O
OzziePete
Guest
Hi all
I briefly mentioned this in another Thread and was waiting til the order process had been completed so I knew it was a certainty to go ahead.
My mother, Dulcie, passed away just prior to Christmas '09 after a long battle with dementia.
My Mum was probably the one I took my passion for music from, and even when I was a kid at home, thrashing away ona 100w Transistor H & H amp and rattling the windows, she never told me to 'turn it down'. Merely would close the door in the main corridor of the house and isolate my noise from the main living room area. I guess Mum must have hosed down a fair bit of neighbourhood annoyance too, but I never heard of that. We never much spoke about it, but I guess she realised that the music was, at stages, my one and only passion, and just let me be and pleased I wasn't passionate about something else that might have been less character building or whatever.
The day after putting Mum to rest I was in Gosford walking around and happened to walk into a music store. They had a range of acoustic guitars up on the wall, and for some reason I immediately thought of a custom guitar in Mum's honour.
Speaking briefly with this store's owner, I realised I could achieve two life long goals in one by getting a custom Maton guitar.
Maton is an Australian company that has been making guitars since 1946. As a kid a schoolfriend of mine was given a very nice 12 string Maton acoustic as a birthday present from his parents and it impressed the hell out of me. I've always wanted a Maton acoustic of some sort or other.
But I ended up buying an Ovation acoustic in those days. The Ovation sounds more mandolin-ish than guitar in tone, very bell like sound and not much wood in the timbre of the instrument. I have no arguments about the Ovation, it is what it is and I have recorded on it and comes back in the studio monitors sounding very nice indeed. But yeah, I have always thought a nice woody sounding Maton would complement...
As my Mum battled her illness for over 10 years, I would be affected by what I witnessed when I visited her, it is something that tears at your heart in so many directions. You want your Mother's suffering to finish, or at least have your original mother back, not the incoherent shadow you witness. Then you realise you were essentially wishing your mother dead and feel horrible for that thought! There were plenty of times after leaving the nursing home over these years, that I'd be a mess emotionally then have to shake myself down and get back to work or get on with things. The final week of so when Mum was finally succumbing to associated illnesses was traumatioc to witness, particularly after giving the directions for no more treatment and switching over to Palliative Care - and having to accepot your responsibility for that decision. Yes, it was the right decision to make, but no, it doesn't make it any easier to reconcile what you have decided for your mother. During this long period of seeing my mother's health slowly deteriorate I kept distracting myself and thought of all sorts of grand things to do once my duties as her son were finished. One thing I AM good at is day dreaming I guess! And I thought of acustom guitar, or at least one that would be fitting to be in Mum's honour.
There's a neat fit between Maton - a long established Australian company, a need for a good acoustic guitar, and a need to honour my Mum.
Mum was fiercely Australian having grown up through the Great Depression and been a war bride through WW2. Mum never travelled far from Sydney, so to get a Martin (US made) acoustic or, heaven forbid, something sounding so Japanese as a Takamine
, would not do a memorial for Mum any justice (Mum's generation was one who had a great suspicion of Asian peoples due to their experiences through WW2, and while I certainly do not hold those views, I understand that to get something from an Asian manufacturer would have made the whole 'memorial to Mum' thing a joke).
With the order process now complete I can now list the specs of the guitar that Maton will make for me.
BODY SHAPE: Jumbo size, Venetian (soft) cutaway
SOUNDBOARD: 'AAA' select grade solid Sitka Spruce.
BACK & SIDES: Highly figured solid Blackwood
NECK: Mahogany
FINGERBOARD: Ebony. Bound in Ivory like plastic. No fret dots on face of Fingerboard, only Block M-O-P on 12th Fret with "Dulcie" engraved, then the Southern Cross constellation laid out in inlays from 12-21 frets. Side markers on binding.
BRIDGE: Ebony.
HEADSTOCK: Figured Blackwood Veneer Keyhole with M-O-P Maton Logo.
ROSETTE: Ebony & M-O-P
MACHINE HEADS: Gold Grover Rotomatic with Ebony Buttons.
NUT/ SADDLE: Bone
PICKUP SYSTEM: APMic system
BODY OUTERBINDING: Ivory (plastic)
BODY INNER BINDING: Triple Pin stripe
FINISH - BACK & SIDES: Dark Sunburst High Gloss
FINISH - TOP: Honey/Vintage High Gloss
*comes complete with Maton Hiscox Flight Case.
Completion estimated in 10-12 weeks. Work to be done by the one builder/luthier.
Houston we have lift off! :hello2: :toothy11:
Take a look at the Maton website, check out their Custom Shop link and download their Custom Shop .pdf file. Basically, my guitar will be a cross between the TE50 and The Bronzed Aussie.
http://www.maton.com.au/pdf/Maton_Custom_shop.pdf
I briefly mentioned this in another Thread and was waiting til the order process had been completed so I knew it was a certainty to go ahead.
