Maton called the Canterbury factory home for 40 years until it was time to upgrade to a more modern and spacious facility in Bayswater, Melbourne, in 1990.Īfter 12 years at the Bayswater factory it was time to relocate to an even larger facility in the inner Melbourne suburb of Box Hill, in an attempt to satisfy the overwhelming demand for the handcrafted instruments. More than 300 different models were created at the Canterbury factory, a staggering testimony to the creativity of the Maton team from that era. Showing great faith in the potential of the company, Bill opened up Australia's first major guitar making facility in Canterbury, Melbourne, in 1949. Maton is still a 100% family owned Australian company, now operated by Linda & Neville Kitchen (Bill May's daughter and son in law). This enterprise was so successful that Bill was able to convince his older brother, Reg, to join him as a full time guitar maker and in March 1946 the “Maton Musical Instruments Company” was born. Bill May, a Melbourne-born jazz musician, woodwork teacher and luthier decided to change all that.ĭuring the early 1940s Bill established a custom guitar manufacturing and repair business known as “Maton Stringed Instruments and Repairs”. Good quality guitars were hard to find and at this time the best guitars came from the U.S.A. Until the mid 1930s an Australian guitar manufacturing industry was virtually nonexistent. The Maton name is a derivative of the words “May” and “Tone”.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |