Maton BB 1200

this CUSTOM MADE bb 1200 was ordered through maton in january 2005. it is made entirely out of blackwood with a ebony neck and fretboard. maton actually tried to talk me out of using such rare woods but i insisted since it was going to practically be my workhorse. it has a 22 fret neck. this guitar is definetly solid its actually routed out from one massive chunk of wood so its not even gluedfrom 2 halves. its just dugout from the f holes on the side. the pickup config is 2 humbuckers that can also be split into single coils by pulling up on the tone control. it came with standard maton pickups and i havent seen any need to change them. eventually i will hot rod the guitar with some seymour duncans. the pickups are passive. it has a transparent black finish with a body that is similar to a gibson lucille. its actually josh homme from queens of the stoneage signature guitat, its just this one is custom, so look at his live setup for photos, otherwise suss out the maton website. the guitar comes standard with a tone-pros tailpiece with gotoh tuners. the neck is actually pretty thin considering the type of wood. i can tapand solo really easilywith bugger all hand fatigue. it comes with a hiscox specially moulded case aswell, which is an awesome case, really well made.

if you are into classic rock or any rock even metal like megadeth or metallica this guitar can pretty much handle it. i play everything from black sabbath to janes addiction to pantera to metallica and it does it all with grace, except no tremolo. dang it but oh well. im running it with a marshall jcm 800 early 90s model, witha custom stack with celestion speakers. i think the quad used to be a peavy, but the spaekers suckedsoout they went. it has a massive clean tone, with a nice distorted tone aswell. great all round tone. i dont dislike anything about this guitar at all....it is just sensational.

unfortuanately due to climate change(the maton factory is in a vastly different climate to mine, in victoria, im in nsw) it came set up like a dog....but i asked maton about it and they re-set it up free of charge. which was a great job. so no hassles at all there. the pickupsare fine, optimum height from the strings they really have a full tone and can really boom when pushed. the tone control on the neck pickup was a little loose but one quick turn with a spanner and it was sweet again.

this guitar will withstand ANYTHING you throw its way. josh homme or myself arent exactly strat players who like to tickle the necks of the guitars, i really give mine a workout and it just bounces back all the time. the hardware seems likeit would definetly last a nasty fall from a strap, i think the machine heads are great.the strap buttons are great and fastened securely. i can depend on this guitar any day. and i constantly use it with a mastersound ms200 DLX SD and have never even broke a string onstake with either of them.

due to my previous gripe with the guitar, maton came to the rescue with flying colours and fixed it free of charge. they are a great bunch of luthiers and really professional guitar company, i give them 10 thumbs up for all of their helpfullness. and the factory tour is great aswell.

i have been playing for 11 years and i work in a music instrument store in nsw. i own various other matons ( josh hommes electric 12 string deluxe version, a ms 2000 deluxe with soapbar seymour duncans, which is one of only 9 ever made, and a ebg 808cl acoustic, all of which are sensational guitars, just none quite as great as my bb)...if this ever got stolen i would have the thief hunted down and id break his legs. i love evrything about this guitar, the only other electrics that stand up to this are either a les paul custom or a les paul supreme. and this costs half the price of these guitars so it really a great bargain. i have played and owned stacks of other guitars and this one to me is the holy grail. a word of warning though, if you are after a strat style tone then go for a strat, because this one just oozes tone and snarl .it sounds great. so if your after a blues guitar this is a maybe, a rock guitar definetley, a sissy guitar, stay away and play a strat.