Maton EG75 Super Solid White 1960
Maton EG75 Super Solid, made in Melbourne around 1960, white finish. Melbourne's Bill May began making and selling guitars in 1946 under the name Maton, and things took off pretty quickly. They only started making electric guitars in 1958 with the launch of the iconic Mastersound model, which turned up in hands of both Tommy Emmanuel and George Harrison shortly thereafter. The Super Solid was made from 1959-1962, with a total of 533 made over that period. It's got a body shape they called the 'Shark Bite', which was paired with a short scale neck as an offering that according to their catalog is 'specially designed for adult and young musicians with small hands'. I'm a big fan of a German carve: this is a great example, with a cool subtle carved edge the whole way around the body. The pickups are great too, they're a fairly hot single coil that looks like an early take on the blade style magnet: they're snappy, clear and pretty fat too. The bridge and tailpiece were replaced at some earlier point, and it appears the frets were replaced at some point too. There's no truss rod, but the neck is reinforced and the relief is in good order, so there's no worries there. The tuners were dead on arrival, so our house tech installed some new ones. The issue with that: the headstock is a wedge shape, slightly thicker at the nut end, so no modern set of tuners had long enough posts to be a straight swap. Luckily Mark is an innovative sort, so he carved out some little wings into the side of the headstock on the back and then managed to get a crispy fresh set of Gotoh's finest on there, so now it's all working fine. He cut a new tort guard, tidied up the wiring and did a cleanup and setup while on the case, so it's all in order and ready to roll now. These early Matons are increasingly difficult to find and fetching increasingly substantial sums of cash, so if you want a snazzy slice of the sixties for a fraction of the price of a Fender, this is a cool little score. Plus, it looks so cool, yeah?
Model: Maton EG75 Super Solid
Made: Melbourne Australia, 1960 approx
Serial: 292 (533 total made)
Finish: white, gloss nitro
Body: maple
Neck: maple, rosewood fretboard, 24" scale, 12" radius
Weight: 2.635kg
Mods: new Gotoh tuners, headstock adjusted with some new contoured carves to fit modern tuners, new bone nut, new pickguard cut, hole in back of body filled and finished over, re-wired with original pots but new switch and jack, frets cleaned and polished, frets bridge and tailpiece all replaced at some point
Pickups: Maton High Fidelity single coil x2
Accessories: Xtreme deluxe padded/semi-hard gig bag
Cosmetic condition notes: minor finish wear. The headstock has scuffs and dent on the end, dimples on both sides and the back, a repair gouge and some scuffs and marks on the front and a small chip near the Maton logo. The neck is clean and smooth in the hands, plenty of scuffs, rub wear and small dimples on the back. The back has scuffs and dimples around the whole body, as well as some chips along the top edge in the middle and elbow area, some paint missing along most of the back edge and bottom corner and a repaired switch hole near the bottom horn. The sides have dimples, scuffs and dents around the whole body. The front has a chip near the jack, small dents, dimples, scuffs and minor chips all around the outside carved area and scuffs all over the rest.
Overall: good condition (7/10)
Playing condition notes: Action is low, neck is straight, intonation is good, there is no truss rod but the reinforced neck is straight. All electronics tested and working properly. Wearing fresh 9/42 strings.
Fret life: 8/10, minor wear only