My mother, Dulcie, passed away just prior to Christmas '09 after a long battle with dementia.
My Mum was probably the one I took my passion for music from, and even when I was a kid at home, thrashing away ona 100w Transistor H & H amp and rattling the windows, she never told me to 'turn it down'. Merely would close the door in the main corridor of the house and isolate my noise from the main living room area. I guess Mum must have hosed down a fair bit of neighbourhood annoyance too, but I never heard of that. We never much spoke about it, but I guess she realised that the music was, at stages, my one and only passion, and just let me be and pleased I wasn't passionate about something else that might have been less character building or whatever.
The day after putting Mum to rest I was in Gosford walking around and happened to walk into a music store. They had a range of acoustic guitars up on the wall, and for some reason I immediately thought of a custom guitar in Mum's honour.
Speaking briefly with this store's owner, I realised I could achieve two life long goals in one by getting a custom Maton guitar.
Maton is an Australian company that has been making guitars since 1946. As a kid a schoolfriend of mine was given a very nice 12 string Maton acoustic as a birthday present from his parents and it impressed the hell out of me. I've always wanted a Maton acoustic of some sort or other.
But I ended up buying an Ovation acoustic in those days. The Ovation sounds more mandolin-ish than guitar in tone, very bell like sound and not much wood in the timbre of the instrument. I have no arguments about the Ovation, it is what it is and I have recorded on it and comes back in the studio monitors sounding very nice indeed. But yeah, I have always thought a nice woody sounding Maton would complement...
As my Mum battled her illness for over 10 years, I would be affected by what I witnessed when I visited her, it is something that tears at your heart in so many directions. You want your Mother's suffering to finish, or at least have your original mother back, not the incoherent shadow you witness. Then you realise you were essentially wishing your mother dead and feel horrible for that thought! There were plenty of times after leaving the nursing home over these years, that I'd be a mess emotionally then have to shake myself down and get back to work or get on with things. The final week of so when Mum was finally succumbing to associated illnesses was traumatioc to witness, particularly after giving the directions for no more treatment and switching over to Palliative Care - and having to accepot your responsibility for that decision. Yes, it was the right decision to make, but no, it doesn't make it any easier to reconcile what you have decided for your mother. During this long period of seeing my mother's health slowly deteriorate I kept distracting myself and thought of all sorts of grand things to do once my duties as her son were finished. One thing I AM good at is day dreaming I guess! And I thought of acustom guitar, or at least one that would be fitting to be in Mum's honour.
There's a neat fit between Maton - a long established Australian company, a need for a good acoustic guitar, and a need to honour my Mum.
Mum was fiercely Australian having grown up through the Great Depression and been a war bride through WW2. Mum never travelled far from Sydney, so to get a Martin (US made) acoustic or, heaven forbid, something sounding so Japanese as a Takamine
, would not do a memorial for Mum any justice (Mum's generation was one who had a great suspicion of Asian peoples due to their experiences through WW2, and while I certainly do not hold those views, I understand that to get something from an Asian manufacturer would have made the whole 'memorial to Mum' thing a joke).With the order process now complete I can now list the specs of the guitar that Maton will make for me.
BODY SHAPE: Jumbo size, Venetian (soft) cutaway
SOUNDBOARD: 'AAA' select grade solid Sitka Spruce.
BACK & SIDES: Highly figured solid Blackwood
NECK: Mahogany
FINGERBOARD: Ebony. Bound in Ivory like plastic. No fret dots on face of Fingerboard, only Block M-O-P on 12th Fret with "Dulcie" engraved, then the Southern Cross constellation laid out in inlays from 12-21 frets. Side markers on binding.
BRIDGE: Ebony.
HEADSTOCK: Figured Blackwood Veneer Keyhole with M-O-P Maton Logo.
ROSETTE: Ebony & M-O-P
MACHINE HEADS: Gold Grover Rotomatic with Ebony Buttons.
NUT/ SADDLE: Bone
PICKUP SYSTEM: APMic system
BODY OUTERBINDING: Ivory (plastic)
BODY INNER BINDING: Triple Pin stripe
FINISH - BACK & SIDES: Dark Sunburst High Gloss
FINISH - TOP: Honey/Vintage High Gloss
*comes complete with Maton Hiscox Flight Case.
Completion estimated in 10-12 weeks. Work to be done by the one builder/luthier.
Houston we have lift off! :hello2: :toothy11:
Take a look at the Maton website, check out their Custom Shop link and download their Custom Shop .pdf file. Basically, my guitar will be a cross between the TE50 and The Bronzed Aussie.
http://www.maton.com.au/pdf/Maton_Custom_shop.pdf
