.

Gassage

I am going to go against the grain here....

I've been disappointed with a number of Matons finding them stiff and a little low in vol. I get that they use indigenous timber, I love their build and some of my fave artists are endorsees, but as much as I want to love them I can't yet.