Maton Guitar Shape

[Soloshchenko]

Heard Josh Homme on TV recently playing a Maton and couldn't get over the sound. When I was in Australia I played a few Maton Acoustics and loved them but never played an electric. Maybe Warmoth could think about building a body option shape like this?
http://www.maton.com.au/electrics/bb1200.html

As these guitars are expensive I could see there being a market for unfinished versions to dramatically cut down costs. Semi Hollow options would rule!

Maton seems to build all there guitars from Queensland maple, does anybody know if this differs from standard maple? Maple bodies are fairly rare in my experience but I don't know why. My friends old custom built ibanez was made from maple and it sounded incredible and I really don't like ibanez guitars.   

 

[JR]

Ha! thats awsome that u like matons. I own a mastersound ms500 and i love it! i got mine about 1 year ago and its the best thing thats happend to me. Im not too sure with comparing the tone qualitys of queensland maple with maple. But if u wanted to kno the details, just send maton an email. Their customer service is great and they should write back within a couple of days, if not on the same day.

Joel

 

[jackthehack]

Occasionally you'll see a body on the Showcase of a one piece flame/burled maple, but maple is not used a lot primarily due to weight.

I'd never heard of "Queensland maple", but it is apparently not a true Acer xxxxxxx maple species, rather a species from a family indigenous to the South Pacific and the wood density/character/tonality would be closer to mahogany than a true maple wood, although the wood itself looks more like maple in coloration, and availability outside Australian would be extremely limited.

 

[Soloshchenko]

Cool Joel, looks like you've got an individual looking/sounding guitar. Hommes was a cool blue semi hollow model and the sound really really stood out, it had a real smooth mid range "honk" to it.

I like the look of your model too, very cool retro looking instrument. How many pick up options does that rotary switch give?  

I think Maton is different enough to merit Warmoth trying to come up with a similar shape, although they would probably need to do a similar headstock style to. The headstock looks distinctive and I don't think a Les Paul one would look right.

 

[Soloshchenko]

Occasionally you'll see a body on the Showcase of a one piece flame/burled maple, but maple is not used a lot primarily due to weight.

I'd never heard of "Queensland maple", but it is apparently not a true Acer xxxxxxx maple species, rather a species from a family indigenous to the South Pacific and the wood density/character/tonality would be closer to mahogany than a true maple wood, although the wood itself looks more like maple in coloration, and availability outside Australian would be extremely limited.

Interesting, I suppose all of Australias eco system is completely different to anything else so its unlikely to expect it to be anything like trad. maple!

 

[JR]

Yeah they make some wicked semi hollow guitars. I actually live right around the corner from there factory (melbourne, australia) Mines got a tobacco sunburst on it so it doesnt look as boring as the all black one on their web site i also asked them for block inlays instead of dots.. As for the rotary switch its just like a standard LP switch but in rotary, bridge, middle, neck, but they all come coil tapped. the ms2000 models have push/pull knobs and the ms500 models have a seperate switch for coil switching.

joel

 

[Soloshchenko]

Yeah they make some wicked semi hollow guitars. I actually live right around the corner from there factory (melbourne, australia) Mines got a tobacco sunburst on it so it doesnt look as boring as the all black one on their web site i also asked them for block inlays instead of dots.. As for the rotary switch its just like a standard LP switch but in rotary, bridge, middle, neck, but they all come coil tapped. the ms2000 models have push/pull knobs and the ms500 models have a seperate switch for coil switching.

joel

I should have bought one in my back packing year rather than wasting all my money on VB!!! ccasion14:

How much would the lowest priced semi hollow model set you back in Oz?

 

[JR]

VB! that stuff will kill ya, im sure if i were in ur position id choose the beer over the guitar. Heres a web site which will give you an idea on price:
http://www.guitar.com.au/guitars/electric/maton/index.htm 
The Ms500 hollowbody 12 string can also be bought as a six string, see the price is around $1500 - $2000 or there is the BB1200 which is around $4000 (australian) they're not exactly cheap but they're worth it. If i could afford another one this is what id go for:

 

[Soloshchenko]

Thats a cool guitar, I couldn't see Warmoth having any problems replicating that Body shape, solid or Hollow. I'm not taken by that Sound Hole however.  The Pickups and controls look pretty hard to come by!!!