Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 ST guitar. 1960

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 ST.
1960 model

The guitar I received in payment for the previous Maton Alver restoration is this one.
It was found in a local rubbish skip, thrown out by relatives during a clear out of a deceased estate.

I could see the potential of this guitar so I agreed to repair the Alver so that no money changed hands. An arrangement that suited the owner and myself. It came with the original trapeze tailpiece and its original (working) pick ups, original wiring loom and remnants of the original tuners.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
These frets are replacements which were incorrectly fitted. the repairer
had also sanded the Jarra finger board flat. The white plastic binding was missing.
Thank goodness the original screen printed, gold logo was untouched!

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 ST Guitar.
The previous repairer had sprayed a rattle can enamel over the original
sunburst finish and over the dirt and DNA that had accumulated on the guitar..

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar.
Someone had attempted to remove an old aluminium selector knob off
the shaft of the selector switch with a claw hammer! The result being
a fracture of the wing of the cutaway which was lifted from the binding
I think the hole below that of the switch is from the same hammer
when the damage occurred.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Terrible attempt at a sunburst finish.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Some separation of the wings on the peg head needed dowelling and glueing.
A .5mm maple veneer concealed the dowels on the edges of the peg head.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Some of the old finish removed by relentless sanding revealed a beautiful
quilted maple top.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Scraping and sanding continues.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
The hammer hole took some fixing. I made a new piece of maple 5 ply out of veneer.
I cut a matching plug from the ply and sanded a tapered edge to match the
taper I sanded into the hole.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
This is the tool I made to create the tapered plug hole.
80 grit sanding disc cut to a shallow cone glued to a fit the taper on an
old stainless steel coffee perk filter cup.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
I have glued the fractured wing and secured it back to the binding inside the guitar.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
A long reach clamp secures the tapered maple ply plug into the corresponding hole.
I was careful to make this fit perfectly using carbon paper so I could sand
down the high spots.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
The resulting repair is flawless. I have begun to reinstate the correct
12" radius to the fret board.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
Here the fretboard is removed so I can inspect the truss rod and
re level the surface of the neck with a sanding beam and add a layer of rosewood veneer
to make up for the wood sanded off during the re radius of the finger board.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Another view

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
The underside is scraped and sanded.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
All open and suspect glue lines are re glued.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
The Fingerboard as new, white binding applied to match the guitar.

Maton Supreme ElectricEG 240 Guitar
Another view of the new white plastic binding on the neck.

 Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
I tapped the repaired sound board with my tone hammer.
It has returned to the ideal pitch of G. A great result.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Sanding sealer applied and new frets installed, levelled crowned and polished,
this time correctly, over the binding.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
Finger board oiled with good quality bore oil.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240

This is a dry fit of the hardware to determine the shape of the pick guard.
I've made a template of brown paper. I sourced the knobs from a local electrical
supply outlet. The gun turret selector switch was sourced from Maton in Australia.
New open geared Gotoh tuners are a very close match to the originals.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Guitar is strung up with essential hardware. This way I avoid
damaging the new finish when it comes to final fit out.
She already sounds and plays well.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
The new maple ply pick guard edged in plastic binding laid down to check for fit.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
The new pick guard fitted with bracket and securing screws.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Final sanding and two tone sunburst applied. I first stained the wood with an
aniline dye to bring out the quilting in the maple.
I then applied the tints with my airbrush.
Two colours were applied with 60% clear to allow the maple to show through.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
This sunburst appeared on early models of this guitar. I prefer it to the
straight, economic one tone black burst.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Pick guard painted black and clear finished

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
I made a template from cardboard with all the components in the same
position when they are fitted into the guitar body.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
You can see my scribblings as I try to make sense of the rather complex
selector switch wiring.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
The original springs were missing from the height adjusters on these pick ups,
as was one of the adjustment screws which has proven to be irreplaceable.
I located some slightly larger gauge demarzio adjuster screws and cut a new thread to fit them.
The springs you see here came from an old Lowrey organ that I scrapped some years ago.
They are perfect for this application as the sring coils taper to a small hole toward the bottom,
allowing be to capture them with a PK screw to hold them in place

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
Maton single coil pick up. PK screw pole pieces.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
I originally thought that this pick up was faulty. I located a dry solder joint when replacing the output wire.

