Maton Factory

Introduction and Museum

In August 2017 my mate Loyd and I visited the Maton guitar factory in Box Hill, Melbourne. I visited the old factory some years ago and was very keen to see the 'new' facility.

Maton was founded in 1946 as the Maton Musical Instruments Company by Bill May and his brother Reg. Reg was a wood machinist and Bill a jazz musician, woodwork teacher and luthier who had for some years operated a custom guitar building and repair business under the name Maton Stringed Instruments and Repairs. The name "Maton" came from the words "May Tone" and is pronounced May Tonne.

About 15 of us turned up for our tour on the allocated day and we were very fortunate to have the very knowledgeable daughter of Bill May as our guide. She gave us a talk about the history of the company, some very interesting anecdotes about her father and talked about the beautiful instruments on display.

Some of the Maton guitars - the ones on the left are from the Custom Shop

I used to have a Maton Saphire - and I still miss it

My mate Gary Ward had one of these - we played together a lot when we were about 14 years old (need photo)

Beautiful fiddleback blackwood

The same guitar from the front

Bill May's first hand made guitar

Factory Overview

The Maton factory is an impressive facility. Everything is done here, including dressing and drying the specialist woods. The company employs about 70 people, 50 of whom are on the factory floor.

On average, it takes a minimum of five weeks to make each guitar from the raw timber to the finished product. Higher end guitars such as the Messiah and the Australian series take even longer to produce being rated among the world's finest acoustic guitars.

Bill May opened the first factory in Canterbury (Victoria) in 1949. It was the country's first major guitar making facility and operated at that location for about 40 years. They moved into a larger factory in Bayswater (Victoria) in 1989 and to the current location in 2002 where much of the extra production is aimed at the export market.

Currently Maton is achieving its highest international sales in Italy where it seems the product is regarded very highly. Asia is also proving to be a successful venture with the largest stores in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia showing exceptional growth - and a recent push into USA despite that market being dominated by their own local brands.

Entering the factory from the museum

Woods and Drying

Maton specialise in creating superb guitars from Australian timbers such as blackwood, bunya, Queensland maple and Queensland walnut. All timbers are sourced direct from the saw mills where quality control and the highest quality product can be identified for guitar building.

Once they arrive at the factory the woods are placed in kilns to be dried for up to four or five months - or until the water content is right for that wood and its intended use.

Backs ready for the kiln

Woods out of the kiln ready for processing

One of the three very large kilns

Tops, Backs and Sides

Of course the company uses a lot of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) router technology to cut and pre-form many of the parts, however the final shaping and assemebly is surprisingly manual.

The necks are made from various woods depending on the quality of the guitar. Expensive models are made from one piece of wood (lots of waste) - whereas two pieces are glued together for all other guitars.