Collector and author Wadih Hanna will feature some of his Maton guitar collection at the National Guitar Show on 3 October. Photos: Supplied.
Back in June 2020, as the nation timidly tried to emerge from the first COVID lockdown, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences) reopened to the public with an impressive collection of Australia’s iconic homegrown guitars — Maton.
It was the museum’s first major exhibit after the lockdown and proved to be a wildly popular attraction for mask-wearing visitors.
The 170-or-so guitars and amps on display were from one man’s personal collection, which he also detailed in a beautiful, self-published coffee-table book (with 200 guitars in its pages).
That man is Wadih Hanna, who is bringing his books and some of his collection to the National Guitar Show in Canberra on Saturday, 3 October.
It’s a major coup for the guitar show’s organisers, as Hanna will also be hosting a workshop at the event with Maton’s recently retired Custom Shop luthier Andy Allen.
Ian Stehlik, co-owner of Capital Vintage Guitars, which is staging the National Guitar Show at the Harmonie German Club on Saturday, is excited about the latest addition to the event’s agenda.
“Maton guitars have a very special place in the hearts of Australians, and the Maton story is inspiring,” Stehlik says.
“Having Wadih Hanna and Andy Allen here to talk about them and showcase some beautiful instruments is a highlight for us.
“It has added that extra touch to what will be quite a full day of wonderful exhibits and experiences at the show.”
Maton Guitars was founded in Melbourne in 1946 by jazz musician, woodwork teacher and luthier Bill May, who pioneered Australian guitar manufacturing.
In the early stages of their careers, megastars such as Elvis, George Harrison and Keith Richards played Maton guitars professionally – not to mention Australia’s own international guitar hero, Tommy Emmanuel, who remains one of the brand’s finest ambassadors.
Pretty much every Aussie musician — professional and amateur — plays or has played a Maton, going back to the days of The Seekers and The Easybeats.
When Kevin Rudd was prime minister in 2010, he even presented the guitar-loving Indonesian president at the time, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), with a custom-made, handcrafted Maton acoustic guitar inscribed with his initials.
Wadih Hanna’s Maton collection on display at the Powerhouse Museum in 2020.
Hanna has long been impressed with the Aussie instruments and can’t wait to talk with fellow enthusiasts in Canberra about them.
“I have every model of Maton guitar from the beginning up to the early 2000s,” he told Region.
“There are 200 guitars in the book, but my collection is more like 270 instruments. Obviously, I won’t be bringing them all to Canberra.
“I’ll just have a handful of vintage Maton guitars and ukuleles and also some other cool guitars, like a 54 Strat, Gibson Corvette, PRS Dragon, and an Ibanez DNA.
“I’ve been collecting for 30 years and very intensely over the last 20 years.
“With the Matons, I couldn’t find anything on the early guitars as I started collecting them, so I started to document them myself, and that turned into a book, which got the Powerhouse Museum’s attention, and they put on the most spectacular exhibit of my guitars.
“I started playing guitar when I was 12 years old, and I’ve loved them ever since then.
“My Dad refused to get me any guitar lessons because he thought it would lead to drugs. He gave me a violin, and I wasn’t interested at all. I eventually convinced my old man to buy me a cheap electric guitar for my graduation present, and it was all up from there.
“I got into guitar-loving players Slash, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani and the like, but as I get older I enjoy more of the acoustic stuff and just noodling away on the guitar.”
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Displays of vintage and boutique guitars — including a working luthier’s station, the Guitar Gods on Vinyl record stall, extremely old artifacts, headphones, amp room road-testing, and opportunities to buy — will fill the stage and two halls in the club’s main auditorium.
A schedule of workshops and mini-concerts will take place throughout the day in the Keller room downstairs.
“We’ve got a full house of exhibitors coming from four states,” Stehlik says.
“The workshops and performances will be running every half-hour or so for patrons to move between the main hall and the Keller as they please.
“There will be so much to see throughout the day. It will be a guitar enthusiast’s heaven, but it’s also a very rewarding experience for all visitors, whether they’re players, collectors or just curious.
“And it’s a very family-friendly event.”
The National Guitar Show — Vintage and Boutique is on Saturday, 3 October, from 10 am to 6 pm at Harmonie German Club, Narrabundah. All-day come-and-go tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Tickets are available through the CVG website.
