Anybody Ever Played a Maton?

[CF Larrivee]

This Australian company puts out some beautiful looking stuff. Never actually seen one, much less had the chance to play one, though. Anybody played one or have one? The verdict?

[unclrob]

I had the rep pass thru here about 6 months ago.Very nice guitars.Very playable with good tone BUT.....they were very pricey,even there entre level we a bit costly.

[Caleb]

ive been trying to get my hands on one to play for while, but havent been able to. watching tommy emmanuel got me interested in them. from what i can tell, the price is pretty outrageous for what you get. i do think the maple necks are cool though. i sat behind a couple of guys at a tommy show last year who had two of them.  they were getting them signed. while they let me look at them, they werent willing to let me take a turn on them. i didnt ask, but i could just tell theyd rather not have let me play.

[Randy_R]

A local (well Alabama) music store was sponsor of a Tommy Emmanuel concert last year. They had a display of items for sale, including several Matons. I played each briefly, and liked them, but didn't think they were better than the Larrivee I've come to love. The prices were also much higher than I thought the instruments deserved. The music store has since dropped the Maton line.

[bigmo]

If I thought for a second a Maton would make me play half as good as Tommy, I'd spend $10,000!

I played and held several at Summer NAMM and walked away a bit disappointed. Nothing bad, nothing spectacular and I actually though some of them looked a bit "cheap"  They were tucked way in the back with little fanfare.

[Frets]

they have all the blackwood!

[HangFire]

They look nice but as Rob said, a bit on the expensive side. :UND>

[Fergy07]

No, but Paul Kelly plays them and that's good enough for me.

Andy

[cldplytkmn]

while their blackwoods look really good, i played about 7 of them recently in a local shop here, and wasn't very impressed.  They had the TE signature model and i didn't even really like it... I dunno... a guy i played with once had one and i really liked his alot... i think it was an OM... YMMV obviously.

[lestrouble]

I used to have one TE2 the Tommy signature model......oh man not good at all the sound is not consistent from one guitar to the other unlike Larrivee.......I quickly sold it at the price I bought.....man that was really a bad choice I have made thus far. yeah the guitar does looks like a cheap guitar too beside Tommy's signature on the pickguard other than that,.............not a very impressive guitar i would say.

[Philphool]

I played a 00 size mahog Maton yesterday for the first time.  The guitar seemed very well made and felt good to play.   The tone was about the same as my Larrivee 00-05.
Bottom line:  Very nice but not fantastic or surprising!  The guitar belonged to someone else, so I don't know the cost.

Phil

[Johnny M]

A good friend of mine has a Maton Masiah, their top of the line guitar and I really like it.  Actually, it was after playing that guitar that got me hooked on playing guitar and I went out and bought a Larrivee.  Yeah, I think they are pricy for what you get in return, but if you live in a country that doesn't have representation, you can order straight from the factory in Australia and get it at wholesale cost.  Although it is very nice, I don't see myself shelling out the money and ordering one.

Just my 2 yen

John in Japan