In 1958, Bill May, Australian guitar builder and founder of Maton guitars, introduced the MS500 Mastersound series. The MS500 is a 6-string solid body guitar with two pickups, two volume and two tone controls and a three-way pick up selector switch. The original 1950’s MS500 models feature a 24.5” scale unlike the modern models 25.5” scale. Harrison’s Maton had a unique combination of natural finish on the front, tobacco sunburst on the back and mahogany stain on the sides and neck. Also, while the MS500 model generally had a stop bar type tailpiece, Harrison’s guitar had a rare factory fitted Bigsby B5 vibrato. Although there is no way to know for sure, these unique features suggest that perhaps Harrison’s Maton could have been a 1958 prototype or very early custom production model that made its way to Britain.By the summer of 1963, the Beatles were basking in the recent local success of their #1 single “From Me To You” and were on the cusp of becoming an international phenomenon with the record-breaking “She Loves You,” when George’s Gretsch Country Gentleman went in for repair on July 3rd at Barratts music store in Manchester. Shop Manager, Brian Higham, remembered that Neil Aspinall, the group’s Tour Manager and personal assistant, brought Harrison’s Gretsch to the shop for repair and the Maton was given to him as a temporary replacement. Higham recalled the Country Gent was the first one he had seen in person and he carried out the repairs on it himself.Though both of its faulty tuners were replaced on the same day, the guitar that road manager Neil Aspinall was given as a backup for George, an Australian-made Maton MS500 Mastersound, ended up being hung onto by the Beatle until mid-August. So, Harrison had exclusive use of the Maton for about two weeks during British Beatlemania. Photographic evidence proves that he used the Maton live at several shows during that period, July 8–13 at the Winter Gardens, August 2nd at the Grafton Rooms, and the band’s last show at Liverpool’s Cavern Club on August 3rd. The Maton MS500 guitar was also used on The Beatles first album.
The Maton was returned to Barratt’s when The Beatles next performed in Manchester, for Granada TV, on August 14, 1963. After Harrison returned the MS500, Roy Barber, guitarist with the band Dave Berry & the Cruisers subsequently acquired it. Barber’s widow put the guitar up for sale in 2002 and John Marks eventually purchased it. It went under the hammer again in 2015 with the bidding closing at a whopping $485,000 through Julien’s Auctions, but it continued to be exhibited at The Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool. In September 2018, the guitar was sold through the Gardiner Houlgate auction house alongside many other instruments and vinyl records, but it fell short of the projected value, with the final bid reaching only $370,000.
