Maton ‘pineapple’ ukulele

A sweet little Hawaiian crooner from Maton.

Lately, for some strange reason I’ve had the hankering to learn to play the ukulele. I think it’s part that when I’m home I have no real time (or energy) to sit down and play monstrously loud riffage on my beautiful axes. Also, I’ve been playing guitar (& bass) for a long time now and kind of miss the feeling of when I was starting to learn from scratch… learning weird new chords and trying to make them sound good. I remember the open F chord was a nightmare! And B minor. Plus the ukulele is just so CUTE!

So, decision made… I’m learning the ukulele. Of course, being a guitarnerd I can’t just play a cheap 10 dollar uke… I need something nerd worthy. I looked on eBay and found (and missed out on) this beauty.

That’s right, it’s a 1960’s Maton Ukulele in the tradition Haiwaiian pineapple shape! Maton made VERY few ukuleles… the rumour is Bill May realised after making a few that it was almost as much trouble to make a small uke as it was to make a full size acoustic, and he could make more money selling acoustics. That’s the story anyway.

This particular pineapple model is in fantastic condition.

Beautiful Australian woods were used throughout. (The striping is actually the lighting from the shade cloth above the uke, not the wood.) The attention to detail was at Maton’s usual standard and these little croon boxes are highly sort after now. I’ve been sniped 3 times on eBay trying to get one of these things! Bah!

This particular one went for about $380, which is a little above my price range. I’ve seen some go for 800 bucks, but that was a top range model in unplayed condition.

A few years ago, friend of mine picked up a beautiful little Maton uke at an op-shop for $20 *bites knuckle*… it needs a little work but she’s said I can borrow it as long as I like, which is awesome.

If this uke thing sticks and I like it, I might look around for a Cole Clark Ukelady. They’re Australian, look amazing and I heard play fantastic.