Gibson Murphy Lab '59 Les Paul Standard Reissue Ultra Heavy Aged

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review

GUITARIST AUGUST 2021

Murphy’s Lore

We’ve heard the buzz and seen the online ads, but with

a trio of aged Murphy Lab Gibsons actually in our

hands, we wonder, was all the hype worth the wait?

Words Neville Marten (Les Paul Standard & ES-335)

& Dave Burrluck (Les Paul Junior)

Photography Olly Curtis & Neil Godwin

hands, we wonder, was all the hype worth the wait?

Neville Marten (Les Paul Standard & ES-335)

& Dave Burrluck (Les Paul Junior)

Olly Curtis & Neil Godwin

review

GIBSON MURPHY LAB

GUITARIST AUGUST 2021

he history of Gibson’s Custom Shop

is cloaked in mystery and intrigue.

In Walt Carter’s book Keeping The

Flame Alive he states: “In the early 90s,

the Custom Shop didn’t really exist. It was

an undefined group within the regular

production facility at Gibson’s Nashville

division. The R9 debuted at the January

1993 NAMM Show. Tom Murphy painted

the finish on the first 25 sunbursts and the

first 15 Goldtops.”

Of course, as is always the case with

Gibson, the story is more complicated

than that. There had been Custom Shop

designated instruments for many years

prior, but the Custom Shop as we know

it today started as a separate facility back

in 1993, with its own craftspeople and its

own front door.

At Guitarist, we’ve been reviewing such

examples as they’ve come and gone, and it

seems every time we’d say something like,

“…with this one they’ve come even closer

to the originals”. Will the same be said of

the three reissue guitars we have here: a

Murphy Lab 1959 ES-335 in Ebony, a 1957

Les Paul Junior Single Cut in TV Yellow,

and a 1959 Les Paul Standard in Lemon

Burst? The ES-335 is ultra-light aged, the

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Summary of content (10 pages)

PAGE 1
review GIBSON MURPHY LAB Murphy’s Lore We’ve heard the buzz and seen the online ads, but with a trio of aged Murphy Lab Gibsons actually in our hands, we wonder, was all the hype worth the wait? Words Neville Marten (Les Paul Standard & ES-335) & Dave Burrluck (Les Paul Junior) Photography Olly Curtis & Neil Godwin T he history of Gibson’s Custom Shop is cloaked in mystery and intrigue. In Walt Carter’s book Keeping The Flame Alive he states: “In the early 90s, the Custom Shop didn’t really exist.
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GIBSON MURPHY LAB review AUGUST 2021 GUITARIST GIT474.rev_gibson.
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review GIBSON MURPHY LAB GIBSON MURPHY LAB ’59 ES-335 REISSUE EBONY ULTRA-LIGHT AGED £5,099 MURPHY LAB ’57 LES PAUL JUNIOR SINGLE CUT REISSUE TV YELLOW HEAVY AGED £5,499 MURPHY LAB ’59 LES PAUL STANDARD REISSUE LEMON BURST ULTRA-HEAVY AGED £9,199 CONTACT Junior is heavy aged, while the ’59 Standard gets the top-level ultra-heavy ageing. As you’ll see in our Murphy Options box later in the review, the heavier the ageing, the higher the price. Time is money.
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VIDEO DEMO GIBSON MURPHY LAB http://bit.ly/guitaristextra 1 review 2 3 cracks, with none of the secondary or ancillary lines running between them. There’s no playing wear and only the mildest hint of tarnish to the nickel work. Like the ’59 Les Paul, none of the plastic parts are aged, but here they don’t sit too awkwardly against the mild ageing elsewhere on the guitar. However, this situation is quite different with the ’59 Standard, which comes with the Lab’s most extreme ageing.
PAGE 5
review GIBSON MURPHY LAB 5. There’s very little ageing to be found on the tuners or headstock back at the ultra-light level of this Ebony ES-335 model 6. Thanks to the strap button’s placement on the heel, ES-335s always hang differently when on a strap. It’s all part of the ride! 6 5 This is very well done. Other than that the bare wood sections on the mahogany back and neck look a little unnatural.
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VIDEO DEMO GIBSON MURPHY LAB http://bit.ly/guitaristextra 7. The original Les Paul Junior was introduced in 1954 as the single-cut model we see here. The double-cut came later in 1958. Currently, you can only buy a Murphy Lab recreation of the former review 8. It’s this sort of heavy neck wear on our Junior that is bound to polarise opinion.
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review GIBSON MURPHY LAB The beating heart of the Junior is its single P-90 pickup under that ‘dog-ear’ cover, matched by the even more simplistic wrapover bridge give or take a hair’s breadth, the ES-335’s seems slimmer due to its perceived extra length and the guitar’s much bigger body. But in reality there’s all but nothing in it. Our Junior’s neck is marginally deeper, but it’s the fuller shoulders that really provide the added girth.
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VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra GIBSON MURPHY LAB review 9. The dynamic duo: Gibson’s tune-o-matic bridge and stop (or stud) tailpiece ensure that the Les Paul’s strings are both securely anchored and properly intonated – battle ready and fighting fit! 10. Despite the ultra-heavy wear to the finish and hardware, the plastic parts, such as this gold top hat, appear new 9 10 11.
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review GIBSON MURPHY LAB 12 12. Now, although the Custombuckers have heavily aged covers, Gibson doesn’t explicitly state that these are based on a specific historic pickup 13. As with our Junior, that central decal was applied over the lacquer back in the day – an oddity that means it wears away very easily, hence the simulated wear here new guitar. But even if some of the finer details might be lacking, there’s little doubt that this is a very, very good example of the Junior style.
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VIDEO DEMO GIBSON MURPHY LAB http://bit.ly/guitaristextra GIBSON MURPHY LAB ’59 ES-335 REISSUE ULTRALIGHT AGED 13 14 will admit that we’ve all seen reliced guitars and commented that “you’d never see ageing like that in real life…” only for a guitar with exactly that look to turn up the next day. What’s more, Tom Murphy really does know his onions, and Gibson has many more originals at its disposal for reference than we’re ever likely to see. The Murphy Lab is in its infancy.