About

Workshop offerings

Helping musicians with guitar tone is my specialty.

*Precision fretting, accurate tuning & intonation corrections,

& obsessively setting up to suit your playing style.

*I rebuild & revoice production guitars for working musicians so they speak like your personalised custom.

*My handmade guitars are designed to achieve a harmonically rich voice with touch sensitive response.

Models are inspired by the finest I’ve maintained using select materials & proven methodologies.

Pre CITES or recycled rosewood & select grade spruce & cedar soundboards.

Precision fretting, modal tuning & accurate pitch corrections.

I look forward to working with like minded passionate musicians & connoisseurs to create magical tone.

My story

Growing up, my love for guitar was sparked by my musical cousins introducing me to many artists, from Andres Segovia to Jimi Hendrix.

I started lessons at age 10 continuing to study music & classical guitar at Box Hill TAFE certificate level to achieve a placement at the Victorian College of the Arts.

As a curious youngster my interests were in taking things apart to see how they work, so I experimented with the goal of improving my inexpensive guitars.

During secondary school my work experience placement at “Musical Repair & Trading” cemented my life’s trajectory upon meeting and seeing the many skilled luthiers performing their work.

On completion of a NEIS business course in 1994, I was awarded a small grant from the Queens trust which helped me establish my workshop.

I am dedicated to exploring guitar excellence and since have traveled nationally & abroad to learn from many masters, continually experimenting to discover that magic tone..

Including studies in music, acoustics & materials science which inform & deepen my craft.

The goal is to create emotionally resonant, beautifully responsive guitars driven by inspiration, curiosity, passion & for the purpose of music making.

Film about the luthiers work

Full Film

Philosophy

Each guitarist’s touch is unique & it is imperative to identify any obstacles in your phrasing.

Beautiful tone and playability are complex.

To better understand this, I consult with you, measure, listen, adjust, and remeasure.

How does it sound, how does it respond ?

My dedication is to continuously refine my craft within this ongoing feedback loop.

With this slow methodical approach I’ve achieved excellent results assisting many satisfied musicians.

Testimonials

  • "Airbourne"

    www.airbourne.com

    Album “Runnin’ wild”

    Airbourne and management would like to thank Jim "The Guitar Messiah" at Matheas Guitars"

  • "Spiderbait"

    www.spiderbait.com.au
    ‍ ‍
    Janet and myself have been fans of Jim's for years. He listens to our feedback regarding work to be carried out on our instruments with refreshing enthusiasm and always has plenty of supportive and constructive suggestions.

    We keep coming back because we find the quality of his work on our 'axes of passion' to be beyond our expectations.

    The most logical explanation for this consistency of excellence, would have to be put down to the fact that Jim loves his work and is utterly passionate about doing justice to artists and their instruments.

    Cheers to that!

    I'm proud to say that in 2004 the band had our first number 1 in Australia. Our guitars were treated with Jim's loving expertise just weeks before the album was recorded. I'm not saying that Jim's work will guarantee anybody a #1, I'm saying that Jim's work IS number 1!

    Know what I'm sayin'?
    ‍ ‍
    Cheers Jim!
    Whitt

  • “Magic Dirt"

    ‍ www.magicdirt.com‍ ‍
    ‍ ‍
    Before we took our guitars to Jim, recording was a nightmare. We just couldn't get the guitars in tune with themselves, especially when we began to layer the tracks.

    Jims work is First Class!
    His attention to detail and knowledge of the guitar is awesome.
    We love you Jim and highly recommend him to anyone!
    ‍ ‍
    ‍ ‍In memory of the recent passing of Dean Turner, musician and gentleman, Rest in Peace

  • Stephen Magnusson

    ‍www.mag.net.au
    ‍ ‍
    Having known and worked with Jim Matheas for over ten years I would thoroughly recommended his craftsmanship and expertise.


    Over this ten year period Jim has repaired, serviced and built guitars for me and is always constantly perfecting his skills and always eager to find out "What the player needs!" Keep it up Jim!!

    Stephen Magnusson

  • "Nick Charles"

    www.charlesguitar.com
    ‍ ‍
    Jim's making great guitars. They look good, sound good, and are really player friendly. An overall attention to detail. I found the "Brazilian Rosewood guitar" to have a lovely balanced sound and very nice projection.

    It responded well to the unique demands of fingerpicking and I was able to draw from it a wide expressive range and a variety of tones.

    They're the things I look for most in a guitar and the Matheas had it !

    NICK CHARLES,
    ‍ ‍

  • "Sam Lemann"

    www.samlemann.com
    ‍ ‍
    As a busy professional guitarist I've been using Jim Matheas to carry out

    repairs and modifications to various instruments for the past 7 years.
    ‍ ‍
    I’ve always been extremely pleased with his standard of work and the manner

    in with he conducts his business.
    ‍ ‍
    His quotes have been accurate and realistic and on many occasion has

    adjusted his busy schedule to fit in an emergency repair for me.
    ‍ ‍
    I often recommend Jim’s services to guitarist colleagues and will continue

    to do so in the future.

  • Gareth Liddiard & Fiona "The Drones"

    After about 600 shows and countless recordings and rehearsals my two Jaguars and Fiona's Jazz Bass were almost unplayable. So I took them down to Jim along with a '75 Martin D28 that hadn't had a set up in the time I'd owned it and was kinda hard work to play.

    Jim did a great job of resuscitating the Jaguars. They were almost laughable(one had flown from Berlin to Sydney unprotected in a qantas made garbage bag and had been badly smashed up) when he got them but now they are A1 sexy machines that'll easily take another 10 years of use before they need a tune-up. 

    The Jazz Bass now plays like it did when we found it and records DI'd like a dream after Jim rewound the bridge pickup and tweaked the neck.

    And the Martin D28 is off the hook. It's 100 times easier on the left hand, doesn't buzz anymore, stays in tune all the way up the neck and probably costs about $1500 more now that Jim has worked on it.

    Jim rules at his job!!!!!!!!

    Gareth Liddiard.

  • Ben Edgar

    www.benedgar.com.au

    "Jim's world class skills as a guitar luthier and technician put him in a league of his own.

    Jim has a deep understanding of both electric and acoustic guitars, and takes the time to discover the unique stylistic requirements and playing style of his clients in order to achieve the perfect setup with no compromise.

    It's nice to that Jim cares about the playability and tone of my instruments as much as I do!!"

Artist's that have used my services:

  • Airbourne

  • Apodimi Kompania

  • Architecture in Helsinki

  • Augie March

  • Blue Ruin

  • Carbine

  • Cat Empire

  • Catnip

  • Crunch

  • Eric Bibb

  • Gipsy Crims

  • Inka Marka

  • Jack Jones

  • James McCann

  • Jim Yamouridis

  • Gareth Liddiard

  • Lucas Michailidis

  • Magic Dirt

  • Mark Sinton

  • Matt Kirsch

  • Matt Walker

  • Musiki Manjaro

  • Neon

  • Order of Chaos

  • Paul Gadsby

  • Robbie Little

  • Sam Lemann

  • Sergio Ercole

  • Snag

  • Spiderbait

  • Stephen Magnusson

  • The Blowflies

  • The Camels

  • The Diddley Daddy’s

  • The Drones

  • The Fakes

  • The Four Noels

  • The Morning Birds

  • The Scared Little Weird Guys

  • Those Bloody McKenna's

  • Twelve tone diamonds

  • Violent Femmes

  • We will rock you (Queen Musical)

  • Xavier and the Hum