cockroach wrote:The archtop is an Australian Maton - it's one of the top of the line acoustic f hole models from the late '50's
Actually,the Maton brand did occur to me, mainly because of the headstock inlay (not all of which is visible), but I dismissed it as unlikely precisely because of the other reasons you mentioned.
Although Frank Ifield was playing a sunburst version of that sme guitar here in 1962 (with a both-sides scratchplate shaped like the outline of Australia) and although The Seekers were playing at least one Maton here from 1964, the brand was virtually unknown and I can't personally remember any retail mention of them before 1966, when Dallas-Arbiter were the distributors. On the other hand, they must have been on sale here from around 1962/63, because famously, George Harrison was given one (a solid) temporarily as a "loaner" while one of his own guitars was being serviced or repaired. I would guess that Arbiter (before the Dallas connection) was involved in that, since they were also the distributors for Gretsch guitars and would soon be the sole distributor for Fender too.