Yeah, they are pretty (and yes, they are both amazing to play!)

So I've been playing it for a few days now and it's definitely growing on me. The neck is amazing for a 50 year old design. Best I can describe it is; wider across, but pretty similar to, a Hell ZeroDot. It's got a low action, but with the nut completely worn, there's a few rattles here and there. A new unbleached bone nut will fix that right up though. I don't care about vintage if it isn't awesome to play. The tuning stability doesn't seem great, but with 50 year old tuners, a worn out nut, a wooden bridge, and unknown strings that are certainly too light for my tastes, the instability could be a result of any of those factors.

It's -far- louder acoustically than my BB1200 semi hollow, but it is quite a lot bigger, and a lot more hollow, so that's to be expected. Plugged in, it's really got some potential. It's got the original pots as I mentioned, so they are pretty flakey, and I think the pick-up heights need a play as there's a noticeable volume difference between the two.

That said, the way it is now works pretty well.

From what I assume is the neck pick-up (I don't know how it's wired till I get under the hood) you get an enormous fat tone, with a woody, open, ripple through it. Push it, and it gets this massive, saggy, fuzzy, bottom. The bridge? pick-up presents itself with less output and a much thinner tone. The thing is though, with the body accentuating the low end, this pick-up cuts through pedal board distortion beautifully. Maton advertised these pick-ups as completely "distortion free" and "power plus". Maybe in 1964 they were powerful, but they have appreciably lower output than anything else I own. Maybe that's how they made them "distortion free".

The thing is though, the output seems to tickle my fuzzface and big muff just right. I put my SHO after my fuzzface for a little post fuzz boost and sparkle, and my tube amps just eat it up. The low output, thinner, pick-up works wonders with my big muff too.

Like any guitar of this design, I think feedback will be an enormous problem at high SPL, but at home in front of my amps, that early "pre-feedback" fattening of the sound is a lot of fun to play with. Especially with my El Capistan engaged as well.

So there you go, a bit of an insight into what it plays like