Maton EG240 Supreme Electric Guitar
4 way Selector switch.
Position 1: Neck pup.
Position 2: Neck and Bridge pup.
Position 3: Bridge pup.
Position 4: no signal.

Potentiometers laid out as original.
Top left: Neck pup vol. Top right: Neck pup tone.
Bottom left: Bridge pup vol. Bottom right: Bridge pup tone.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
Plugged in and tested OK. Pick ups need adjusting to correct height.
Adjuster mechanism missing so new system installed.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
Out of focus but you get the idea.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
Out of focus again! Goto open gear tuners fitted the exact same screw holes!

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
Adjusted the truss rod. Had to get the nut size from Maton in Australia.
1/4 inch square. I made a square 1/4" socket tool from a 6mm 1/4" drive socket
and a 6mm allen wrench to fit through the neck pick up slot.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
This is a beautiful guitar, perhaps my best yet!

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240
New arch top case arrived today by courier today. Happy days.
My wife loves this guitar so it stays in the family I'm pleased to say.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
I bought a deep body, jumbo archtop case from an online store.
I removed the plush lining and accessory case then carefully removed all the
bifurcated rivets holding the clips, hinges and handle in place. I set aside the lid which
allowed me to peel back the vinyl covering exposing the laminated polar plywood carcass.
 Then I cut off a 50mm section after masking the rolled back vinyl. I sanded the new upper edge
to a comfortable radius profile. I then removed the masking, applied contact adhesive to the
vinyl and then rolled it back over the new upper edge and into the case.
I re drilled the hardware fixing holes and reattached the hard ware.
I trimmed and refitted the plush lining and accessory box

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
The Maton fits like a glove into its new case.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar
Happy days.

Maton Supreme Electric EG 240 Guitar case.

Maton CW 80/6 1977 Dreadnought.

This 1977 Maton CW 80/6 is easily the the most damaged guitar that I have ever attempted to repair.

I took it on as a challenge and because I like the owner so much, besides which the back has Keith Richard's signature scrawled across it!

The owner had attempted to repair it himself but I had my work cut out just undoing his efforts before I could begin the repair. The back had come completely apart, the result of exposure to moisture. Every glue line to every single component in the back had let go. The owner had re-secured it all with PK screws.

The action was very high, the result of belly in the bridge (over 3 mm)
The owner had removed the saddle and rebated it into the soundboard! This was something I had no desire to touch.

Here is an example of a brace smothered in hot-melt glue.

Please don't attempt your own repairs if you don't know what you are doing, it makes it so much harder to repair.

The original label and model number.

Maton had driven a holdfast nail into the heel of the neck!
With the back removed I was able to punch it out from the inside.

Neck block

X bracing was loose in one spot to the left of the sound hole.

No reinforcement around home cut preamp slot and insufficient bracing for the bridge string holes.
This area had pulled upward an alarming amount.

The owner had drilled an oversize hole to accommodate the Fishman tailpiece
resulting in a stress crack in the tail block which (incidentally) has the grain running the wrong way.

I glued a wall nut veneer over the split after first glueing and mending the crack.
This reinforces the block.

I added a fillet of birch ply to the preamp slot cutaway.
I also glued a cherrywood reinforcing block under the bridge.

I cleaned up the mess on the braces and began the process of reassembly.

The two halves of the back are reconnected and the joint reinforced with wall nut battens.
the braces start to go back on.

The assembled back ready to be glued back on the body of the guitar.

I made 30 spool clamps which proved ideal for the replacement of the back.

I decided to remove the finger board as I could not understand the neck joint.
This is unique to this Guitar. There is no one at Maton that recalls how this joint should be separated.
I tried conventional methods but no luck.

The truss rod extends all the way to the sound hole while I have never seen before.

Close up of the truss rod.

Because the neck would not come off my only option was to make a long wedge under the fingerboard.
I fabricated this out of .5mm laminated of maple stepped gradually from zero at the nut to 3 mm at the sound hole.

Once cured I sanded it fair and straight.

I then re glued the finger board.

The owner wanted to retain the road worn aesthetic of the guitar so I settled on re coating it in several layers of shellac and a couple of coats of gunstock oil on the back, sides and neck to protect the bare wood. 

Reassembled with a new ebony saddle with string height and action adjusted, the intonation is perfect and it
plays like a new guitar with all the tone and character that it has accumulated over the last 44 years.