garagemonkey
Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2019
- Messages
- 37
I can't really answer the question as asked, but I was in Nashville this summer and did the guitarist touristy thing. First stop was Gruhn's where I played a genuine '58 ES-335 with '59 appointments. I forget exactly what the tag said but it was something like $75,000. It had been set up by Gruhn's and it was an amazing experience. After a bunch of other places I ended at Gibson Garage and played a brand new Murphy Lab ES-335. Long story short, the $7,500 Murphy Lab flat out killed the genuine '58. In fact, it was probably the single best guitar I've played in my 40 years of noodling on fretboards. I'm still kicking myself for not buying it on the spot, 'wrath-of-wife' be damned. (I also played a Murphy Lab R4 and it was crazy good as well.) I don't know if there's some secret sauce they're drizzling into the wood pores or if they're just hand-picking the best stuff off the line to Murphyize, but I'm just about positive there's no plastic in the '58's finish so grain of salt...there's good and great guitars of any caliber and wouldn't be surprised if there's regular custom shop or ever non custom shop Gibsons that'll kill a Murphy Lab. One reason why I tend not to buy 'em until I've played 'em.