Contact Details & Trading Hours

WORKSHOP VISITS ARE GLADLY ARRANGED BY APPOINTMENT

History & Philosophy

About the Luthier, Jim Matheas

History

As long as I can remember I have been interested in music. This interest combined with the influence of my older guitar playing cousins and a fascination with the music of Jimi Hendrix led to the inevitable formal guitar lessons beginning at the age of 10. Playing electric guitar as a teenager I was never happy with the performance of my guitars a Suzuki "Les Paul" and a Torch "Stratocaster". I started experimenting in an attempt to get my guitars to play better. I "scalloped" fretboards, did re-frets, changed pickups, and custom re-wiring. This enabled me at the age of 16 to get a part time job in the repair department at Musical Repair & Trading in Sandringham .

After finishing High School I studied music at Box Hill Tafe (advanced cert. in music performance). Once finishing my studies at Box Hill Tafe I was accepted into the Classical Guitar program at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Around this time I was training with Gordon Harran in electric guitar making & finishing. This inspired me to build my first electric guitar with the assistance of Neil Kennedy. Not long after this I made my first acoustic guitar. I continued my training with Maton Luthier George Sahpekidis in the art of acoustic guitar making while I was working at Maton Guitars.

In 1994 I made the decision to establish the Matheas Guitars workshop and was awarded a Queens Trust award on successful completion of a NEIS business course

After the establishment of Matheas Guitars I continued to refine my craft by building electric guitars, acoustic guitars and constantly working on instruments and listening to the individual needs of each musician.

In 2002 I undertook further professional development studying overseas with Buzz Feiten and CF Martin.

Today I'm helping musicians make the finest music they can by caring and fine tuning their instruments.

Matheas Guitars Pricing Policy

Due to the individual nature of musical instruments an "Inspection & Evaluation" is required to determine accurate costing, arranged by appointment.
Work is quoted on an individual basis and the following will determine the final costing and result.

1. The condition of your instrument
2. The quality of your instrument
3. The level of fine tuning you require.
   
   

Recommendations & Testimonials

Matheas Guitars is an authorised service agent for the following brands:

Recommended for the following brands:

A partial list of artist's that have used my services:

Spiderbait	Magic dirt	Steve Magnusson
	View All Testimonials

Workshop Terms & Conditions

• Appointment times are necessary and are preferably arranged on Thursday & Friday afternoons & most Saturdays 10am till 2pm
• At this point in time payment is strictly cash on delivery or via prior arrangement direct deposit into the Matheas Guitars bank account.
• Job items exceeding $500 require a 33% deposit.
• Pre Ordered parts require advanced payment in full.
• Completion times please note significant time is required for Custom made instruments, Refinishing, modifications & restoration.

About my Workshop
When visiting Matheas Guitars all work is carried out personally in my fully equipped instrument workshop. The workshop is completely customised and fitted with specialised tools. Some unique features of the workshop are ; Fretting Work Area At the fretting work area I have: Refret and Fret Milling with tension simulating for high tolerance fingerboard and fret surfacing producing accurate fret playability. Fret Press fretting to fenders factory specifications Fret slotting facility. Some Standard Scales such as 25", 25.5", 24.625", 30", 34" are offered although every scale can be reproduced. Custom made fixtures for reproducing different fingerboard size, scale lengths and fingerboard radii. Precision ground diamond levelling and crowning files used for fret milling and recrowning frets Special compounds and polishes have been chosen to give your frets a flawless surface for string bends Climate Controlled Booth A climate controlled booth for assembly of acoustic soundplates, bridges and soundboxes. When building guitars the careful controlling of the climate improves performance and tone of vibrating soundplates. In addition the stability of the guitar is improved, as the parts are able to better withstand any extreme change in humidity and or temperature. Custom Made jigs for removing, gluing and repairing bridges. Acoustic sound plate fixtures for reproducing stable tops and backplates Side moulds Heat pipes for bending custom shapes and binding Side bending machine for bending binding, purfling and sides Lathe for fabricating end pins and friction tuners Accurate Pitch Measurement The latest technology in real time digital strobe tuners that is accurate to 1/100 th of a semitone. Pickup Repair and Re-winding Authentic wax saturating of pickups to remove unwanted squealing and microphonic sounds. Pickup re-winding Spray Booth A spray booth specialising in vintage nitro cellulose finishes and retouching to restore minor damage, modern poly finishes are available as well. Polishing Machines and Techniques We use the same polishing machines and compounds as the major manufacturers to reproduce the same shine as when the instruments left the factory. We keep vintage reproduction parts in case replacement is required. If you have a faulty or missing part we can help out. We keep machine heads, bridges and saddles, volume pots switches and output jacks and so on. You can even try before you buy pickups prior making your choice. We have a dedicated Les Paul with removable pickup modules and a Stratocaster style guitar with interchangeable pickguards. Custom Guitar Parts Made Our workshop allows us to reproduce parts that are missing or damaged that are no longer available or almost impossible to obtain. We have selected 40-year-old rosewood and ebony blanks for replicating acoustic bridges to maintain the authentic appearance of the grain. This is kept bone dry for stability. All components are produced in the workshop. I have produced many templates over the years that allow easy and accurate reproduction of many parts. If you have a guitar neck, bridge or any other component, even if it is damaged, we will be able to reproduce it. Pickguard Fabricating Facility We have a pickguard fabricating facility and have reproduced many different styles of pickguards using authentic plastics of missing or broken pickguards. In addition we produce custom ebony pickguards for archtop guitars and custom figured maple pickguards for Stratocaster style guitars.