Ed A
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2001
- Messages
- 4,693
Here are pictures of my newly purchased 2024 heavy aged Golden Poppy burst but more about that in a bit… A little background. I don’t get here often these days but I’ve been a member since we were a very small group going back to 1999. And 1999 happens to be the last time I bought a Tom Murphy aged Les Paul. Actually, I bought three that year. They are all gone now. The late '90s was a fun time, spending countless hours on the phone with Tom, him refinishing quite a few Les Pauls for me and visiting his home and shop in Illinois… For whatever reason 25 years later, I’m now getting obsessed with Murphys again albeit even if they’re not done by him but by the Murphy lab. I’ve been out of the reissue game for many many years so I’ve been recently catching up. I’m aware of the negative criticism of the current Murphy Lab guitars but I myself am quite impressed with this one that I bought about six weeks ago. While I and many others always felt Tom’s razor blade technique was a work of art, let’s face it, there’s nothing more real looking than real checking. I feel that the aging that the Murphy Lab is doing is convincing and I appreciate the time and effort they put into these guitars… I love this guitar! I’m very picky about flame, gotta have some wave to it and look vintage. I literally probably looked at 100 photos of available ones through the weeks until I found this one. But of course I’m already looking to see if I can top it. Actually the only reason why is I’m just not a honey burst guy. Every time I get a honey burst I end up selling. So I’m looking for a deeper burst with great flame, once again the search is on!!!
Which brings me to the discussion and some questions. From what I’ve learned with my recent searching is that somewhere around 2020 Tom showed Gibson his new lacquer formula which was thinner and harder and checked on its own. I believe the last Murphys to get the razor checking were in 2019 or thereabouts. And some time in 2020 Gibson re-hired him and the Murphy lab was created. And as we know except for specialty items, he no longer does the aging himself but his team does it. But I recently came across a Murphy aged model from 2020 that caught my eye. With that one its interesting in that Tom aged it and it comes with a certificate saying so, but it also has the real checking. So he did all of the heavy aging, but the checking was done naturally. I think its a pretty cool thing that some of the last guitars he aged in 2020 were some of the first guitars with real lacquer checking. My question is do you guys think that these 2020 Murphy aged guitars may be worth a bit more than the previous razor Murphys? And also do you have any idea if those late 2020 guitars were done before he was hired back by Gibson or after? The certificate book does not say Murphy Lab on it. It just says Murphy Aged. Curious if any of you gurus know more about this transition with Tom Murphy. Thanks!
Which brings me to the discussion and some questions. From what I’ve learned with my recent searching is that somewhere around 2020 Tom showed Gibson his new lacquer formula which was thinner and harder and checked on its own. I believe the last Murphys to get the razor checking were in 2019 or thereabouts. And some time in 2020 Gibson re-hired him and the Murphy lab was created. And as we know except for specialty items, he no longer does the aging himself but his team does it. But I recently came across a Murphy aged model from 2020 that caught my eye. With that one its interesting in that Tom aged it and it comes with a certificate saying so, but it also has the real checking. So he did all of the heavy aging, but the checking was done naturally. I think its a pretty cool thing that some of the last guitars he aged in 2020 were some of the first guitars with real lacquer checking. My question is do you guys think that these 2020 Murphy aged guitars may be worth a bit more than the previous razor Murphys? And also do you have any idea if those late 2020 guitars were done before he was hired back by Gibson or after? The certificate book does not say Murphy Lab on it. It just says Murphy Aged. Curious if any of you gurus know more about this transition with Tom Murphy. Thanks!
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